단상斷想

The modern history of South Korea has gone through liberation and division, war and dictatorship, democratization and industrialization, and globalization, and has reached today, where the boundaries between men and women are blurred and sexual roles are changing. However, fundamentally, nothing has been resolved, and the reality of voters who barely elected someone who dreamed of the ghost of dictatorship with their own hands is a national sentiment divided by brainwashing and propaganda that has justified division. In such an ideological war, an individual's life is nothing more than a failed real estate investment in vain delusion, and a college degree that is not very useful. The public does not have enough capacity to rebuke the incompetence and collusion of politicians with the economic power to barely make a living. The level of education and culture is declining, the IQ is falling, and self-esteem and self-respect are at rock bottom. In a time when the future is not visible... If I hadn't even been able to see the lone president from a working-class background struggling for 100 days, this country would be in a state where the innocent sacrifices of patriotic ancestors could not be more than meaningless dog deaths.

There was a time when we boasted that we had achieved miraculous economic growth in the face of such a bewildering reality, but we failed to rebuild the national spirit, which had been cut off from its roots in substance. We mistakenly believed that economic growth would lead to the establishment of a flawed democratic system, but now such pretense cannot sustain the soul of the nation, and efforts to establish a correct historical understanding and national spirit must follow. This task remains an unfinished homework assignment for Korean society, nearly 80 years after liberation.

When Yoon Seok-yeol, with an IQ and emotions that even a junior prosecutor would find difficult to handle, appointed a far-right YouTuber as the head of the Independence Hall of Korea, I felt not only sorry but even resentful towards the patriotic martyrs who gave their lives for this country, whose national fortune has run out. If they had engaged in espionage, made money, and achieved success to live well, they would have at least preserved their family. They would never have imagined that the state of the country they tried to protect while starving their wives and children would turn out like this.

In the process led by conservative political forces for 80 years, pro-Japanese forces and New Right forces have continued to distort historical discourse and rationalize their vested interests. In particular, in the educational field and public institutions, the illegality of Japanese colonial rule and the responsibility for anti-national acts were diluted under the pretext of 'historical reconciliation'. Now, let's start by examining how the colonial era ended. The end of Japanese colonial rule was not the result of anti-Japanese armed struggles that lasted for generations. It was the defeat of the frantic Japanese imperialism brought about by two atomic bombs. However, we were unable to liquidate the colonial past with our own hands, and the US military government brought in Japanese officials as they were. Preventing us from rationally questioning why this strange and unnatural politics concluded on the Korean Peninsula is precisely the genre-specific discourse of historical distortion.

A pro-Japanese government that covers everything has driven the Republic of Korea to a point where its identity is shaken. We have become a nation that maintains life with more closed-minded thinking than anyone else in the world, due to neighborhood meetings to catch communists in every neighborhood and Christian brainwashing that worships the God of the Israeli people without knowing why. The elderly have become mentally ill from anti-communist brainwashing, and even the word "nation" has become obsolete. Now, all the people on the Korean Peninsula believe that what they know is the truth, tradition, and culture. All of this is a legacy of the dictatorial era, when oppression followed the statement of facts.

The days when we only needed to fill our stomachs because we were poor are over, so now is the time to resolutely break away from the bad habits of the past, establish the national identity correctly, and pass on a proud history to our descendants. 'National spirit (民族正氣)' is not a nationalistic slogan. It is the fundamental spiritual pillar of a country and the moral value system that supports the community. National spirit is based on a correct understanding of history and aims for a just and independent society. However, by concealing the causes and processes of the special historical experience of the Japanese colonial period, the issue of national spirit was made more worthless and acute. Pro-Japanese forces who cooperated with Japan were not punished after liberation and maintained their vested rights, and rather, the reversal settled in which independence activists and their descendants were socially alienated or suffered from poverty.

The highest-ranking officials in diplomacy and political affairs were the first to be executed before and after the start of the original colonial rule, and conversion was the choice of the next class. After all, the common people did not know how to write, so they did not have the knowledge to philosophically reconstruct the meaning of the country's demise, nor the will to burn it. No one would publicly say it was their family, but it is a fact and history that among them, a slave who took possession of the property of a nobleman who left for the anti-Japanese struggle is now living well and acting as a wealthy person in the Republic of Seoul, Korea. As various intellectuals recalled, all that was possible during the Japanese colonial period was national betrayal or suicide. I still don't have the confidence to choose which of the two I would have chosen, but my wish is to inform even one more person of the achievements and grievances of the virtuous predecessors before I die.

