1897 American map of Japan and Korea

The non-existent island of Argonaut usually does not appear on American maps in the late 19^th century, especially in the 1890’s, but, for some reason, Argonaut reappears on American maps in the early 20^th century as “Taka Shima” or “Taka island,” or sometimes as “Tako-shimo.” These names are different spellings for the Japanese name, Takeshima (竹島). For example, a map published in Chicago in 1900 has the name of “Taka Isl.,” a map published in Buffalo in 1902 has “Taka Shima,” a map published in New York in 1904 has “Argonaut I. (Tako Shimo),” and another map published in Chicago in 1904 has “Taka I.”

If you would like to see the above maps and others, you can go to http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/, which is a site introduced by Kaneganese.

Most American maps in the 1890’s do not show the name "Taka Shima," but there are some exceptions. Here is an American map of Japan and Korea that was published in 1897, entitlted “THE CENTURY ATLAS. JAPAN AND KOREA.” The copyright credit as 1897, The Century Co., New York. The map featured Taiwan (Formosa) as Japanese territory, which was consistent with the fact that Japan acquired Taiwan in 1895 through the Treaty of Shimonoseki, after the Sino-Japanese War.

If you look at the islands in the Sea of Japan, you can see three islands labeled as “Taka Shima”, “Matsu Shima” and “Hornet Is. (Liancourt Rocks).” Taka Shima is shown smaller than Matsu Shima, which apparently meant to be the Korean island of Ulleungdo’s. That means that the Taka Shima on the map was the non-existent island of Argonaut, which was a mismapping of Ulleungdo by a Bristish naval vessel named "Argonaunt. The islands were colored in greenish yellow, which indicates they were considered to be Japanese territory. Korean territory was colored pink. Since the map incorrectly shows Ulleungdo as Japanese territory and the non-existent island of Argonaut, is shows that even the Americans were confused about the islands in the Sea of Japan.

The fact that the Americans used the Japanese names for Argonaut (Take Shima) and Ulleungdo (Matsu Shima) suggests that they may have shown those territories to be Japanese based simply on the fact that they had Japanese names.

In 1876, Mutoh Heigaku wrote in his “Argument for the Development of Matsushima” that an American merchant living in Vladivostok told him that Matsushima was Japan’s territory. Hornet island (Liancourt Rocks) had lost its Japanese name, but it was always drawn as Japanese territory. As Watanabe Kouki wrote in 1878, “All foreign maps indicate that Hornet Rocks belong to our country.” http://dokdo-or-takeshima.blogspot.com/2008/06/1892-german-made-map-of-east-asia.html

Therefore, this American map is more evidence that Liancourt Rocks was considered to be Japanese territory in 1897, just three years before Korean Edict 41 made Ulleungdo and its neighboring islands of Jukdo (竹島) and Seokdo (石島) a county of Gangwon Province. There are no Korean, Japanese, or Western maps that support the Korean claim that the Seokdo in the imperial edict was Dokdo (Liancourt Rocks).