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The primary purpose of this article is to examine and analyze Kang Hang's Ganyangnok, one of the few existing eye-witness accounts of Japan during the Imjin War. Kang, a nobleman who was abducted to Japan during the second and final phase of Japan's invasion of Korea from 1596-1598, wrote Ganyangnok to not only record what he heard and saw in Japan during the late 16th century, but to remind the Korean government of the importance of ensuring adequate preparations before the advent of a war and maintaining a wary eye on the possibility of Japan launching a similar invasion in the future. Ganyangnok is nevertheless important for understanding the origins of Korea's distrust and alarm towards Japan's attempt at territorial expansion and is a unique document that took the form of a travelogue and yet functioned as a policy report, informing Koreans about the nature of Japanese feudalism before the Imjin War. Rather than divorcing the form of the text from its function, as much of the existing scholarship has done by either focusing on Ganyangnok as a travelogue or a war captive's diary, the work ought to be understood holistically since the observations Kang recorded became the basis of his policy reports, which comprise the second part of Ganyangnok. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korean historian Moon Il-pyeong's concept of "Joseonsim," or the spiritual essence of Korean culture, emphasized retaining a respect for traditional Korean culture, especially unique Korean inventions such as Hangeul. He was a sharp critic of what he deemed to be Korea's excessive reliance on Chinese culture and customs to the extent of belittling Korean tradition and customs and urged the Korean public to have pride in Korea's authentic national culture. Such emphasis on "Joseonsim" formed the core of Moon's nationalist understanding of history, for he sought to use history as a vehicle to educate the Korean public about Korean history as a means to overcome both the traditional Sinophile attitude and the Westernization of Korean society through Japanese colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korean government's announcement of "Imperial Decree No. 41" was a direct expression of the Korean government's effort to systematize governmentality over Ulleungdo and express that effort as a matter of territorial nationalism. "Imperial Decree No. 41" marked the full transformation of the Korean government's will to exercise governmentality over Ulleungdo into territorial nationalism, which is why the Decree must be understood not just as an arbitrary declaration of territorial sovereignty, but the Korean government's determined and resolute expression of an official urge to clearly end and reject all possibilities for contention and disputation from Japan concerning Ulleungdo. Finally, although Korea was powerless to change the course of the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean government maintained its original perception that Ulleungdo is Korean territory even throughout the war, which shows that the Korean government was not a passive bystander to Japanese intrusions into Ulleungdo, but fully aware that Japan was intent on seizing Ulleungdo by force. Such a perception clearly proves that in spite of the outbreak of a war between foreign countries which desired to usurp and eclipse Korea permanently from the world map, the Korean government was still cognizant of Ulleungdo as Korean territory despite the chaos and confusion caused by a foreign war. In essence, from the very moment Japanese citizens initiated their intrusions in the early 1880s to the eve of Korea's annexation by Japan, the Korean government made consistent administrative and diplomatic efforts to assure that Dokdo and Ulleungdo remained under Korean jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the Japanese Foreign Ministry's claim that Koreans never demonstrated any clear basis for its claims that it had taken effective control over Dokdo (Takeshima) before 1905, the Ministry ignores the critical role of the Korean media, especially major Korean newspapers such as the Hwangsŏng Newspaper and Dongnip Sinmun (Independent), in publicizing and mobilizing Korean nationalism through a sustained assertion of Korean sovereignty over Dokdo. By publishing articles which officially denounced Japanese intrusion into Dokdo or the Japanese government's feigned ignorance and disregard for such an act, or articles which explicitly discussed the long history of Korea's recognition of Dokdo and Ulleungdo as her nascent territories, Korean newspapers not only expressed Korean nationalism by incorporating anti-Japanese sentiment. They also emphasized Korea's ancient consciousness of national unity by clearly declaring that at the heart of such nationalism and rhetoric was a strong identification of Dokdo and Ulleungdo as Korea's historic territories. Korean newspapers were instrumental in publicizing Korean consciousness about Dokdo and Ulleungdo by not only reporting on Japanese intrusions into Dokdo, educating the Korean public on the ancient history of Dokdo and Ulleungdo, but also serve as crucial evidence proving that Japan willfully ignored Korea's national sovereignty and judicial authority to wrest away Korean sovereignty over Dokdo and Ulleungdo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]