뉴스레터

Recently, there was an article headlined "East Asian Economy Exceeds Europe." According to this report, many economic research institutes are expecting that the gross domestic product (GDP) of East Asian countries will reach the same level as the euro zone with $12.67 trillion in 2009 and will exceed the euro zone's $13.1865 trillion with $14.7509 trillion in 2012. This economic growth of East Asia may cause people to look the region's history and culture differently, and their views are changing indeed. However, now It is not the time to indulge in complacency while giving applause to the economic success.

In the mid-19th century when the Western mission came in a steamboat armed with a Krupp cannon and forced it to open up, the East Asian world faced two challenges: one was to build an industrial economy by adopting the advanced machine civilization from the West; and the other was to establish relations among sovereign and independent nations based on international law. With regard to the former, it can be said that Japan, Korea and China have almost established a capitalist economic system through reform and opening-up policies. On the other hand, it is no exaggeration to say that as for the latter East Asia is still remaining in the first stage. This is proved by the continued history disputes between Korea, China and Japan stemming from different historical perceptions. Even European countries, which created international legal order, were once mired in the law of the jungle contrary to the spirit and purpose of international law. The two world wars are the most obvious example of this. However, Germany's sincere apology for its past wrongs successfully gave birth to the European Union based on international legal order. And the time is around the corner when the EU will have a president elected through the Lisbon Agreement and function as a political unit on the global stage.

Ahn Jung-geun's thought on peace in East Asia, 70 years earlier than EU

It is impossible to compare the East Asian world directly with Europe, because there is a big difference in their makeup and history. However, it is needed to follow Europe's spirit of observing international law for peaceful co-existence. It is considered that moral philosopher Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace, one of his late essays, was one of the most influential books on the creation of the League of Nations in 1920. Isn't there anything like Kant's idea in East Asia? When it comes to moral philosophy, East Asia's traditional ideology and religion was stronger, wasn't it? After assassinating Ito Hirobumi at the Harbin station 100 years ago who took over Korea's sovereignty with a false view on peace in East Asia, Ahn Jung-geun wrote an essay "On Peace in East Asia" at prison, hoping for the day when Korea, China and Japan achieve true peace. Around the 100th anniversary of his heroic act, it has been revealed that Ahn Jung-geun's thoughts on peace were affected by Kant's Perpetual Peace.

It is believed that since Ahn Jung-geun's views on peace in East Asia were fundamentally based on the humanity of Confucianism - one of the traditional ideologies of East Asia, he could easily understand Kant's views on peace. Many calligraphic works he left clearly show his knowledge of Confucianism. Kant's philosophy laid the biggest emphasis on the human dignity, thus supported democracy as the system of government which can protect the human dignity, and proposed that an organization like the League of Nations that can guarantee the sovereignty of a democratic nation is the most desirable international relation of the future. Eminent Chinese scholar Liang Chi-Ch`ao properly introduced Kant's views on peace in the collection of his works. Ahn Jung-geun, a man of great Confucian knowledge, felt an absolute sympathy with Kant's moral views on peace from Liang Chi-Ch`ao's book, and started writing an essay "On Peace in East Asia" at the prison with deep consideration. His thoughts reached a world of creation beyond sympathy.

First, Ahn Jung-geun proposed joint peace-keeping forces of Korean, Chinese and Japanese youths as a specific means to fend off the Western invasion. Considering that the key to success of the forces is friendship among the youths, he suggested that the recruited men should learn the other two countries' languages. In addition, he advocated a common currency for these three nations to counter the Western economic encroachment. For this, he proposed that a joint bank should be established in Lushun where the forces will be stationed and that branches should be established in major cities of each nation to distribute the joint currency. And he said it would not be hard to raise hundreds of millions of yen in fund to build the bank if the people of the three nations become members of the bank. He also proposed that if the bank succeeds, it could be expanded to include Thailand and India in the future. He made this proposal about 70 years earlier than the EU, the one that no one in the world had ever thought of in the early 20th century. What made this outstanding proposal possible is our important research subject but it could not come into being without ideological foundation to criticize Japan's wrong spirit of samurai warrior. Therefore, it is needed to pay attention to the aspect of Ahn Jung-geun as a man of Confucian knowledge as well as his encounter with Kant's philosophy.

A thought on peaceful co-existence found in East Asian tradition

East Asian historians can find the cause for existence of the historical science in East Asia only when they rediscover the thoughts on peaceful co-existence in East Asia's tradition and shed light on the future of the region. The Japanese history academia has recently raised a strict criticism of the historical understanding that it has stuck to, which is based on "the idea of abandoning Asian and accepting Western ideas." It is pointed out that there was a difference in the modern-era reigning system of the three nations: in China and Korea, Ming and Joseon were founded through military power and maintained by civil administration, while in Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was established and maintained through military power without eliminating the force but freezing it. And the Japanese historians have reexamined that the frozen military power was released during the Meiji Restoration, and armed with sophisticated weapons, initiated a history of massive war. They also have tried to reconsider that the Japanese history academia has so far justified and rationalized the history of aggression based on the idea of abandoning Asian and accepting Western. It is pointed out as well that the idea's purposeful embellishment does no good to the establishment of peace in East Asia in the 21st century, thus it is time to stop comforting itself with such an idea.

Japan's idea of abandoning Asian and accepting Western is obviously a hindrance to rediscovering the value of East Asia. Before turning an eye to Europe, it is necessary to assess Japanese history's deviation in the context of the East Asian tradition. This should be the first step for Japan to make an active contribution to the development of the East Asian world. Japanese intellectuals ought to face the reality that if they stick to the idea of abandoning Asian and accepting Western, it will be hard to even have dialogue with Korea, China and other nations.