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At Seoul National University, a worker examines the ”Annals of the Chosun Dynasty,” returned to Korea from Tokyo University. (Kang Chang-gwang)
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Japan’s "donation" is denial of past, it says
The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, perhaps the country’s leading organization involved in the study of pro-Japanese activities during its 35-year colonial rule of South Korea, is criticizing the format through which 47 volumes of the Mount Odae edition of the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" (Joseon wangjo sillok) are being returned to Korea. The institute’s position is that the Mount Odae edition of the volumes were "looted" by Japan, so having them "donated," as Tokyo University is putting it, is inappropriate. The institute, together with the Buddhist community and members of the National Assembly, organized the "Committee for the Return of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty," instrumental in the agreement to have the texts returned from Tokyo University."We welcome the return of the Annals," the institute said in a statement June 1, "but having the Japanese side of the negotiations call it a ’donation’ while the Korean side calls it a ’return’ is a shameful denial of our proper right to have plundered [artifacts] returned to Korea." In response, Seoul National University, which will soon accept the volumes from Tokyo University, issued a statement calling the format of return a "progress." "There are complications relating to international law when it comes to the return or relocation of cultural properties during the colonial administration, and there is still not ample evidence that the Annals were ’plundered,’ " a Seoul National University official said. "While not ideal, the decision by Tokyo University gives Korea ownership of the remaining volumes, and compared to France’s ’permanent loan’ of documents from the [South Korean] royal library at Oegyujanggak, that is progress," the official said. Most of the approximately 1,000 volumes belonging to the Mount Odae edition were lost in the fire that destroyed what remained of Tokyo following the Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
