S. Korea to put Japanese textbooks laying claims to Dokdo on display

By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, June 13 (Yonhap) -- Japanese school textbooks laying claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo will be on display during a government-organized exhibition opening in Seoul this week to raise public awareness of how Tokyo distorts history, officials said Monday.
The exhibition, set to open Tuesday at Seoul's War Memorial of Korea, is part of South Korea's campaign to counter Japan's claims over Dokdo after Tokyo's education ministry authorized a series of textbooks portraying the islets as Japanese earlier this year.
It is the second event of a four-part exhibition of historical records, photos, videos and other evidence showing that Dokdo is South Korea's territory. The first exhibition was held from April 4-May 21 in the central city of Cheonan. The exhibitions will move to other cities -- Busan and Gwangju -- later this year.
"It will be the first time that the government unveils the Japanese textbooks that distort the history" of Dokdo, an education ministry official said. "This will provide an opportunity to make it clear that Dokdo is Korea's own territory in terms of history, geography and international law."
The Seoul exhibition is scheduled to run through the end of next month.
Japanese school textbooks accused of laying claims to Dokdo or glorifying the country's wartime past have long been considered a thorn in relations between the two countries as resentment over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea still runs deep here.
South Korea rejects the claims as nonsense because the country regained independence from the colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.
Since 1954, South Korea has stationed a small police detachment on Dokdo.
ejkim@yna.co.kr