Newsletter

The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities (President: KIM Byeong-sang, Director: IM Hyeon-young) was founded in 1991 under the name of the Institute for Research on Anti-national Activities in honor of the wish of late Im Jong-guk who dedicated his whole life to research on pro-Japanese activities and the spirit of the Special Investigation Committee of Anti-national Activities that was dismantled by the pro-Japanese collaborators in 1949. As implied in its name, the institute selected distorted modern history and pro-Japanese activities in particular as its top research subject and is carrying out its major project of publishing the "directory of pro-Japanese collaborators."

A historian once said, "The root of all evil in the Korean society lies in the fact that the pro-Japanese collaborators haven't been eliminated." In all times and places, those nations which fell under colonial or occupational rule of foreign powers punished traitors the first thing after the foreign powers retreated. But Korea was exceptional in this matter. One poet's exclamation "An independence fighter's family falls over three generations while a pro-Japanese collaborator's family rises over three generations" has become a painful reality. Common sense and justice only exist in textbooks whereas opportunism and fallen values dominate our society. This is the price that we should pay for failing to fulfill our task of resolving historical issues.

In Korea, dictatorship ended and democratization made a progress. As the bible says, "For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light" (Matthew 10:26), Korea painfully faced many tabooed truths during the democratization process. The matter of pro-Japanese activities was one of them. But to challenge the taboos requires accepting the accompanying disadvantages. The vested interests on this land that ignored the matter of pro-Japanese activities, notably those who were not free from that matter rushed to downplay and hinder our institute's activities including publishing the "directory of pro-Japanese collaborators. In every crisis, however, citizens firmly sticked to the grand cause of settling the matter of the pro-Japanese activities. In January 2004, netizens raised $400,000 in donations to support publishing the directory only within 11 days. It was a great achievement repeated on everybody's mouth.

The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities is the only academic research organization in Korea that has about 5,000 genuine members and gets a lot of love and support from citizens. Most academic research organizations are an aggregate of scholars, while our institute has conducted activities focusing on "research" and "action" since its foundation. Our institute also has a firm belief that historical issues are not just for historians and history can develop only when historical understanding of citizens are enhanced.

At last, three volumes of the directory of pro-Japanese collaborators (around 900 pages per volume) will be published this fall. Roughly 4,500 people will be covered in the directory. The publication is very meaningful in that the directory is put out 60 years after the Special Investigation Committee of Anti-national Activities was dismantled and ahead of the centenary of Japan's annexation of Korea. After the publication, the institute also plans to publish a "directory of pre-Japanese organizations" (for home and abroad), a "directory of organizations during Japan's colonial rule," and research books by field and person. Besides, the institute will induce more participation of citizens through a campaign to construct a temporarily named "history museum of people's daily lives under the Japanese colonial rule."

Meanwhile, the institute won a prize in academic research as a team at "the 3rd Yun Sang Won Award ceremony (1993), the 16th Shim San Award (2004), the 19th Danjae Award (2005), a special prize at the 17th An Jong-Pil Free Press Award (2005), the 17th Chamgyoyook Award from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (2008) and the 5th Hallim Documentary Literature Award (2009). Moreover, it takes the center stage in joint history-related activities like serving as the secretariat of the "Truth and Future: Joint Commission on Commemorating the Centenary of Japan's Annexation of Korea," "Patriot Ahn Jung-geun Memorial Association" and the Korean Committee of Anti-Yasukuni Joint Counteraction.