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Starting from March this year, Korea will offer its first East Asian history class in high school classrooms across the country. They will use one the two authorized textbooks, one by Kyohak Publishing and the other by Chunjae Publishing. This month's issue features the interview that Researcher Kim Jung-Hyun of NAHF had with Sohn Seung-Cheol, the primary author of the East Asian history textbook by Kyohak and history professor of Kangwon National University, over the background of offering the East Asian history class and the motivation for compiling and writing the textbook, and the significance of East Asian history education. _ Note by the Editors

Kim: Despite the controversies, the Korean government has authorized the 'East Asian history' class that will be offered as a high school elective starting from March this year. What were the background and the purpose of offering this class?

Sohn: The preparations for offering the East Asian history class began as early as in 2006. When the distorted Japanese textbooks and China's Northeast Project became hot issues in December of 2006, the Korean government decided to include an East Asian history class in the high school curriculum as part of its efforts to enhance history education. This class was designed to enhance our history education to counter the distortion of history and the Northeast Project while emphasizing the historical understanding that we would need to resolve historical conflicts among East Asian countries and then build the East Asian community that transcends the state and the people.
As for the class contents and the methodology, the Northeast Asian History Foundation has guided the preparation process, preparing a draft of the East Asian history curriculum and publishing the textbook writing guidelines based on the draft. The textbooks compiled and written according to the guidelines were authorized last year for use in high school from this March.

Kim: I suppose that 'East Asian history' as a school subject is still unfamiliar to the general public. How is it different from the existing Korean history or world history classes?

Sohn: The existing history classes had their limitations. The Korean history classes only deal with the history of a single country that is too self-centered, and the world history classes try to present the histories of too many countries side by side. Besides, we have been teaching Korean history and world history as two separate subjects. On the other hand, East Asian history aims to view the East Asian region as a single unit and cultivate a desirable historical understanding of the regional community.

Kim: There are some views that East Asian history might give rise to diplomatic friction. But in my opinion, this class could help identify and overcome the historical problems that have been unresolved.

Sohn: Basically, we intend to identify the cause of historical conflicts or territorial disputes from a historical point of view. For example, let's take a historical approach to the issue of sovereignty over Dokdo. Ulleungdo and Dokdo belonged to the kingdom of Woosan. In other words, these islands have been Korean territories since the Silla period. As these islands were increasingly plundered by Japanese pirates from the late Goryeo to the early Joseon periods, the Joseon government evacuated Ulleungdo and sent officials to the island for management, except that the management was not very effective.
As a result, Japanese fishermen started coming to Ullengdo and Dokdo for operation, and this gave Japan an excuse to claim sovereignty over Dokdo. In this historical context, it becomes clear that Japan's claim is nonsense. By taking a similar historical approach to Japan's issues over the northern territories or the Senkaku Islands, one can see what Japan's hidden intentions are.
Therefore, although it wouldn't be easy to find the solution right away, analyzing what has caused a certain issue and understanding how it has caused it would allow one to know what the problem is and learn to tell right from wrong in the process. In this regard, I think that East Asian history could make certain contributions in its own ways to resolving historical issues or territorial disputes.

Kim: You are the primary author of the East Asian history textbook by Kyohak Publishing Company. I am wondering how that textbook differs from the other publisher's and about the points that you tried to emphasize.

Sohn: The point that our group of authors emphasized was that each of the East Asian countries has become the Korea, China, and Japan that they are today by exchanging and forging relationship with one another, instead of through independent development. A little bit ideal as it may sound, the purpose of our textbook is to ultimately build the East Asia community by overcoming the current historical confrontations and conflicts and seeking peace.

Kim: I understand that the compilation process has been such a challenge. I think that terms or concepts were especially challenging because they differ greatly among Korea, Japan, and China. For example, your textbook uses the Korean term 'Imjin War' instead of the traditionally used 'Imjin Waeran (Revolt).' How did you sort out this issue related to terms or concepts?

Sohn Seung-Cheol, Professor

Sohn: As the terms or concepts had not been unified, this posed a great challenge to us. While compiling the textbook, I constantly wished there were the unified terms and concepts available for share among the Northeast Asia History Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, and those responsible for compiling the textbook. This is shame.
The use of the term Imjin War reflects the authors' belief that the academically correct term should be used in this textbook. The Imjin War was a great war waged among Korea, Japan, and China in the East Asian region for 7 years from 1592. Considering its significance, this war should have been described with a term that could be in common use in the international community of East Asia.
However, the term Waeran in Korean refers to 'a revolt or riot by Japanese' and it has an extremely narrow meaning. We decided that Waeran with the meaning of 'a riot by Japanese' was inappropriate to use in referring to the great war of East Asia that lasted as long as 7 years. So the eight authors had a discussion and agreed to the term 'Imjin War' that means the great war of Asia that broke out in the Imjin year (1592). Any term or concept in East Asian history should make sense to the people of the relevant nation. Favoritism to one side would lose persuasiveness.

