`Isn’t It Shameful to Lie to Children to Justify the Invasion ?`

On August 15, Congressmen Hahm Sung-Hee, Song Young-Gil (Millennium Democratic Party), Bae Ki-Sun (Liberal Democratic Union) and Kim Won-Woong (Grand National Party) publicized the final affidavit which they are to submit to the Japanese court in the suit for a provisional disposition to prevent the publishing and dissemination of the distorted history textbooks.

These plaintiffs identified themselves stating `My granduncle was slashed to death by Japanese Police during March 1 movement` (Congressman Hahm), `I’m the descendant of General Song Hee-Ryp, who fought against Japanese Army during Imjin Japanese Invasion as Jeolla West-Wing Defense Commander` (Congressman Song), `I’m from Kwangju First High School who ignited the Kwangju student movement` (Congressman Bae) and `My father was a member of Liberation Army` (Congressman Kim) respectively.

The following is an excerpt of the final affidavit.

Congressman Hahm = In the distorted history textbook, it is written about the Korea Annexation as `There were some voices accepting the annexation in Korea`. This must be a false statement to justify the immoral invasion Japanese committed forcefully.

Congressman Song = The history textbook has been described in the view of Japanese nationalism from the beginning to end. It is agonizing to teach false history to the children of Japan and Korea.

Congressman Bae = To recover the relationship between Korea and Japan in the future, I believe it to be the first step either for Japanese government to revise the distorted history textbook or for the Japanese judicial court to ban the dissemination or the sale of the distorted textbooks.

Congressman Kim = Right after the official approval of the textbook, we saw conscientious Japanese scholars and citizen groups protesting strongly, which led us to be hopeful.

Moon Chul fullmoon@donga.com