Dokdo: A Sea of Controversy

Peter Park and Daniel Kim Senior Division Group Website

When I first began National History Day, I focused on finding a local topic. I found three potential topics, however, the lack of resources is what influenced me to team up with my partner. My partner chose our topic in order to learn more about the island of Dokdo and its history. I decided to team up with my peer because we both are of Korean descent, and shared the same curiosity to learn about the island. Being a Korean born and raised in Japan, I believed that I could bring the Japanese perspective to our topic. Dokdo Island located in South Korea. When he returned, we began obtaining books about Dokdo for basic background information. We then began to look into the history of Dokdo, and learned that this issue started way before the Russo-Japanese War. Because our topic is a current issue, we found many pictures, videos, and newspaper articles relating to our topic. We also researched what impacts (social,economic,political etc.),our topic has brought to Japan and Korea. After we had gathered our resources, we decided that building a website would be the most appropriate to convey our topic. We created our website by first adding different pages, then we added a balance between visual aids, multimedia, and different font/color texts. In organization, we organized the website from information on Dokdo, to the Russo-Japanese War, and then to the conflict between Japan and Korea, which is basically in chronological order. The issue over Dokdo is a prime example of rights and responsibilities. It encompasses one main point: territorial rights over Dokdo. As Japan and Korea are both in conflict over Dokdo, questions may pop up. Who has territorial rights over Dokdo

island? Or whose responsibility is it to determine the territorial rights over Dokdo island? Korea and Japan need to resolve this issue quickly or else this issue will damage diplomatic relations that Japan and Korea both worked hard to restore after the Japanese occupation of Korea.