[Opinion] Absent-Minded Pro-Japanese Websites

Lee Seung-yeon’s nude project has created an enormous stir because many aspects of our pop culture are deeply connected with it. And it is hard to predict whether such an absent-minded project would not occur again. People are doing anything possible to arouse the interest of people in this era of mass culture. In particular, quite a number of pop stars have been trying to grab public attention by taking off their clothes over the past several years.

We could have learned through Lee’s nude project that a great deal of confusion exists in our culture over history. If the publisher of the nude project understood anything about what comfort women of the Japanese military mean to us, they would not have triggered such a stir. So, some point out that people’s lack of historical knowledge and failure of our history education system are the main cause of the problem. However, what undermines our sound understanding of history is misinterpretation. According to the Chinese philosopher Chu Hsi, a great deal of precaution must be taken when teaching history to young people. He insisted that young people must read the four Confucian classics--the Analects of Confucius, the Works of Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning--before reading any history books. “If one reads history books first before learning fundamental values and understanding, he or she will go astray because he or she will not know how to interpret conflicting or contentious historical events,” Chu said.

There are many domestic websites that advocate Japan’s invasion and colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 of the Korean peninsula with groundless evidence and irrational arguments. Some of the websites even argue that patriot Ahn Jung-geun murdered Ito Hirobumi, the first resident general of colonized Korea, wreaking his personal wrath on Ito. And some websites even absurdly claim that Japanese soldiers and police quelled demonstrators of the March 1st Independence Movement peacefully. Ignoring those websites would be one good way to deal with the pertinent problem, but there are too many shocking things happening around us in regard to misinterpretation of history to just ignore.

Students are receiving education which is often influenced by ideological prejudices. History is also often falsified or strained for political reasons. There are often many dramatically opposing views on one identical historical event, all of which are packaged with convincing arguments. So it is natural for people to get confused these days.

Teaching more hours of history lessons is not always the best way to correct our understanding of history. It is perhaps more important to teach people the ways to look at history correctly. Chu said if one nation’s history goes astray, the nation and its people will also go astray.

Hong Chan-sik Editorial Writer, chansik@donga.com