hankyoreh

By Kim Min-kyoung　
　　
A proposal provided to the government has revealed that the Association for Contemporary Korean History (ACKH) also demanded the inclusion of a “colonial modernization” narrative in the history curriculum. The ACKH was a major influence behind the changing all instances of the term “democracy” to “liberal democracy” in the 2009 revised history education curriculum. The term “liberal democracy” in Korean is considered controversial for its strongly implied support of free market capitalism and anti-communist and anti-socialist connotations. Some say the term is exclusionary, since the national movement against Japanese rule had some connection to socialist movements.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) provided ACKH’s proposal for suggested amendments to the history education curriculum to main opposition Democratic Party (DP) Lawmaker Kim Yoo-jung on Monday. In the proposal, ACKH asked that information on “the transplanting of modern institutions by the occupying Japanese forces” be included in the modern history portion of the curriculum.
The amended middle school education curriculum plan for the “History” textbook states that students are to “understand the policies of rule during the Japanese occupation and currents in the national movement that took place on a widespread and continuous basis against them.”
The opinion suggested that the phrase “the transplantation process and Korean people’s acceptance of modern institutions” be inserted here and the word “continuous” removed.
The proposal was submitted in early July to MEST and the National Institute of Korean History.
The ACKH also made suggestions regarding the guidelines for “understanding changes in the methods of Japanese colonial rule and the content of policies of economic exploitation” for the high school “Korean History” textbook. The association suggested that information be included on the transplantation of modern institutions through colonial rule and the influence this had on history following Liberation. The request was that a modern history education curriculum centered on the Japanese occupation and national movement in opposition to it be altered to emphasize the modernizations introduced by the Japanese occupiers and their effects.
Additionally, the ACKH suggested that a guideline for the middle school “History” text stating that students should “understand how the government of the Republic of Korea carried on the March 1 Independence Movement spirit and the legitimacy of the provisional government of the Republic of Korea” should be changed to “understand how the nation was founded with the help of the United Nations and the system of liberal democracy was guarded against Communist forces.”
In its review opinion, the National Institute of Korean History said the suggestion could not be accepted, and said, “The legitimacy of the provisional government is explicitly stated in the Constitution,” but said it would examine the suggestions about “the help of the United Nations,” and “the system of liberal democracy was guarded against Communist forces” when drafting its textbook writing standards.
The suggestion about “the transplantation of modern institutions” was not accepted because of “differing content elements.”
Lee Sin-cheol, a senior researcher at the Sungkyunkwan University Center for East Asian History, said, “The ACKH’s demand was based on a colonial modernization narrative that plays up only the positive ’acceptance of capitalism’ aspect of South Korea’s opening and the Japanese occupation.”
“It has been shown that the ‘liberal democracy’ of which they speak is an attempt to minimize the accomplishments of the democratization movement and emphasize anti-Communism,” Lee added.
The ACKH is a New Right group launched on May 20 of this year. As soon as it was established, it began applying pressure on the MEST and NIKH. The head of the association’s textbook committee, Kongju National University professor Lee Myung-hee has been taking part in a “joint research group of the development of history textbook writing standards” since Aug. 23.
The association is a carbon copy of the “Textbook Forum” that induced textbook revisions with a 2008 furor about left-wing bias in history textbooks. The list of major participants published with its establishment shows leading New Right historian and Seoul National University professor Lee Young-hoon, along with Ahn Byung-jik, Park Hyo-jong, and Lee In-ho of SNU, Kang Kyu-hyung of Myongji University, Han Heung-su of Yonsei University, Cha Sang-chul of Chungnam National University, as well as major Textbook forum members such as former Minister of Education Yoon Hyung-sup.
In 2006, the forum met with fierce criticisms from the history community when it drafted an alternative Korean modern and contemporary history textbook according to a narrative of colonial modernization, changing the term “May 16 military coup” to “May revolution” or “military revolution” and declining to acknowledge the legitimacy of the provisional government.
Chu Chin-oh, a modern Korean history professor at Sangmyung University, said, “Academic associations are research groups, but the Association for Contemporary Korean History has never once held an academic conference or issued an academic journal since its establishment.”
“The argument of the Association for Contemporary Korean History, with its stated goal of ‘history education that promotes pride,’ is no different at all from the argument behind Japan’s far-right ‘Japanese Textbook Reform Society,’ which also wrote an alternative textbook emphasizing the ‘promotion of pride,’” Chu said.
　　
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