Japanese Military Appropriation of Territory and Dokdo III Japanese~Korean Naval Watchtower Maps

Continued from this page.

The maps on this page were again from the Japanese Historical Archives and they detailed the positions of watchtowers the Japanese Navy during the Russo~Japanese War. Red text was added to label the areas for geographic reference. When the watchtowers were drawn, a circle indicating the range of visibility was included to show the area that could be seen as well as blindspots or zones that were not visible. The circles were highlighted in green. Of course, the Japanse incorporated Dokdo into this system to guard the East Sea between Ulleungdo and Oki Islands.  This was not a spontaneous decision as the Japanese Navy surveyed Dokdo for this purpose back in November of 1904. The map below is an overall chart of all watchtowers located around Korea  and part of Japan.

A Japanese Naval Map of Korean~Japanese Watchtower Locations

Japanese Naval Map of Japan's West Coast Watchtowers

Above this text is a map of Japan's West coast. All of the watchtowers show the range of visibility that is highlighted in green. Dokdo Island has now been named Takeshima as this map was after Japan had annexed Dokdo Island.

A Japanese Naval Watchtower Survey Map of Ulleungdo

To the right is a map of Ulleungdo Island's northwest shore.  Jukdo Islet and Gwaneumdo Point (Island) and Three Angles Rocks can be seen. This map shows the watchtower and like the maps above a circular line indicating the range of visibility has been drawn (highlighted in green). Through Chukpyeon, Ulleungdo Island, Dokdo Island and finally Oki Island,  the Japanese could achieve a band of visibility that would span the length of the East Sea.  Those observing the waters were aided with binocluars and could see quite far. For example from Ulluendo's watchtower Dokdo Island's form could be easily seen dispite the fact Dokdo is about 90kms away. This was recorded in the logbooks of the Japanese Warship Niitaka in September of 1904. See link.

The November 20th 1904 Survey Map of Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo) Drawn by Deputy Commander Yamanka Shibakichi (ί£ρια΄ρ₯)

The map to the right is a survey map Dokdo Island. Colour and a legend has been added to better explain the Japanese text. This map predates the Shimane Prefecture inclusion because Dokdo is labelled as Liancourt Rocks. When this survey was done the range of visibility was obviously of major importance. It can also be seen that both islets were studied for best observation location. This map also shows the location of potable water. The map was drawn by the Deputy Commander Yamanaka of the Japanese Imperial Warship Tsushima on November 20th 1904 about two months before the island was seized. Here Dokdo's topography was surveyed for building watchtowers and a telegraph station. The details of the Tsushima's November 20th survey of Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo) can be found on this page. (link)

The watchtower maps of the Japanese Navy are an important piece of the puzzle in explaining why Japan annexed Dokdo, especially when used in conjuction with page 1 and page 2 .  In the future these pages will hopefully be expanded upon as new documents are uncovered that shed light on the time of the Japanese annexation of Dokdo.