뉴스레터

Mr. Kim Seon-tae is on the right corner in the farthest line – Courtesy of the writer

Relationship with Northeast Asian History Foundation liaised by passion

The Seodaemun Culture Center publishes the “Seodaemun Folk History Data Book”. The center collects village folk history data through surveys and visits and publishes one data book every year. I have been taking part in the project for three years, and am also working as a commentator for the hometown visit program targeting third-grade students in elementary school. I visited the Dokdo Museum Seoul as a commentator in November 2018, and had a chance to awaken my interest in Dokdo. I thus satisfied my thirst for history with full attendance of the Northeast Asian History Foundation's inaugural educational course for the Dokdo exhibition explanation, as well as the night opening of Dokdo Museum Seoul and history classes. I was naturally absorbed in the Foundation's classes, which prompted me to sign up for the 19th history academy as soon as my commentator training was complete. My passion for history enabled me to continue the relationship with the Foundation. The 19th history academy, in particular, was the most useful time for broadening my view on history projects.

History academy lecture 1, "Proper knowledge of the Northeast Project"

The Northeast Project is a research project about history and phenomena in the northeastern frontier that China has pushed for since 2002 to turn the entire history featured within Chinese borders into Chinese history. It is intended to prevent possible territorial disputes in advance of reunification of the Korean Peninsula by making the history related to China's strategic northeastern region, especially Goguryeo and Balhae, into Chinese history. Gando and its nearby area, centered on the three northeastern provinces, were the birthplace of our ancient history. However, China is distorting this history by pulling Gojoseon and Goguryeo into China's history.

History academy lecture 2, "Historical issues and the Korea-Japan relationship"

Japan's economic warfare against Korea and China has been the result of Japan's declining economic status. Until recently, Japan was the world's second-largest economic powerhouse, but feels a relative sense of deprivation as its status falls gradually. Japan once accounted for 15% of the world economy in terms of influence, but its share has fallen to 5%, one-third of before, which has caused Japan to display impatience and nervousness in an undesirable manner.

The Japan-Korea friction corresponds to their history of conflict. Most notable is Japan's history textbooks. Japan's initial attack on textbooks was launched by the force that sought to return to the "1955 system". Textbooks that had advocated for peace and democracy in Japan were attacked by the rightists in the aftermath of the "theory of Japan's remilitarization". Japan's textbook issue escalated into diplomatic frictions among East Asian countries in 1982 when it was revealed that Japan's Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry had ordered the description of Japan's "invasion" as "advance" and "oppression" as "suppression". The second textbook attack, which had escalated into diplomatic disputes, came to an end as the "neighboring country clause" was included in "government guidelines for teaching", corresponding to the Korean version of curriculums. At the time, in the face of Japan's rightist textbooks, Korea built the Independence Hall and implemented policies aimed at activating national pride. The third attack on textbooks was sparked by the “New History Textbook” that glorified Japan's war of aggression.

History academy lecture 3, "Historical issues and the Korea-China relationship"

The key point of China's Northeast Project is to generalize Korea-China relations in Goryeo and Joseon as the suzerain-vassal state relationship. The classic example is what Xi Jinping mentioned in his interview with the Wall Street Journal following his summit meeting with Trump in April of 2017. Trump's statement that "Korea actually used to be a part of China" shows the present state of China's history distortion. Dr. Lee Jeong-il, the lecturer, denounced the problems of the post-Northeast Project as "distorting East Asia's past in the 10th to 17th centuries with China's history in the 20th century." At a time when China is implementing the Belt and Road Initiative, the United States thinks of Korea as having a pro-Chinese history for their 5,000-year tributary relationship.

History academy lecture 6, "Proper knowledge of Korea-Japan history (centered on the comfort women)"

There are often arguments that the comfort women were not mobilized by force but that they "volunteered". These are contentions made by rightists of Japan who deny the illegality of colonial rule, and are not true. Comfort women fell prey to historical crimes, and were taken coercively by means of violence, kidnapping, enticement, job scams, abduction, etc.

Dr. Park Jeong-ae, the lecturer, informed us that "although the truth was revealed to the world through the victims' statements, there are few researchers, and the victims' testimony is actually insufficient. The current situation is that it is difficult to develop research because Japan is so desperate in concealing the incident, so records are scarce." Against this backdrop, Japan claimed that the comfort women were a part of state-regulated prostitution, which was an institution and culture of colonized Joseon, but not a war crime.

Through her lecture we could vividly hear the stories of the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery. Grandma Park Yeong-sim from Nampo of Pyongyang was taken to Nanjing after being caught in Japan's "collection delivery of girls". After enduring painful days among the sex slaves for Japanese soldiers for six years, she was taken as a prisoner of the Allied Forces in September 1994 after the Japanese military retreated. She became known to the world as the woman in the last month of pregnancy in the picture of comfort women carried in American newspapers. In the entrance of the Site of Lijixiang Comfort Stations, opened in December 2015, stands the statue of a pregnant comfort woman with current images of the grandma.

History academy lecture 8, "Northeast Asian order and historical reconciliation"

The last class of the history academy was devoted to how to achieve reconciliation. We confirmed the international politics involving the US, China, Japan, and Russia affecting Korea, and discussed the necessity for Korea-Japan historical reconciliation and how to unravel the problem. Researcher Choi Un-do expressed his opinion that Japan should apologize voluntarily and apply for reconciliation as the German prime ministers had knelt down and apologized for the past history, saying that Japan does not acknowledge its coercive annexation as illegal and is not aware of its responsibility for the past. I recalled patriot Ahn Jung-geun's "theory of oriental peace" throughout the eight lectures I attended. I could not shake off the notion that if the three East Asian countries were to join hands in reconciliation and cooperation and create an economic community like the EU with ASEAN, it will become the most powerful community accounting for one-third of the world population and could lead the world.