Dokdo Volunteer Garrison to the exercise of national jurisdiction over Liancourt Rocks and the protection of the nation's territory." The Dokdo Volunteer Garrison showed that the territorial right of Liancourt Rocks belongs to Korea through effective control of the islands. They showed great activity symbolically and mentally, meaning that they raised patriotism and cultivated the self-consciousness of the nation. Dokdo Volunteer Garrison Dokdo Volunteer Garrison (Korean: 독도의용수비대) was a South Korean paramilitary outpost on the islands of Liancourt Rocks, which are called "Dokdo" in Korean; South Korea and Japan each claim sovereignty over them. South Korea maintained the garrison from 1953 to 1956.
Liancourt Rocks dispute (鬱陵島開拓令) issued in Dec 1881. A first-person account by one of the first settlers since the reclamation program has been presented as one evidence to the fact of the claim. A South Korean scholar claims to have uncovered evidence that Korean fishermen effectively occupied engaged in "whaling" in Liancourt Rocks waters in the 1880s and that sea lions were hunted and sea-lion-derived products were exported to Japan in 1904 prior to the Japanese Cabinet decision of 1905 to incorporate a supposed terra nullius. The Japan–Korea Protocol of 1904 signed between Japan and Korea on February 23, 1904 (Korean 한일의정서, 韓日議定書,