Opinion - The Korea Times

Cyber memorial for Sewol

By Kim Ji-myung “Sae-hyeon, this is Dad.  I will never forget you. I am so sorry that I was not there to save you.” ― A note on a desk at Danwon High School, Ansan, South Korea.This is a message from a suffering father sent to his dead son, one of more than 300 victims of the Sewol ferry tragedy in 2014.  The high school lost 250 students and 11 teachers in the worst peacetime disaster in Korean history.In April last year, a group of college professors opened online project “teachsewol.org”. A more direct translation of the Korean title would be “Sewol classroom”. It aims to serve as an arena for chats and discussions among teachers and students on the accident.Professors from the Catholic University of Korea, Kaywan University of Art and Design, Seoul National University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Postec, Hanyang University and KAIST joined the editorial committee.“We created this website to discover the facts about the accident and to locate the people responsible through political, social and legal processes.&

Feb 12, 2016By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

On history and environment

By Kim Ji-myung There are numerous incidents in history which could only be properly explained after seemingly remote factors ― that of humans along with environment and ecology ― and their interactions were found and connected.One broad example is the fact that the success or failure of sea-faring countries in the Imperialist period between the 15th century to around 1910 largely depended on their skills to cope with the climate, sea and the unfamiliar, tropical regions.For another example, we can look to Japan and their approach to the occupation of Manchuria. At the time, a medical scientist and official named Shimpei Goto (1857-1929) held multiple key roles in Japan’s occupation, becoming the political minister at the Government General in Taipei, and then the president of the Southern Manchuria Railway Company in 1906.But why would the Japanese assign a medical scientist to important governing positions in colonial territories? Well, Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 was due in part to the nation’s superior knowledge of and programs fo

Jan 15, 2016By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

A special book donation

By Kim Ji-myungDo you know what keeps a college professor awake at night as retirement nears? A new lecture position? A plan to write a book? What to do during long, leisurely hours every day? No. The answer is “books.”Without exception, professors have lived surrounded by shelves packed with books at home and in the office for his or her entire career. Most were bought out of necessity, while many were given by other professors. Professor friends sometimes surprise me by showing “symptoms of book hatred.” If I buy a book from a museum gift shop, for example, and present it to a friend, he or she will think that I did something unnecessary, wasting money on something of insignificant value. Books, for them, are tools for living.There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who love books and those who do not. I welcome anything printed on paper. As far as I remember, I have never turned down an offer of a book. Maybe this is because I am not yet fed up with books.Managing and disposing of books is a daunting challenge to most academics. They have sp

Dec 18, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Funding is key factor

By Kim Ji-myung The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Defense Department appears first when we search out the history of the Internet. It was in 1963 that the agency began research to build a reliable communication network that would function normally even in an emergency situation.The next milestone came in 1981 when the word hypertext was invented. Ted Nelson used the term in his presentation “Literary Machine’’ to explain the system Xanadu, which linked information nodes within a document for the first time.Then in 1989 the now-famous Tim Berners-Lee proposed a historic hypertext project for a global information service. The project could not proceed without the help of network expert Robert Cailliau. Numerous nodes of information came to be hyper-linked, and now people can browse the web, searching and accessing whatever information they want anywhere, anytime, online. The world has changed from the Before the Internet Era (BIE) to the Internet Era (IE), to coin these terms.Why do I suddenly look back at the history of the Internet now? A

Nov 20, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Regional studies and language skill

By Kim Ji-myungHow much language capacity is required for country-specific study? Or to be more concrete, is it possible for a Korean studies scholar to work without the linguistic competence to read the source materials?It is hardly imaginable that a Chinese studies scholar doesn’t speak or understand written in Chinese or that a Japanese studies expert cannot read documents written in Japanese. Classics and old books of all three countries are in Chinese characters. But this classic literacy issue is one of the major issues facing Korean studies academia, according to a survey conducted by the Korea Heritage Education Institute (KHEI).In 2011, at the first Korean Studies Conference co-hosted by Yonsei University and Yeongwol County, the KHEI asked the 138 participating scholars some simple and fundamental questions. The survey was aimed at collecting opinions and suggestions for feasible policy options, needed for the next phase of development in Korean studies abroad. Then again this year, to find out if there were any changes regarding these topics, we conducted the same su

Oct 23, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Solving historical puzzles

