I am French, and even if I’ve never learned about Korean history before entering at VANK, the time being in Korea has taught me more that I could ever imagine.

Before, I only knew Korea for 2 reasons:

First the Japanese Occupation (1910-1945) and then the Korean War.

Little that I knew I would one day come to Dokdo, and becoming a Dokdo cyber diplomat.

I would like with this letter to express two main ideas. First, you don’t have to be Korean to understand Dokdo issue. We are citizens of the world, and thus our duty is to understand and to take part into global issues, not only in our everyday problems.

The UN has set a wide range of goals to be citizens of the world, and we can all achieve to be one.

Fighting for the world recognition of Dokdo as a Korean island is something that changed my conception of the world and the people around me. Now I know I could easily talk about Dokdo to a French friend, also because as French we fought for our rights and freedom under the German occupation. The feeling I got when Koreans explained me their feelings towards Dokdo is as strong as the feelings I got when I go to a Second world war memorial: pride and love towards my country. I think every citizen in the world can identify with that feeling, because we are proud of our ancestors who fought for us, the next generations.

Secondly, I want to try to express what does Dokdo represent to me even if it’s very complicated to grasp that kind of feeling in a letter.

When I think of Dokdo, I think about how war and colonization affected the world, and how it is important to prevent it to happen. To always recalls me how we, as world citizens, have to stop using the Rising Sun Flag, how we have to warn people about Japanese Imperialism, how we always have to fight for our rights and our independence. Freedom is a fragile concept that can exist only if citizens take action for it. Thinking about Dokdo is a recall that we should not forget our past, it is only by having a common history that we can build as a free nation.

Koreans incredible access to democracy after the tragic Korean war is a sign that Koreans have always fought for their ideas.

Dokdo is the proof of it!

Dokdo can inspire the world, as being not only a lonely island in the East Sea, but mostly being a sign of freedom, of courage and independence.

Clara Dannepond