History sinks into politics

Lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Party debate the content of the disputed high school history book by Kyohak publishing, accused of excessively conservative viewpoints and factual errors, at the National Assembly on Monday. / Yonhap

Conservative scholars close to Park to vet history books used in schools

Lew Young-ick, NIKH president

Lee Bae-yong, AKS president

Lee Myeong-hee,
conservative historian

By Kim Tong-hyung

It was British historian Edward Hallet Carr who defined history as an "unending dialogue between the past and present." In Korea, the present is about to do all the talking.

President Park Geun-hye's attempts at controlling the narratives of history continued its fast segue from passive-aggressive to simply aggressive on Monday when her political party and education ministry outlined a scheme to overhaul the process of writing history books used in schools.

They talked about strengthening the government's reviews of textbooks currently made by private publishers and reducing the autonomy of the companies in the editing process. They claimed that principals at schools should be given the predominant authority to pick the textbooks used in classrooms and be less influenced by teachers and parents.

The Saenuri Party will also launch the tentatively-named "Committee for Making the Right History Books," with the aim of providing the framework for a private-public organization that will one day set the guidelines for writing and editing the scholastic materials.

The committee is expected to be comprised of right-wings scholars, including those who have been picked by Park to lead government organizations, such as the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH)'s Lew Young-ick and the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS)' Lee Bae-yong.

The purpose of the changes is straightforward: By June, the Park administration plans to have a system that allows government officials to dictate the content of history books used in middle schools and high schools.

State-authored textbooks had been used for three decades until the early 2000s, first introduced in 1974 under the late dictatorial President Park Chung-hee, the father of the current president. The country has since converted to a state-approval system — with history books published by private companies and evaluated by the NIKH — to encourage more diversity in narratives.

The efforts to bring back state-authored textbooks have infuriated liberal lawmakers and mainstream historians, who fear the idea of the government imposing one, authoritative interpretation of historical events.

However, Park's policymakers and conservative lawmakers are adamant about pushing the efforts forward, blurring the boundaries between history and politics.

"In the process of renewing the education courses at schools, we will consider ways to fundamentally improve the current textbook system and the considerations will include (bringing back) state-authored textbooks," said Education Minister Seo Nam-soo.

"(Critics have said) that the return to state-authored textbooks are a regressive return to the past, but I don't think it's right to approach the matter in that way, considering the special meaning (education of) Korean history has."

Seo had earlier revealed plans to establish a new unit within the ministry dedicated to editing school books. Historians are concerned that this would effectively mean school books will be written by public servants again.

Park's political urgency for controlling history was apparently stoked by the unequivocal rejection of a disputed high-school history book by Kyohak Publishing, written by conservative scholars close to the government.

The book has been criticized by mainstream historians for allegedly biased views — highlighted by its unmistakably defensive arguments about the military governments of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s — and a slew of factual errors, which even included some poor cut-and-paste jobs from Wikipedia.

So far, none of Korea's 2,300 high schools have picked the book for use, with the small number of schools that previously did backing out after protests from civic groups and parents of students.

History in a linear path

To get a clearer idea of what the current government wants students to learn in history classes, one could visit the year-old National Museum of Korean Contemporary History next to the U.S. embassy in Seoul.

The institution, practically a temple dedicated to feting the country's industrialization, was designed by the same, core group of scholars who have rallied around the Kyohak book.

Here, the descriptions of Korea's rapid, export-led economic growth are overdone, and the painful democratization process and working-class struggles subdued.

This is history compressed in a linear path. The republic is founded; policies are executed; economic prosperity follows; democracy finds room to be allowed.

The historians linked to Saenuri's committee have been vocal preachers of this imaginary, straight line to happiness.

Lew, the 78-year-old Handong University scholar picked by Park to hold the NIKH in September last year, has been considered the spiritual leader of the "New Right" movement, a loose association of academics close to the conservative government of Lee Myung-bak and now Park's.

Lew has been a staunch defender of Syngman Rhee, South Korea's autocratic first president who was thrown out by a popular uprising in 1960 and spent the rest of his days in Hawaii.

In Lew's opinion, Rhee should be respected as the nation's "founding father" because his accomplishments as an independence fighter and diplomat were supposedly great enough to marginalize the memories of political and civilian oppression. This is disputed by mainstream historians, who believe it's rather important to remember that Rhee was a dictator with more blood on his hands than Macbeth.

Lee, named as president of AKS last year, has been a vocal supporter of the Kyohak book and a staunch defender of dictators such as Lee and the elder Park.

She has frequently created controversy by attempting defensive arguments about pro-Japanese collaborators during the colonial era, such as Ewha Womans University founder Hellen Kim. After the war, a large number of these people were able to redefine themselves as anti-Communist elites and occupied prominent posts under the succession of authoritarian governments.

Also participating in the Saenuri committee will be Kongju National University historian Lee Myeong-hee, the chief author of the Kyohak book.

With the "history war" between the left and right escalating, it's worth questioning whether teenagers learning from politicized history books will have a fair shot at becoming thoughtful readers of historical narratives.

History is more than just a simple process of remembering. The essence of it is finding an organic relation between the present and the past — debating and understanding why things happened the way they did, how they related with other events, and how they influenced and shaped the conditions we now live in. The past is indestructible because it's not re-livable, and thus, subject to endless possibilities in interpretation.

It's not about narrowing the answers. It's about increasing the questions. Marching students through a succession of facts toward a predetermined outcome would be entirely missing the point. And that's what Korea seems to be in danger of doing.

"Historical debates are critical and should be welcomed. The problem is when the conflict veers out of academic realm and becomes dictated by politics, when they become a ‘history war,"' said Kim Ki-bong, a historian of Kyonggi University.

"There will be negative consequences when we allow history to be used as a weapon in a fight over political power."

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