By Lee Doo-hyung

The Northeast Asian History Foundation initiated an exchange program for history teachers between South Korea and other Northeast Asian countries last year to help students face up to history-related problems and develop a correct historic point of view.

Seoul's Yangchung High School and the Tokyo-based Kanto International Senior High School became the first participants in the exchange program.

It is aimed at stimulating teachers to endow children with a historical awareness so that they can understand each other to promote peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia. It is also designed to enable children to better understand universal values and cultures of the international community.

In the initial stage, program organizers met unexpected difficulties because it is the foundation's first international exchange with teachers giving classes abroad. However, teachers from South Korea and Japan have made efforts to help students better understand the history and culture of their respective nations.

Kurobane Nishimori, a teacher from Kanto, visited Yangchung last September and gave a class on cultural exchange that had been made through the Joseon Kingdom's dispatch of diplomatic delegations to Japan. He also lectured on the influence of Korean culture on the Japanese language.

At the end of the lecture, there was a question-and-answer session between Nishimori and the Korean students. The pupils had the opportunity to grasp the Japanese teacher's views about cultural exchanges between the two countries. His lecture helped the students take pride in the excellence of Korean culture.

After the class, Nishimori and other Japanese teachers went to the National Museum of Korea. They marveled at the imposing structure of the museum. They also visited the Unification Observatory near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where they came to see that South Korea and North Korea face each other at close quarters.

Meanwhile, two teachers from Yangchung visited Kanto last November and gave a lecture on the mutually beneficial cultural exchanges between the two countries that were stated in Korean history textbooks. (The two teachers were Ha Gyung-hwan and the writer of this article.) They also touched on the Korea-Japan relations found in old maps and geography books.

And many of the Japanese students said they were very impressed by the lecture. The students also said they have never heard of the bilateral cultural exchanges prior to the 1592-98 Japanese invasion to Korea, ``comfort women'' for Japanese troops during the colonial period, and the Korean islets of Dokdo.

Not only the Japanese students but also their teachers showed a keen interest in the Korean teachers' lecture that was based on the objective point of view backed by various audio and video materials.

During the question-and-answer session, the visiting Korean teachers presented well-prepared material to give clear explanations. They took the occasion to let the students learn some, although not too much, of the problem of Japan's differing view of history.

It was surprising to realize that students as well as teachers of Korea and Japan can change themselves through the exchange program to overcome their nationalistic view of history and narrow the differences in historic perception between the two countries.

It was also good to believe that they can go beyond the painful history, rectify the narrow-minded historic attitude and share a common understanding of history with each other.

It was meaningful that the program has encouraged the young students of both countries to recognize the importance of the identity of their own culture.

The participating teachers also made efforts to let the students feel the necessity of free and natural cultural exchanges among the youth of the two countries, rather than artificially managed ones.

The teachers produced more successful results from the program than from any other overseas exchanges or training programs, because they engaged in interaction with the students of each other's nation over controversial historical issues closely related to the present times.

The teachers are expected to perform better in history classes by taking advantage of their experience from the exchange program.

Aside from the history teachers exchange program, further efforts are needed to propose and organize a camp and other events to enable the youth of both countries to get together and discuss issues of historic importance.

These efforts could contribute to further consolidating the peaceful Korea-Japan ties in the 21st century as youngsters of the two countries will grow up as the leaders of their respective nations. We hope that the two countries will continue to work together to make more progress in their bilateral relations.

Lee Doo-hyung is a history teacher at Yangchung High School in Seoul.