단상斷想

When considering whether the pro-Japanese narrative in the genre of national betrayal, created by PUM for universal coexistence, truly holds value, the almost impossible reasons can be found in the fact that after liberation, Korea's talent development educational institutions did not design the nation's future but rather served as a stage for pro-Japanese collaborators to whitewash their identities.

It is a grave sin that they completely concealed the historical background of the late Japanese colonial period, when they encouraged student soldiers and conscription while praising the war of aggression as a holy war. However, it is also a serious continuation of national betrayal that they took advantage of the chaos of liberation to change their signboard to 'national educators,' using school foundations and positions as chairmen and presidents as a stepping stone to erase their past. For example, the South Korean education system, which has devolved into a success highway for dubious lower-class lives, like the uncertain family lines of former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum of the Moon Jae-in administration, former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, or Na Kyung-won, who has consistently reigned as the epitome of pro-Japanese politicians, is a perfect example of the complete failure of a hundred-year plan.

In a survey comparing the 1,006 individuals confirmed by the Presidential Committee for the Investigation of Pro-Japanese Collaborators and the 4,389 individuals listed in the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities' 『Pro-Japanese Dictionary』, 87 individuals with pro-Japanese backgrounds established middle and high schools and universities or served as directors, chairmen, or (vice) presidents of universities. This includes 29 in education/academia, 21 in religion, 16 bureaucrats such as Governor-General and military suppliers, 6 Japanese prosecutors/judges, 5 high-ranking officials such as Privy Councilors, and 4 in the economic sector. These numbers are not statistics but a structure. They show the path through which acts of betrayal, labeled as national treason, obtained absolution in the name of education, and how that absolution, in turn, became the textbooks for the next generation.

The roots were already planted during the US military government. Among the 11 Korean education committee members of the US Military Government's Bureau of Education in September 1945, five—Kim Seong-soo, Kim Hwal-ran, Baek Nak-jun, Hyun Sang-yoon, and Yu Eok-gyeom—were figures who had led the praise of the Greater East Asia War, encouraged student soldiers, and promoted imperial subjectification during the late Japanese colonial period. The Greater East Asia War is another name for World War II, so seeking this era within the Korean Peninsula is, first and foremost, foolish. The yoke of being collaborators in anti-national acts, which kept these fools from escaping the cycle of distortion, was used to further oppress them after liberation and served as a weapon to glorify that era.

Kim Hwal-ran praised the Emperor and encouraged cooperation in the war as a 지도위원 (guidance committee member) of the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan (Joseon Wartime Patriotic Service Corps) Women's Division, while Kim Seong-su incited student conscription and served as an executive of pro-Japanese organizations. Baek Nak-jun, a founder of the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan and vice-chairman of the Joseon Presbyterian Church Believers' Patriotic Fund Donation Committee, called the Pacific War a 'holy war for the liberation of Asians.' Immediately after liberation, they entered the core of educational power, and began to operate schools in the name of 'the nation,' excluding the deaths of the students they had sent from the curriculum. Absolution became a system before reckoning became a system.

The takeover of each school was not a coincidence. At Dongguk University, eight individuals served as president, director, or chairman of the board: Kwon Sang-ro, a founder of the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan; Japanese judges Go Jae-ho and Kim Gap-su; Lee Jong-wook, a managing director of the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan; and Jogye Order monks Kim Young-su, Im Seok-jin, and Heo Young-ho, who participated in Buddhist ceremonies praying for the Japanese military's good fortune and gave lectures on current affairs. At Ewha Womans University, six individuals were positioned: Kim Hwal-ran, Lee Suk-jong, Seo Eun-suk, Kim Soon-heung (who donated 10,000 won for national defense and was a founder of the military aircraft donation initiative), and Byeon Hong-gyu (a founder of the Anti-British and Anti-American Discussion Group). At Sookmyung Women's University, six individuals were present: Go Jae-ho, Kim Du-heon, Yoon Tae-rim, Lee Suk-jong, Lee In-gi, and Im Suk-jae. At Sangmyung University, four individuals were seated: Bae Sang-myung, Shin Bong-jo, Jo Dong-sik, and Kwak Jong-won. At Korea University, Kim Seong-su, Yu Jin-o, and Hyeon Sang-yun were present; at Yonsei University, Baek Nak-jun, Lee Myo-mok, and Jeon Pil-sun; and at Kookmin University, Kim Se-wan, Park Yi-soon, and Choi Mun-gyeong. Jo Dong-sik established Dongduk Women's University after serving as chairman of the board for Sangmyung Academy and Sungkyunkwan University, and Lee Suk-jong founded Sungshin Women's University and was also involved with the Sookmyung and Ewha foundations. The fact that they moved between various corporations rather than staying at one school was not about individual careers, but about the power that wove the educational world together like a net.

The transition of Kookmin University shows how that network swallowed up even the banner of independence. The school, founded in 1946 with Shin Ik-hee as its first president and chairman, embodying the aspirations of provisional government figures such as Kim Gu, Kim Kyu-sik, and Cho So-ang, quickly changed hands under the Rhee Syng-man regime. The second president, Park Yi-soon, a former military supply officer, left writings related to the Japanization of Korea in 1938, and the fourth president, Choi Mun-kyung, came from a family of Privy Councilors, served as an official in the Government-General of Korea and Manchukuo, and later became Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Park Chung-hee regime. Kim Se-wan, a former Japanese colonial judge who sentenced independence activists to heavy penalties, served concurrently as president and chairman. While descendants of independence activists were blocked from education due to poverty and discrimination, those who issued judgments and contributed to collaboration held the keys to the school's foundation.

