[MSN] Korea and Japan. Scores of royal records from Korea's last kingdom that were seized during Japan's colonization will soon be returned to Seoul, an official from Seoul National University said Tuesday.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Choson Royal Records to Be Returned From Japan

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter


Scores of royal records from Korea's last kingdom that were seized during
Japan's colonization will soon be returned to Seoul, an official from Seoul
National University said Tuesday. 

The agreement was made between Tokyo University and Seoul National
University, which keeps other parts of the royal records of Korea's last
Choson Kingdom (1392-1910). Japan seized the texts from a Buddhist temple
after the Choson Kingdom fell and Japan began the colonization of Korea in
1910.

A total of 47 books will be moved from the library at Tokyo University to
Kyujanggak, a Choson Kingdom library that is now managed by the Seoul
university and holds other royal records. 

``The books will be returned. But because of an agreement with Tokyo
University, we will disclose more specific details in tomorrow's news
conference,'' said Nam Hye-kyung, head of Seoul National University's PR
team over the phone yesterday. The administrative process for the transfer
will take about a month, she said.

The books to be returned are part of the royal records that were previously
preserved in Mt. Odae in Pyongchang, Kangwon Province. The Choson Kingdom
had kept its records dispersed in mountains and had nearby temples guard
them after a seven-year Japanese invasion in the 16th century. The books to
be returned were being supervised by the nearby Woljong Temple, when in
1913, Terauchi Masatake, the first Japanese governor-general in Korea who
later became Japanese prime minister, took the records from their place of
safekeeping.

Tokyo university lost an unknown number of the texts when the cataclysmic
earthquake occurred in Kanto in 1923 and left it with only 47 of the
original texts. 

Buddhist officials from the temple have held two rounds of talks with the
Japanese school to demand the books' return and were planning to hold
another round in Tokyo on Wednesday. They protested yesterday over the news
that the royal records are going to be returned to Seoul National
University. Officials at Woljong Temple said that they would appeal and talk
with the government to have the books returned to the temple. 

As to why the Tokyo school contacted the Seoul university to return the
books instead of appealing to a Buddhist temple, school officials cited
friendly exchanges between the schools. 

An unknown number of Korean cultural possessions were taken or looted by
Japan during its colonial occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. A 17th
century Korean historic monument that had been moved to a Tokyo shrine was
returned to Seoul last year and relocated to its original place in North
Korea in March. 

e3dward at koreatimes.co.kr

http://times.hankooki.com/