Death of monarchy

By Mark Peterson

I am not a fan of the monarchy ― British, Korean, Japanese ―anywhere.

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the rise to the monarchy of King Charles III, I thought I would reflect on the Korean monarchy and the institution of monarchy in general ― including not only the Korean monarchy, but also the Japanese monarchy that has had such an impact on Korea.

As a "true" American, a descendant of men who fought for American Independence in 1776 and thereafter, I have never been one who admires the British monarchy. It's a great credit to Queen Elizabeth who with great personal dignity as a young queen, and an aged queen ― she really was a wonderful person ― that the British monarchy still exists. That cannot be said about her family. They have behaved with anything but dignity. The clownish figure of the former Prince Charles, the abusive treatment of Diana, the licentious lifestyles of many ― particularly Andrew, who stands accused of pedophilia and other deviant behavior ― and others.

Charles would be a great hero in the history of the world if he announced the end of the British monarchy. He is only marginally admired ― his record is mixed at best. However, looking past Charles to William, there seems to be a dignified heir to the throne, and so the monarchy, with all its flaws and illegitimacy, will probably continue. And little George might become a king. But it's all a waste of resources and energy for the sake of a symbol that is flawed and marred, at best.

Korea can be grateful that its monarchy has ended. It's unfortunate the way it happened: at the hands of the Japanese who, strangely, have held on to their monarchy.

There are negative aspects of a monarchy beyond the royal family ― there is the aristocracy that supports and intermarries with the royal family. Abandoning the royal family delegitimizes the aristocracy to some degree. That's not entirely the case. Korea has held onto a semblance of aristocracy even though it lost its royal family, but the situation is not as egregious as it is when there is still a monarchy. A hierarchy of aristocrats follow the monarchy ― they go together. And this is one of the things that, in my view, is less desirable about British and Japanese society: their overbearing aristocracy and aristocratic attitudes.

It might be because of the Japanese monarchical institutions that conservatism, and with it, militarism ― overt in the early 20th century, latent now ― is so strong. The Japanese "democracy" is good in some ways, and kind of a joke in other ways. I mean, the question is, "What kind of a democracy sees one party in power for 75 years?" Yes, there are conservative wings and less conservative wings, and yes there are a bunch of minor parties, insignificant parties, but the conservatives, like the monarchy, still dominate.

And this has been to the disservice of Koreans. Recently I made a video for my "Frog Outside the Well" YouTube channel where I looked at an old panoramic photograph of Seoul from the 1930s. And there, prominently poised on the landscape, climbing dominantly up the side of Mount Nam, was a long set of stairs, a stone stairway, climbing to a flat area where there was a shrine to the emperor ― the emperor of Japan! ― a Shinto religious shrine where Japanese residents and all Koreans were forced to worship the Japanese emperor as a god among men.

Not only was their massive shrine complex in the center of Seoul, I found that there were 1,140 smaller shrines scattered all around Korea. That's about one shrine for every 1,000 Koreans ― plenty of places for Koreans to worship the Japanese emperor. And this was at the expense of Christians in Korea. Korea had already seen major conversions to Christianity, but in the late 1930s Christian missionaries were expelled and Christian worship was forbidden. Alas, this may be one reason why Christianity has flourished in Korea ― a counteraction to forced worship of a false Japanese god.

With the worship of the monarchy came all kinds of other evils ― division of society between the anti-Japanese people and the collaborators, the pro-Japanese segment of society. I've been surprised of late to find there are still a significant number of pro-Japanese Koreans here and there. They show up making comments on my YouTube channel, much to my surprise.

And with worship of the Japanese emperor came the attempted destruction of Korean culture, forbiddance of the use of the language and forced taking of Japanese-style names for all Korean citizens. I see all these abuses as baggage that comes with the Japanese monarchy.

Is the Japanese monarchy still there? Yes. With the British, symbols of a bygone era of imperialism, bloodshed, cultural abuse and many other evils. Should the monarchy continue? Absolutely not. Abolishing the Japanese and the British monarchies, and other monarchies around the world ― Saudi Arabia, etc. ― would be a giant step forward for mankind. We don't need monarchies, symbolic or actual, in today's world.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.