By Kim Ji-myungStories of the murder, mysterious death and poisoning of kings and queens inside royal courts are a familiar and intriguing topic of fables and history around the world. And the 519 years of the court history of the Joseon Kingdom is no exception. In many cases, puzzles remain surrounding the truth of these intriguing royal deaths.Yet, disagreement about the validity of documentary evidence has prevented scholars from coming to a consensus on the real historical facts.  I guess, maybe by taking a look at innovative tools used by foreign scholars to solve such historical puzzles, Korean academia may gain greater insight into the truth of the Joseon Kingdom.Let’s take a look at the case of Prince Sado, who remains an enigma for scholars who disagree on the truth about his life ― and death. Prince Sado was born in 1735, and died in 1762 at the age of 27 by the order of his father, King Yeongjo (1724-1776). The King had his son starved and choked to death inside a grain chest.However, the real motivation behind his death remains unsolved, giving rise to widely d

Sep 25, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

'The Korean Mind'

By Kim Ji-myung I am writing this article in the hope that somebody will help me get in contact with the author of “The Korean Mind.”  Subtitled “Understanding Contemporary Korean Culture” and published by Tuttle Publishing Company, the book is on sale at a major downtown bookstore in Seoul and on the Amazon website. I know the author is Mr. Boye Lafayette de Mente, who is “an acknowledged authority on Asia” and an author of more than 30 books, such as “Korean Business Etiquette,” “Survival Korean,” “Etiquette Guide to China,” and “Instant Chinese.”You are probably wondering why I wish to contact him. There are two reasons. Firstly, I would like to compliment him for the time and energy he devoted to writing this 466-page book, as I find it extremely interesting in many aspects. He must have spent hours discussing issues with his Korean friends who, according to his acknowledgments, are experts and professionals in academia and the business community.  As advertised on the bac

Aug 28, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Korean moms are strong

By Kim JI-myung“Women are weak, but mothers are strong.” And someone said, “Being a mother is learning about strengths that you did not know you had, and dealing with fears you did not know existed.” Korean mothers are famed for their conspicuous dedication to family and children.Grandma Kang Sun-gyo, 84, fled North Korea in 2006 at the age of 75. She wrote an autobiography titled “Crossing the Border of Despair in the Name of a Mother,” (Haengbok Publishing House). Her story is the first book written by a senior North Korean refugee, a condensed modern history of the Korean Peninsula.           “I feel like a salmon, coming back home to breed and face death after roaming in the wide ocean for a long time,” said the former nurse, who formerly lived in Manchuria, North Korea and China. She had too many agonizing memories and wanted to share them before she died. She told that to police Lieutenant Kim Sun-gi, who had been in charge of her.  Lt. Kim, who was adopted as her foster son, helped arr

Jul 31, 2015By Kim JI-myung

Kim Ji-myung

On changing foreign textbooks

By Kim Ji-myungDid you know that 11 Koreans ― experts and staff ― work year-round to convince the authorities of other countries to revise parts of their textbooks?I am talking about the CEFIA (Center for International Affairs) of the Academy of Korean Studies. The center is in charge of finding and correcting mistakes, errors and distortions on facts about Korea in school textbooks of other countries.But making changes happen in a way we want to the statements already printed in another country's textbook is by no means easy. The Center reports that only about ten percent of the requests asking for correction sent to the authorities concerned have been accepted and realized.It all started with an in-depth research of school textbooks in other countries, conducted by KEDI (Korea Education Development Institute) in 1990. The many cases and the astonishing nonsense written about Korea were alarming. There were common mistakes about country name, location, political and economic system, ethnic group, language, religion and culture.Confusion and fallacies about specific histori

Jul 3, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Bringing truth to light

By Kim Ji-myung Kim Moon-ja is a Korean-Japanese historian born in 1951. I know almost nothing about her, except for the information printed in her book. She wrote “The Murder of Joseon Queen and the Japanese,” which was published in 2009 by Koubunken Co. in Japan.The book is a revelation of facts based upon many decades of persevering research and investigation into records and evidence on the killing of Queen Min by Japan in 1895.Of course, “The Murder” is not the first or only publication on the topic, but it is an indispensable and unprecedented achievement in that she reviewed all possible internal documents about Japan’s role. For example, a map of Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Kingdom, shows the intrusion route by the assassins — from the main gate of Gwanghwamun to the royal residence deep inside the palace compound.Uchida Satasuchi, then consul general to Seoul, drew the route in a dotted red line, adding detailed information such as distances between spots and names of palace gates and pav

Jun 5, 2015By Kim Ji-myung

Kim Ji-myung

Read more

Cyber memorial for Sewol

On history and environment

A special book donation

Funding is key factor

Regional studies and language skill

Solving historical puzzles

'The Korean Mind'

Korean moms are strong

On changing foreign textbooks

Bringing truth to light

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