Only the object of loyalty changed; those who swore allegiance to the Emperor shifted their loyalty to Rhee Syng-man, Park Chung-hee, and Chun Doo-hwan after liberation. Baek Nak-jun, Lee Byung-do, Park Il-kyung, and Ko Kwang-man, who served as ministers of education, and Vice Ministers Lee Hang-nyeong and Yoon Tae-rim, who were steeped in servility and swayed by visible advancement, were at the top of that path. Under the Park Chung-hee regime, 15 people participated in the enactment of the National Education Charter or received medals for realizing the ideals of May 16th, and under the Chun Doo-hwan regime, they continued to hold power as members of the National Advisory Council. Hwimun High School, founded by Min Young-hwi, and Kwangshin High School and Heunghan Academy, founded by Park Heung-sik, an executive of the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan and operator of an aircraft company, were passed down to their descendants along with their assets. There is no way to know if these descendants are biological. Genealogies were rewritten, and patronage was an easy and quick solution, like buying an item, so loyalty to the power that was swapped out at the time, rather than loyalty to the nation, became the qualification for educational administration.

Hereditary succession is confirmed in 13 schools. Korea University's board of trustees, Korea Central Foundation, saw a four-generation succession from Kim Sung-soo to his son Kim Sang-man, grandson Kim Byung-kwan, and great-grandson Kim Jae-ho. Kyungsung University had four generations of chairmen, from pro-Japanese pastor Kim Gil-chang to his great-grandson Kim Dong-ki. Generational control also continued at Dong-A University, Chugye University, Dongduk Women's University, Duksung Women's University, Sangmyung University, Keimyung University, Sungshin Women's University, as well as Seongnam High School, Younghoon Middle and High School, Whimoon High School, and Gwangsin High School. Statues of the founders stand on campus, but their encouragement of student soldiers, collaboration in war, and suppression of independence activists are not inscribed. Kyungsung University's 50-year history glorified Kim Gil-chang as 'a figure who contemplated independence while experiencing the hardships of Japanese colonial rule,' even after he was designated a pro-Japanese collaborator. Dongduk Women's University's 100-year history and Sungshin Women's University's 50-year history also concealed the founders' betrayals or packaged them as national educators. When the list was announced in 2009, the presidents of Ewha Womans University, Sungshin Women's University, and Korea University petitioned, saying they 'deny the contributions.' Self-reflection was seen as falling behind the vested interests, and the compilation of school histories was a mechanism to prevent that decline.

Those dirty deeds combined to complete today's educational collapse. The void left by the disappearance of character education being filled by individualism and college entrance exams is not merely a side effect of industrialization. Because those in charge of education first had to erase their own betrayals, the morality schools could teach was hollow from the start. In schools that enshrined the names of those who sold out the nation while speaking of the nation as founders, honesty, responsibility, and public spirit could only remain as slogans. What was demanded of students was not to question the right and wrong of history, but to set aside those questions and submit to scores. Entrance exam-oriented education is the system that perfected that submission. Lining up students asks not who is more honest, but who arrives at the given answer faster.

In a society where the liquidation of pro-Japanese collaborators failed, the right answer was always on the side of power, and schools became places that forced students to memorize that answer. As the practice of killing people and acquiring wealth through illicit means spread from politics to academia, the three branches of government became the best professions for exploiting others. Since these people became parents, justice and ethics naturally disappeared. At that peak, Yoon Suk-yeol, the worst idiot in modern history, and Jo Hee-dae, human trash, adorned a page of history. Education is useless in a world where the law at the very top protects pro-Japanese anti-nationalists. Public education has come to teach children only formality and ostentation, so it's no wonder that delicious school lunches are accompanied by such a poor-quality curriculum.

Individualism also grew from the same root. Education that fails to share the community's memory treats individuals not as members of the community but only as units of competition. If textbooks cannot explain a structure where the descendants of collaborators remain as chairmen while the descendants of independence activists are discriminated against, students learn connections, not justice. This is why character education is hollow. Character is not instilled through slogans. It is only formed when schools honestly record the mistakes of their founders, when teachers do not avoid those records, and when students turn the silence in front of statues into questions. In schools where such questions were forbidden, character education was another name for etiquette and obedience, and obedience was again translated into the language of college entrance exams.

Therefore, it is impossible to cultivate national talent without liquidating pro-Japanese collaborators. Impossible means that schools are unnecessary. The act of hiding a human heart, dirtied by gaudy and cheap sentiment-filled paint, with outdated administration that cannot even escape the Japanese-style school building, functions like a cheap gown worn by a cheap prostitute. We have lived as slaves, descendants of anti-nationalists, and produced administrators, technicians, and professionals as functionaries.

However, talented individuals who directly confronted the betrayal of their own community, recognized the privileges built upon that betrayal as a problem, and prioritized public responsibility over personal advancement, were systematically excluded from that system. 87 people guarded the school's gates, 13 corporations inherited those gates, and the school's history disguised those gates as the nation's gates. To demand historical self-reflection from individuals nurtured under such a disguise is like demanding the morality of a building without questioning its foundation.

The statues remaining on campus today, the whitewashed school history, and the admissions process that asks for little beyond scores are not separate issues. One is the form of an unaddressed past, and the other is how that past survives in the current educational grammar. To cultivate talent, we must first record who obtained the authority to do so and at what cost. Education without such a record merely pretends to cultivate talent while repeatedly legitimizing vested interests. The most enduring wound left by unaddressed pro-Japanese collaboration is not the memory of anger, but schools that have lost their ability to question, and all of them must be eliminated.