Kim: I am wondering about the reactions of teachers or students to the 'East Asian history' class before the beginning of school in March. A lot of issues related to East Asian history are under discussion. For example, there is a lack of the shared understanding of the spatial extent of East Asian history. And there is too much material to cover in limited time. As this class that is still unfamiliar to both the teachers and the students, the preferred format would be lecture instead of student-centered discussion. What do you think about that?

Sohn: As the offering of an East Asian history class became a possibility, the Northeast Asia History Foundation has hosted teachers training sessions during the summer and the winter breaks since 2009. Initially there were concerns over the unfamiliarity of the subject. But in the course of the training, we learned from the teachers that our worries had been unnecessary. The teachers testified that the students were feeling more comfortable and interested in East Asian history than world history as a subject.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that China and Japan are Korea's neighboring countries and the understanding that both countries have many cultural and historical similarities to Korea. Considering that this is its first time, the subject will certainly go through the process of trial and error. But if the raised problems are well resolved, I think that it could draw more attention and popularity than the existing Korean history or the world history class. This is attested to by the adoption rate that is higher than expected. To my knowledge, a total of 70,000 students have chosen the textbooks by the two publishers.

Kim: The teachers who majored in Korean history are going to teach East Asian history. I wonder if they might face any challenge. To make East Asian history education more effective, I think it needs to be also taught and learned in college. What do you think about college education to train teachers of East Asian history?

Sohn: East Asian history is not an entirely new subject. Much of Chinese history or Japanese history has been covered in the Korean history or world history class, except that the Korean history class has been focused on the history of our own country and the world history class the history of each of the countries. On the other hand, East Asian history is a history of relationship and exchange. This subject doesn't deal with a new topic, but intends to add a fresh perspective to East Asia as a big framework. I believe that this is how globalization, being talked about everywhere else, should be done in historical sciences.
Considering the high level of interest from both the teachers and the students, I think that the 'East Asian history' course has a bright future. And the level of their interest will further increase as it is included in the official subjects of the national college entrance exam starting from 2014. The colleges should also have interest in the subject. In particular, I believe that the teachers' colleges should incorporate the subject into the curriculum of their history departments.

Kim: On December 30 last year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea announced the writing guidelines for the new high school history textbooks, including Korean history, world history, and East Asian history. So I wonder if there is anything overlapping between the Korean history and the East Asian history textbooks. I also wonder if there is any possibility that the writing guidelines might be changed again. And if there is any improvement to be made to the East Asian history textbooks published for the first time this year, what would that be?

Sohn: East Asian history deals with historical facts. Therefore, overlapping with Korean history is inevitable. The point is that we should be careful to avoid that it becomes focused too much on the history of our own country and understand that this is a common situation in East Asian history. It is important to understand its significance in terms of East Asian history.

Kim Jung-Hyun, Researcher

Kim: NAHF has provided significant support and played an important role in the offering of the East Asian history class and the compilation of the textbooks through curriculum development, the teachers training sessions, and the publication of a series of education books on East Asian history. Please tell us if you have any suggestions for NAHF.

Sohn: To be sure, NAHF's roles in offering the East Asian history class and producing the textbooks have been very significant. But in my opinion, NAHF's future roles would be more important. NAHF's continued support for research and provision of learning material would be absolutely necessary.
First of all, site monitoring is needed from March this year to see how East Asian history is actually received in the education field. I would like to see a system established by which the problems arising in the field are identified through monitoring and then resolved.

In addition, as East Asian history is still an incomplete course, it needs continued revision and refinement, especially the terms and the concepts. One way to do so would be to host workshops with experts and undertake the project of identifying and improving problems.
Next, it is also necessary to produce auxiliary learning material for more efficient learning experience. What I think is needed is not the typical practice of commissioning a publishing company to make auxiliary textbooks but NAHF's direct involvement in producing and managing such material for academic rather than commercial purposes.

Finally, I would like NAHF to operate an East Asia historians forum that consists of scholars from five countries: Korea, China, Japan, Mongolia, and Vietnam. What I have in mind is a historians forum dedicated to East Asian history and focused on such main topics as reconciliation, coexistence, cooperation, and exchange instead of controversial issues. This is a particularly important point I want to make. Any historical dialogue focused on historical or controversial issues is bound to fail. Historical dialogue should be about the future, not the past. And that's where East Asian history is focused on.

Kim: Thank you for your suggestions. We hope you will give us full support and assistance so that NAHF can continue to carry out this mission well.