With Friday the day that Japan commemorates incorporating Takeshima, a group of rocky Sea of Japan islets now controlled by South Korea, the aging residents of nearby islands have not given up hope that the disputed outcroppings may one day be returned to Japan.
Called Dokdo by South Korea, the islets are nearly 160 km northwest of the Oki Island group in Shimane Prefecture. They were incorporated as part of Shimane on Feb. 22, 1905. South Korea, which emerged after Japan's wartime defeat and end of colonial rules of the Korean Peninsula, declared them part of its territory in 1952.
The residents in their 80s and 90s are working hard to hand down to younger generations stories of the islets, including for some of them their memories of trips to the territory in their youth.