Independence Hall

By Tiara Danarianti

The thought ``I will come back again one day" never crossed my mind on the day I left Korea one year ago. It came true as I arrived at Incheon International Airport in mid-February.

Having been awarded a chance to join Chungnam National University's Global Scholarship Program (CNU-GSP), I am really excited yet curious to live and study in Korea for four months.

After the orientation day, our university kindly arranged a trip for all the awardees. We had a two-day trip to Seoul. On the first day, we visited Changdeok Palace and watched the incredible ``Nanta." I still didn't know that I would be amazed by the place we visited on the second day. It was The Independence Hall, which was opened to the public in 1987.

My first impression when I entered the main gate was not so good since I thought it was only an ordinary monument with a garden surrounding it. My opinion suddenly changed as I entered one of the exhibition halls. It was the second exhibition hall namely The Hall of The Nationalist Movement. I saw a lot of statues, pictures, miniatures and many other things representing the struggle of Korea to regain its sovereignty from Japan.

In any other museums or exhibition halls (for example in my country), we usually see dusty statues with a boring layout. This time around, however, I thought it would be different, as I did in my first experience of visiting Hanyang University Museum as one of the awardees of the 2009 Korean Government Invitation Program for BRICs and Latin American Countries.

I'm stunned every time I visit a museum in Korea. The exhibition hall was also totally amazing, not even close to the word ``boring." I regretted that we only had under an hour to explore The Independence Hall. Besides displaying historical relics brilliantly, the exhibition hall also informed the visitors well with interactive media such as videos and convenient booths in which to see movies.

We could enjoy the museum without ignoring the story behind every display. Furthermore, there were plenty of booths selling souvenirs with the Korean flag on them and books on the history of the independence movement.

In my opinion, that is what every independence hall or monument should be. This is the only way to remember and respect all the efforts of national heroes, remembering one old idiom: ``A great nation is the one who can honor its national heroes."

I deeply appreciate the way the government here preserves Korean history through displaying the documentations in museums, especially in this historical museum. The Independence Hall is not only the symbol showing Korea's struggle to regain independence, it is also a great yet lovely learning media to explore Korean history, predominantly in the colonial era.

I had a blast on the visit and my friends in the CNU-GSP did, too, including one of my best friends named Kimura Mai. She had so much fun exploring the hall, though as a Japanese citizen she felt very sad to see what Japan did in the early 20th century as illustrated in the displays. At the end of the visit, all of the participants took a group photo in front of the main hall and we returned to Daejeon full of memories.

Although I am a bit late, I would like to wish a happy Independence Movement Day to Korea.

The writer is an Indonesian student from Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta, who is now joining a student exchange program for the spring semester in Chungnam National University. She is a senior pursuing a bachelors degree in international relations and can be reached at tiaradanarianti@yahoo.com.