Photo/Illutration A 1:2,000,000 aerial navigation map developed by the U.S. Air Force in 1954, which is kept at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, shows a dotted line representing the Japan-South Korea border between the Takeshima islets, or Liancourt Rocks, and nearby Ullung-do island. (Provided by the Japan Institute of International Affairs)

Two recently discovered aeronautical charts created by the U.S. Air Force in 1953 and 1954 show the disputed Takeshima islets as part of Japanese territory.

The Japan Institute of International Affairs, a Tokyo-based think tank researching foreign and security issues, announced the findings on Oct. 23.

“The documents are important because they represent geographical perceptions of the United States, which drafted the San Francisco Peace Treaty to define Japan’s territory following the end of World War II,” said Rikinobu Funasugi, 50, an associate professor of history at Shimane University, who led a project to find such materials.

Copies of the two maps are currently on display at the Takeshima Shiryoshitsu exhibition center in Matsue’s Tonomachi district in Shimane Prefecture.

Japan considers the Takeshima islets as part of Shimane Prefecture, but they are also claimed by South Korea.

In 2018, the think tank commissioned Funasugi to seek old maps showing Takeshima. A private research firm joined the project in fiscal 2019 to search the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Funasugi analyzed about 100 maps identified under the program earlier this year, leading to the discovery of two navigation charts describing the Takeshima islets, now controlled by Seoul, as part of Japan.

The charts, with scales of 1:500,000 and 1:2,000,000, were created by the U.S. Air Force and kept by the NARA. They show the Takeshima islands on the Japanese side of the border with South Korea near Ullung-do island.

The Takeshima isles are known as the Liancourt Rocks in the United States and Dokdo in South Korea.

The aerial maps both show the two nations’ “air defense identification zone (ADIZ)” boundary between Takeshima and Japan’s Oki island group, but Funasugi noted that has nothing to do with territorial definitions.

“The ADIZ is generally set by each country for internal use only from the standpoint of aerial defense, and therefore does not refer to the limit or range of territorial land and air,” he said.

According to Funasugi, no maps were appended to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which was signed in 1951 and took effect in 1952, although such materials are usually attached to that kind of pact.

Although Funasugi said a “map from a third nation cannot be treated in principle as proof of sovereignty over a certain region in a territorial dispute in international legal terms,” he stressed the significance of the discoveries.

“The peace treaty was drafted by the United States, so its 1953 and 1954 aeronautical charts are supposed to reflect the content of the pact,” Funasugi said. “They are important materials to show Takeshima was considered as Japan’s territory under the peace treaty.”

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