hankyoreh

Some of the people who used to delight in resurrecting the legacy of former President Park Chung-hee are now waging an all-out war to save that of Syngman Rhee with the publication of a series of books glorifying him as the “father of the nation.” The same kind of people who would call call Rhee the “father of the nation” in the South are the same as those who would call Kim Il-sung the “great leader” in the North. The history of the Korean Peninsula is taking another step backward in time.

It is desirable for Rhee, the first president of South Korea, to be the subject of academic research. The problem is with political maneuvers and historical distortion by scholars of the new right and conservative newspapers. They are trying to revise history textbooks by emphasizing what they say have been the positive effects of Japanese colonial rule, the establishment of a separate government in the South by Rhee and Park’s idea of modernization.

The two entities denounce people who criticize Rhee and Park as having a self-deprecating view of history. That view is in line with those held by ultra-conservatives in Japan who have played a leading role in distorting their textbooks by condemning trials against war criminals and the abolishment of warlords.

In his early years as a politician, Rhee was a liberal and reform-minded forerunner. He earned this reputation by joining the Independence Club’s enlightenment movement; becoming involved in the “105-people case”; operating a private school for ethnic Koreans in Hawaii; launching the publication “Taepyeongyang” (“Pacific Ocean”); and engaging in acts of diplomacy. He also attended at a meeting of the League of Nations in Geneva to appeal for help with securing the Korean Peninsula’s independence and defeated the communist North during the Korean War with the help of the allied forces of the United Nations.

Generally, however, his mistakes are enough to damage his reputation.

> In Hawaii, Rhee prompted a divide in the Korean community when he expelled Park Yong-man, an independence activist, by organizing a Korean assembly and establishing a military school for young Koreans.

> Rhee refused to serve as a translator at the criminal trial of two independence activists in San Francisco. The two activists, Jang In-hwan and Jeon Myeong-woon, were charged with assassinating former American diplomat Durham Stevens and a Japanese lobbyist. Rhee refused to serve on the basis of his religion, Christianity.

> When he was elected as the president of the Provisional Government in Shanghai, Rhee stayed on in the United States. He later went against the principles of the Provisional Government, causing him to be impeached by the Provisional Assembly.

> After Korea was liberated from Japan, Rhee sought to establish a separate government in the South, rather then reunify with the North. He refused to cooperate with either left or right, rejected the idea of participating in a committee formed by the United States and the Soviet Union and snubbed Kim Koo’s call for renegotiation with the North.

> In the wake of the Jeju Uprising, which began on April 3, 1948, Rhee ordered his Cabinet to punish people sternly. Many people were killed when he invoked martial law to control the situation.

> Rhee was accused of setting the stage for pro-Japanese collaborators to rise again when he forcefully dismantled a committee responsible for investigating pro-Japanese, anti-South Korea activities.

> When the Korean War broke out, Rhee was criticized for escaping Seoul as a recorded message using his voice and calling for people to “defend the capital” played in his absence. Many people were killed when the South Korean troops were ordered to cut the bridges on the Han River. He is also thought to be responsible for the massacres of some one million civilians nationwide such as members of the National Defense Army and the Federation of Protecting and Guiding the Public.

> Rhee brutally removed his political rivals. Rhee is suspected of involvement in the murder of Choi Neung-jin, who was murdered during the first National Assembly election; the assassination of independence activist Kim Koo; the execution the progressive party leader Jo Bong-am; and the attempted assassination of Chang Myon, who was his vice president.

> Rhee tried to extend his presidential term by enacting controversial constitutional revisions, instituting sweeping anti-communist rules and rigging the election of May 15, 1960.

> After the 1960 election, police were ordered to shoot students and citizens protesting against the results of an election they said had been rigged. The April 19 Revolution left 186 people dead, 6,026 injured and eventually forced Rhee to resign.

In a survey by the Kyunghyang Shinmun to mark the 60th anniversary of the government’s foundation, only 3.3 percent of respondents picked Rhee as their most respected person, compared to the 28.3 percent who chose Kim Koo.

The most important reason for supporting Rhee cited by Rhee’s supporters is that he established democracy and a free market economy when he founded the nation. However, I think that he trampled all over democracy and failed to establish a market economy that was truly free. During Rhee’s reign, the South Korean economy lagged behind the North’s.

Of the 460 organizations established under the banner of the independence movement at home and abroad during the period of Japanese colonial rule, 53 percent, or 244 organizations, were in favor of having a democratic republic and 34 percent, or 156 organizations, were in favor of Socialism, according to the scholar Lee Dal-soon. In addition, eight percent, or 37 organizations, wanted to return to a form of dynastic rule and the remaining five percent, or 23 organizations, hoped for a military regime. This shows that the majority of the leaders of the independence movement wanted to build a democratic republic with a free market economy.

Therefore, the resurrection of Syngman Rhee’s legacy will not be tolerated. It should be treated as a kind of nostalgia for the kind of authoritarian rule practiced by both Rhee and Park Chung-hee.