hankyoreh

After many difficulties and complications along the way, in March 2004 the National Assembly just barely passed the “Special Law on Pro-Japanese and Anti-Korean Activities.” It only got to the main floor of the Assembly because the speaker invoked his authority to bring it there directly, since the Legislative and Judiciary Committee had stopped its review of the bill, which it did because the vice minister of what was then the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs went to the relevant subcommittee as the then administration’s representative and expressed opposition to the bill, saying it would cause national discord. The very same vice minister, a man by the name of Kim Ju-hyeon, was installed yesterday as the head of Independence Hall. One feels terrible shame towards the patriots who gave their lives in the fight against Japan, on the plains of Manchuria and in Seodaemun Prison in Seoul.

Independence Hall was built with citizen donations to serve as a guide for us Koreans by reviving the national spirit and the spirit of independence that we had sought to maintain amidst the harsh oppression of Japanese occupation. If it was going to end up being a display case for stuffed articles, then the surviving family members of the independence fighters would not have donated precious materials and the general public would not have piled one brick upon the next to create it. Today what is more important than anything else in reviving the independent Korean spirit is searching for the truth about the anti-Korean crimes that still remain hidden. The history of the independence movement can only be fully restored if, along with the history of the struggle for independence, we also shine light on the activities that were about selling out the Korean people, hindering the independence struggle, and oppressing fellow Koreans. The effort to uncover the truth about what happened, however, stopped when, after Liberation, those who had engaged in anti-Korean activities came to power. Someone who contributed to that happening became the head of Independence Hall yesterday.

The current administration slated Kim for the position early on, and yet all the opposition from groups related to the independence movement was of no use. He appears to associate himself with the view of history held by the “New Right,” the ideological roots of the current administration, that view being that colonization modernized Korea. When the administration began, it merged and cut funding for government committees working on unresolved issues of 20th century Korean history. President Lee Myung-bak kowtowed to Japan, saying that in the name of pragmatism he would “move on to the future and not bring up the past.” What he got from Japan in return was an official Japanese government declaration that Dokdo is Japanese territory.

In response, Lee is shooting off wild warning shots with ideas like stationing marines on the islets. There are uncertainties about the “economic support” he could get from Japan and he has surrendered the Korean spirit, so how will Japan ever have a change of heart? It has become hard to avoid another Dokdo episode. Resolving the Dokdo issue will require setting history right again and reviving the spirit of independence that comes from the independence movement. The first step would be to withdraw the appointment of Kim Ju-hyeon as head of Independence Hall.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]