뉴스레터

The Korean Association for Japanese History

Whether an academic discipline has established its own domain can be determined by the launch of its society and journal. For instance, the Asian history circles in Korea established the Society for Asian Historical Studies in November 1965 and launched the Journal of Asian Historical Studies in October 1966. In comparison, the Japanese history circles in Korea lagged far behind. They established the Korean Association for Japanese History in September 1994 and started to publish the Journal of Japanese History in March next year.

The lack of research on Japanese history is attributable to the legacy of Japanese colonial rule of Korea. There had been little academic accumulation until 1960s when anti-Japanese sentiment prevailed in Korea. Then after the normalization of diplomatic ties between Korea and Japan in 1965, research started to be conducted mainly on the history of the Korean-Japanese relations. And in the 1980s, some studies on Japanese history itself were released. Japan's distortion of historical facts in its history textbooks in 1982 particularly drew Koreans' attention to Japan's nature and led to the need for realistic analysis of Japan. Some researchers who realized the need started research on Japanese history in earnest, which led to the establishment of the Association in the 1990s, the foundation for a new leap.

In 1994, Professors Kim Yong-deok of Seoul National University (the current President of the Northeast Asian History Foundation), Kim Hyeon-gu of Korea University and Park Yeong-jae of Yonsei University held several rounds of preliminary meetings and finally an inaugural meeting on September 24, 1994. Professor Park was unanimously elected first president. At that time, committee members included Professors Gu Tae-hun of Sungkyunkwan University, Kim Eun-suk of Korea National University of Education, Kim Hyeon-gu, Mim Deok-gi of Cheongju University, Jeong Ha-mi of Hanyang University, while board members were Kim Bo-han of Dankook University (Exchange), Nam Gi-hak of Hallym University (Editing), Yun Byeong-nam of Sogang University (Information), Yi Gye-hwang of Inha University (Management) and Ham Dong-ju of Ewha Womans' University (Research). All of them have been playing a vital role in leading the Association.

The Association publishes the Journal of Japanese History (Korea Research Foundation listed journal, 29 issues published) biannually in June and December and holds quarterly academic conference (in March, June, September and December, a total of 50 rounds as of June 2009). Moreover, the academic society takes part in the Congress of Historical Sciences of Korea in May and the Congress of Asian History Studies of Korea in October and also hosts a summer workshop in August. It also holds an international conference almost every year. This year the conference will be held in November under the theme of "Japan's rule of Korea and Ito Hirobumi." More recently, the Association has expanded so that it has branch meetings: The early modern history branch has been formed, the ancient history branch is in the making and the modern history branch already with many members is seeking an overhaul.

The inaugural statement of the Association expresses "objective and independent research on Japanese history" and "systematic promotion of research" as its purpose on the premise that Koreans are in a hard condition to view Japan objectively due to the special experiences in history between Korea and Japan. Today, 15 years later of its launch, the Association's purpose is still something to be obtained through in-depth, continuous research.

The Association will no longer regard the purpose as a simple rhetoric and will produce specific results such as publishing introductory books on Japanese history and translation of primary sources. Another important task the Association is facing is to conduct independent research of Japanese history. While the Association has focused so far on importing and delivering vast research results of other nations, it will now identify subjects of its own interest and conduct research on them. In doing so, the Korean Association for Japanese History will play a major role in objective, independent and systematic research on Japanese history.