We may not be Koreans who long for the nation's spirit, having elected as president someone who appointed a third-rate far-right figure to the position of director of the Independence Hall, which was established with national donations, not government budget, to be an institution for such a cause. We may be a nation that is hurting and degenerating, having broken down traditions, forced Western religions and Western ceremonies, and thrown away our own things. The failure to liquidate pro-Japanese factions after liberation brought about a distortion of the nation's spirit, which was severely damaged, and the dictatorial regime used it as a tool to control the people. Even after democratization, the complete restoration of the nation's spirit was a distant prospect as pro-Japanese and conservative forces continued to dominate politics, the economy, and the media. We have continued for decades with an ingrained self-deprecation and an indifferent sentiment towards historical distortion.

In this context, the status of the Independence Hall is very special. The Independence Hall is not a historical education institution. It is a sanctuary of the national spirit that symbolically shows what kind of country Korea is, where it came from, and where it should go in the future. Therefore, the director who leads the Independence Hall has a great symbolic and political responsibility. He should not be an administrative manager, but a person who represents the historical identity and national spirit of Korea. A person who everyone can respect and trust should be in that position, and it goes without saying that it should be someone who can properly inherit the spirit of the independence movement that fought against the Japanese.

However, the fact that Kim Hyung-seok is the head of the Independence Hall of Korea is a serious contradiction to the majority of the people. Kim Hyung-seok is known as a philosopher and Christian intellectual, but his actions and remarks are completely different from the historical identity that the Independence Hall should pursue, and are just a facade of a career. There are many pseudo-intellectuals like Kim Hyung-sik in the world. He often agreed with the colonial modernization theory and vaguely 넘어간 under the name of 'historical reconciliation'. Ambiguity is a stance that politicians can easily package as ignorance and political duplicity. The place of historical recovery has been reduced to one of the stepping stones for success.

In the 2010s, he interacted with New Right-leaning historians and, rather than focusing on the illegality of the Japanese colonial period, diagnosed the issue as "our society failing to overcome Japan," which was criticized for obscuring the essence of colonial responsibility. Kim Hyung-seok, who used a much more insidious method of distortion, also made statements about the issue of pro-Japanese cleansing after liberation, stating that "it is not productive to dredge up old problems for the sake of national harmony," which is an attitude that ignores the lives of descendants of independence activists and condones the vested interests of pro-Japanese forces.

The position of Director of the Independence Hall of Korea is by no means a place to be filled with an individual's third-rate academic reputation or political connections. It can only be justified on the basis of national trust and historical legitimacy. Leaving Kim Hyung-seok as is, is no different from distorting the national identity once again at this time when the national spirit must be established.

What is needed now is the restoration of historical legitimacy centered on the descendants of independence activists. The descendants of independence activists are not suitable for the position only for hereditary reasons. Their lives are living proof of inheriting the spirit of the independence movement. In the process of pro-Japanese factions gaining power after liberation, independence activists and their descendants had to suffer discrimination and difficulties. The reality that those who gave everything for the country were rather socially alienated, and conversely, those who betrayed the nation enjoyed power, was a fundamental distortion of the national spirit. Now we must correct that history. If the descendants of independence activists lead the Independence Hall, they will be able to vividly convey the spirit of the independence movement to future generations, going beyond administrative operation. Of course, there are only a handful of descendants of independence activists who are properly educated and have administrative power. Educational benefits for their descendants must also follow.

They can show the people the actual history that their lives and families prove, not just convey knowledge from history books. This will have a very large educational and spiritual impact. Also, giving national responsibility to the descendants of independence activists is the realization of belated justice and a way to restore the moral legitimacy of the state. It goes beyond personnel matters and has the meaning of declaring to the people and the world what kind of country South Korea is.

The challenges facing the Lee Jae-myung government are not limited to economic growth or social welfare. On a more fundamental level, it is the historical duty of this government to straighten the roots of the nation. Without restoring the national spirit, no reform can fully receive the support of the people. Therefore, the Lee Jae-myung government must begin to work in earnest to establish national identity, starting with the appointment of the head of the Independence Hall of Korea. Removing Kim Hyung-seok is not a political act, but a symbolic measure to correct distorted historical perceptions and establish the national spirit. Putting a descendant of an independence activist in that position is a just and fair choice, and a way to gain national consensus and support.

The Republic of Korea is not just any modern nation. It is a nation that has survived thousands of years of foreign invasions and internal divisions, and especially through the harsh experience of the Japanese colonial period, it has a duty to establish a clearer national identity. Establishing the national spirit is about healing the wounds of the past and passing on a proud history to future generations. Now is the time for that decision. Removing Kim Hyung-seok from the position of Director of the Independence Hall is not just a personnel change, but a crucial choice that determines what kind of country the Republic of Korea will remain. If the Lee Jae-myung government has the historical mission of establishing the national spirit, it must carry out this decision. That is the way to be proud before the people, before history, and before the future. I recommend Lee Jong-geol, a descendant of independence activist Lee Hoi-young and former member of the National Assembly, as the Director of the Independence Hall.