An Ode to South Korea

By David Tizzard

David Tizzard

Yesterday was Liberation Day in South Korea, known locally as “Gwangbokjeol”. It is the one national holiday shared by South Korea and North Korea alike.

On August 15th 1945 the light was returned to the Korea Peninsula with the Allied victory over Imperial Japanese bringing an end to a decades-long brutal and unrepentant colonization and the Greater East Asia War. This was, of course, helped by a couple of nuclear bombs being dropped on civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as fire raids on Tokyo which all resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands non-combatants.

Emperor Hirohito took to the airwaves to announce that Japan would abide by the Potsdam Declaration at which Truman, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek had called for Japan's unconditional surrender or face, as the US President called it, “a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”

US Air Force general Curtis LeMay, the man responsible for ordering much of this, is said to have remarked that were he on this losing side he would have undoubtedly been charged with war crimes. The light on the Korean Peninsula emerged as the result of some of humanity's greatest darkness.

Exactly three years later, on August 15th 1948, the Republic of Korea was officially founded as a democratic nation with President Syngman Rhee as president.

Its first steps as a modern democracy were unsteady. Constitutional changes, assassinations, military coups, martial law, and a complete disregard of human rights mark the early decades of the nascent nation's history. It does not make for pretty reading.

The Korean struggle was once more a struggle against its own people. It has often been that way: A struggle for recognition, for freedom, and for an end to the rule by power and whim.

But this was ultimately a struggle that was won. In the South, at least.

In late 1997, Kim Dae-jung was elected as President of the Republic of Korea, marking the country's first ever peaceful transition of power to the opposition. This is the sign of a truly advanced and democratic nation.

With that, South Korea demonstrated it could be a democracy in nature as well as name. And, despite a few missteps along the way, it has continued that upward rise.

While the country will never live up to the ideal utopias many people carry in their minds, the reality of South Korea stands in stark contrast to its regional neighbours of North Korea, China, Russia, and ― to a lesser extent ― Japan.

In the World Press Freedom Index announced this year, South Korea was the highest placed Asian country finishing 42nd out of 180 countries. China was 177th; North Korea was 180th.

This is an incredibly positive sign for South Korea. It demonstrates once more that it can be a beacon, a shining light, in this region otherwise characterized by authoritarian leadership and totalitarian politics. There is, after all, a reason that the New York Times moved its offices to Seoul and not Pyongyang or Beijing.

Freedom House is an annual survey that reports on the degree of civil liberties and political rights in countries around the world. South Korea is marked as having a “high human rights record” and scored 83 out of 100 points. The rest of Northeast Asia barely registered. The United States scored 86 points in comparison.

South Korea is also beginning to provide its citizens the freedom to follow their own inner voice, even if it means disagreeing with the nation's rules vis-a-vis the military.

This year, South Korea's top court approved 111 Jehovah's Witnesses refusal to perform military service. The judges affirmed that “punishing conscientious objectors for refusing the conscription on grounds of religious faith is an excessive constraint on an individual's freedom of conscience.” That was a remarkable and important decision.

In a similar move, the country's constitutional court also ordered that the current 1953 ban on abortions be revised by the end of this year. This was supported by a local poll that showed 58% of the public to be in favour of abolishing the ban and decriminalizing abortion.

In 2019, the United Nations Development Program conducted a global survey on gender equality. South Korea obviously has a long way to go in this regard, but it still ranked first in Asia ahead of Singapore, Japan, and China respectively.

For many, the progress in this area is too slow. But progress is still taking place and the country is going forward, not backward.

A cursory glance around the world will quickly remind you that countries do not naturally go forward by default; it takes a great deal of effort to keep the ship on course. Moreover, get the wrong leaders in charge and what was once progressive can quickly slip towards far more regressive tendencies and policies.

LGBT parades fill the streets of the nation's cities in growing numbers each year. Even the most conservative of Christian-led university campuses are now also home to groups and clubs in which people of a non-traditional sexual persuasion can express themselves and find like-minded people. This was all very much unthinkable a couple of decades ago.

Looking ahead, an OECD survey this month placed Korea at the top of its economic forecasts for the year 2021. That's not just in Asia; that's South Korea on top of a global list.

Beyond money and democracy, its culture and soft power continues to grow. Filmmakers such as Bong Joon-ho have risen to the top of the international game and done so without ever really moving away from what it means to be Korean. Son Heung-min has proven himself in the world's toughest football league. And K-pop is everything to a growing number of people around the globe.

I have called this country my home for 15 years now. I am proud to have married a South Korean, learned the language (kind of), and completed a Masters and a PhD studying the politics, culture, and history of the country.

South Korea is far from perfect and I'm sure there are many improvements that readers will quickly suggest. But think about what it was not too long ago and what it could be were it to follow the examples of its closest neighbours.

Korea is a fabulous story that plays home to the lives and dreams of a wonderful group of people. The story is as yet unfinished but if the previous chapters are anything to go by, it's going to continue getting better.

It's never been my position or desire to suggest how this particular story should unfold, and I shan't do so here, but I will continue to look on with genuine affection and devotion.

Here's to the next 75 years of South Korea's growing light. May it continue to shine.

David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University where he teaches Korean Studies. He discusses the week's hottest issues on TBS eFM (101.3FM) on "Life Abroad" live every Thursday from 9:35 a.m. to 10 a.m.