SDHF Newsletter No.178 Usando Was Not Takeshima

Usando Was Not Takeshima:
An Analysis of the Newly Discovered Reproduction of
Kim Jeong-ho’s Map of the Great East Land
By Shimojo Masao, Professor at Takushoku University

September 14, 2017

On August 2, 2017, the online edition of South Korea’s Yonhap News reported that a hand-drawn reproduction of Map of the Great East Land, a map of Korea originally created by the famed nineteenth-century cartographer Kim Jeong-ho, was discovered in Japan. According to Yonhap News, this reproduction included the island of Takeshima, known as Dokdo in Korea, as Korean territory, apparently strengthening Korea’s claim to the island; ownership of the island is today disputed between Japan and Korea.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/culturesports/2017/08/02/0701000000AEN20170802004200315.html

However, Prof. Shimojo Masao at Takushoku University makes a comprehensive rebuttal against this baseless assumption:
URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article/1022/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Usando-Was-Not-Takeshima.pdf

In 1711, government inspector Bak Seok-chang surveyed the island and produced Map of Ulleungdo (Ulleungdo Dohyeong in Korean), which includes Usando, called Jukdo, an island located about two kilometers east of Ulleungdo. Since then, Jukdo was an island designated in Korean maps as Usando. Takeshima, which is 92 kilometers south east of Ulleungdo, was never called “Usando”. So, the belief that Usando=Takeshima=Dokdo is based on a complete false notion.

Questions are welcome.

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact