▲ Video capture of Dokdo fishing produced by the Japan Institute for International Affairs
The Japan International Institute for International Affairs, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, released a video on YouTube today (26th) bearing testimony that Japanese had operated in Dokdo since 1905.
The purpose of this study is to repeat the unjust claim to Dokdo by introducing testimonies that Japanese fishermen operated around Dokdo even before Dokdo was incorporated in Shimane Prefecture, Japan in 1905.
In the video released by the institute, Jun Sasaki (87, female), who testifies that her grandfather operated in Dokdo, appears.
The video shooting date is July 6, 2019.
Sasaki, who lives in Okinoshima-cho, Shimane Prefecture, testifies to the story of Dokdo heard from his grandfather Matsuro Ishibashi (1863-1941).
It says that his grandfather hunted sea lions in Dokdo and harvested abalone.
The research institute introduced Mr. Ishibashi as a "pioneer of Dokdo sea lion hunting" in the video explanation materials. "The name of Dokdo, which is the name of Dokdo, is known before Takeshima's incorporation into Shimane Prefecture.
The video includes processing and selling abalone caught in Dokdo, using sea lion oil, leather, and meat, as well as the fact that Russian soldiers have drifted to Dokdo during the Russo-Japanese War.
In the future, the institute said that it plans to release the videos through YouTube sequentially by photographing the testimony of about 5 people in Dokdo, mainly in Okinoshima-cho, Shimane Prefecture. The.
In the future, it is expected that the understanding of Dokdo as a unique territory of Korea (Japan) will be deepened by releasing testimony videos about Dokdo at home and abroad. "It is expected to be inherited."
According to the Kyodo News Agency, Associate Professor of History Geography at Shimane University, Rininobu Funagi, involved in the production of the video, said, "It is the first time that I have distributed testimony to a video site (Old Dokdo operation before 1905)."
Indeed, Japanese have been fishing in Dokdo since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Japanese influences the Korean Peninsula, and their overfishing exterminated Dokdo's sea lions.
Sea lions are a type of sea lion, and it is estimated that up to tens of thousands lived in Dokdo.
In 1905, after the Japanese annexed Dokdo to its territory, a Japanese company dedicated to sea lions was established and captured in a brutal way.
Therefore, the claim that the Japanese seized the Dokdo Island was not a basis for claiming sovereignty, but was one of the evidences of colonial looting, and that humanity's greed was the case that the Dokdo ecosystem was destroyed.
(Photo = Japan International Research Institute production video capture, Yonhap News)