hankyoreh

Students sleep on the street outside the Central Government Complex in Seoul

Hong Seung-hee, 25, was one of around 30 university students left despondent after gathering in front of the Central Government Complex in Seoul on the morning of Nov. 3, as news came that the administration had announced official plans to go ahead with state-issued history textbooks. The students had come to the site the previously night after seeing calls on social media to pressure the administration into withdrawing its plan. They ended up spending the night on the cold pavement, fighting off the cold with a few blankets and the candles in their hands.

Hong said, “There was a terrible cold rising up from the ground and my body was shaking, but I spent the whole night here. I didn’t want 11 am to come -- I kept hoping the plan would be pulled before then.”

The day of the administration’s official announcement of the introduction of a state history textbook issue system saw protests continue late into the night from student, teacher, and civic groups who called the measure “a coup d’etat in the history classroom.”

Around the same time that Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was announcing the government’s plan that morning, retired elementary, middle, and high school teachers gathered in front of the Central Government Complex to read their own emergency statement calling for an immediate end to the plan, describing the return of state-issued textbooks as an “anachronistic delusion.” The statement bore the names of 656 retired teachers.

“During the Yushin era of the 1970s when I was a teacher, I taught students with textbooks that described North Koreans as horned beasts,” read one of them, Yoon Han-tak, gripping a microphone with trembling hands.

“No matter what, we cannot go back to that era,” Yoon declared.

Afterwards, around forty members of the Network to Prevent State Korean History Textbook Issuance stood in the same spot to denounce the measure.

“Democracy and history education died today,” the members cried, surrounded by around 300 police officers.

After sunset, citizens flocked to nearby Seoul Financial Center. Around 300 gathered in the afternoon holding candles and signs reading, “Stop the History Coup!”

“Even if they go ahead with the state history textbook issuance, the citizens need to keep applying pressure so they produce textbooks with a proper historical perspective,” said a 26-year-old surnamed Hong.

Around ten high school students with the group Youth Action Against State Textbook Issuance staged a singular performance the same day in front of the state of Admiral Yi Sun-sin on Gwanghwamun Square. After spelling out the words “democracy,” “history,” and “education” on pieces of paper, they placed them in black funeral portrait frames to symbolize the deaths of democracy and history and history education as a result of the administration’s announcement.

A man in his mid-fifties sent a message of approval as he watched the display, declaring that “young people are the ones who change history.”

Meanwhile, teacher and civic groups continued to issue statements of opposition.

The Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union blasted the administration on Nov. 3 for the tactics adopted with its announcement and “history coup.”

“The administration delivered the announcement two days ahead of schedule as if it were carrying out a military operation,” the group said. “They took it for granted that the state issuance system was going to go ahead.”

Lee Chang-yeon, superintendent of the Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education, also joined five Incheon-area Office of Education superintendents in a statement calling on the administration to cancel its announcement. Groups like People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and the Civil Society Organizations Network in Korea decried the “violence against democracy” of going ahead with the announcement without first gathering opinions from the public.

Civic and social groups also showed signs of harnessing their anger into more systematic campaigns to identify possible avenues of response going ahead. The group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society made plans to set up a task force in response to the state issuance plan and take legal action by filing a Constitutional appeal, which would need to be submitted within 90 days of the administration‘s announcement.

By Kim Mi-hyang, Bang Jun-ho and Kwon Seung-rok, staff reporters

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