THOSE WHO CONTROL THE PAST...

Creepy stuff in Korea...

Uri Party chairman Shin Ki-nam said at the press conference, “We need to straighten our dark legacies from the periods of Japanese colonial period and past military rule. When democratic reformists were not the majority party, this could not be done. Although it’s late, we should shake off those legacies.”

Shin did not cover the point that it was a rewriting Korea’s modern and current history based on the ruling party’s historical view. According to the logic of Uri Party, the work of liquidating the past was necessary for the future.

The Uri Party said "liquidating the past was necessary for the future?" That sounds familiar. I wonder where I've heard that before. Oh yes, I remember now...

“Those who control the present control the past, and those who control the past control the future.” - George Orwell, 1984

The Uri Party, which backs President Rho Moo-hyun and the appeasement 'sunshine policy' toward North Korea, may have a point about Korea's written history being skewed by decades of dictatorship. However, it is not a group that should be trusted to do the rewriting. Most of this seems to be a way to undermine the opposition, which is led by the daughter of Korea's former military dictator Park Chung-hee. The Korea Times reports:

The issue of ``national identity'' has become controversial in recent weeks. The GNP first raised the subject, criticizing a presidential commission for naming three convicted North Korean spies as pro-democracy figures.

Park warned that she could launch an ``all-out war'' against the government, which she thought was compromising the country's legitimacy by siding with the North, especially by reprimanding South Korean Navy over a recent clash with its Northern counterpart in the West Sea.

But the Uri Party fought back by threatening the GNP with a pledge to launch an investigation into Park Chung-hee's alleged pro-Japanese activities.

The ruling camp also demanded chairwoman Park's resignation from the top post of the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation, launched by her father in 1962, arguing that she should first apologize for her father's extortion of private assets before expressing her doubts about Roh's ideological bent.

The history studied by Koreans is undoubably inaccurate and skewed. But mostly in a xenophobic nationalist way. The Koreans, more than 50 years after the Japanese occupation ended, remain virulently hostile toward their former occupiers. Who did absolutely nothing positive for the country:

Francis: We're giving Pilate two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Roman imperialist state, and if he doesn't agree immediately, we execute her.
Reg: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers.
Stan: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers!
Reg: Yeah.
Stan: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers!
Reg: All right Stan, don't belabor the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!
Man: The aqueduct?
Reg: What?
Man: The aqueduct.
Reg: Oh yeah, yeah, that they've given us, yeah, that's true, yeah.
Man: And the sanitation.
Stan: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like.
Reg: Yeah, all right, I grant you, the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things the Romans have done.
Mathias: And the roads!
Reg: Well, yeah, obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they! But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct and the roads...

Korean's generally shun any debate that may question the country's great place in history, and ironically they also shun any debate that questions the country's victimhood status.

Some of this can be seen in the government's making a really big deal over a 'deletion' on the website of China's foreign ministry:

The Web site of the Chinese Foreign Ministry (www.fmprc.gov.cn) used to describe ancient Korea as consisting of three different nations – Koguryo, Paekche and Shilla until Koguryo was removed on April 20.
The South Korean government says the Koguryo issue has top priority in ROK-China relations, and they will take assertive measures depending on China’s response to Seoul’s request for the correction of the historical error, the official noted.
“Our government is determined to correct this distortion of history made by the Beijing government,” he said. ``We confirmed that China has also made additional distortions regarding Koguryo and other ancient nations.”

While in Korea, I was walking through a bookstore with a Chinese-Canadian friend. There was an english language text which claimed that most of Japanese culture and art was derived from Korean sources. There are a lot of such studies around (pdf link).

My friend looked at the book. She flipped through a few pages, looking at the artwork and poetry, and surmised: “Yeah, that's possibly true. But all of these sculptures and paintings are just derivative of earlier Chinese stuff.”

Her statement, which would have caused weeks of protest outside the Chinese embassy were it said by an official, was mostly true. Both Korean and Japan were heavily influenced by China, which was the regional hegemonic power for centuries (the Chinese alphabet and Confucianism were not invented by Korea or Japan).

Canadians should be happy that our government refrains from such ideological revisionism. If the Trudeaupian Liberals tried to do what the Uri Party is now doing, we'd probably end up with some flaccid, politically-correct pabulum for our historical texts and symbols.