[KS] Overcoming Park Geun-hye's History War in Korea: Presentation at theGeorge Washington University on February 11, 2016

[Frank Joseph Shulman]

Overcoming Park Geun-hye's History War in Korea: The History Textbook Renationalization Controversy
With Professor Han Hongkoo

Sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies
  
Thursday, February 11, 2016
12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
The Elliott School of International Affairs 
The George Washington University 
1957 E Street, NW, Lindner Commons, Room 602
Washington, DC 20052   
       
RSVP at http://go.gwu.edu/textbookpolitics.

Light refreshments will be provided.

In October, 2015, Park Geun-hye's administration announced that beginning in 2017, the state will abolish history textbooks from private publishers to teach secondary-school students which had been the practice since the 2000s. Instead the state will return to the single government-issued history textbook system. In the midst of rising public protests against re-nationalization of history textbooks, in late December, the Park government settled the "comfort women" depute with Japan without accepting the demand of comfort women survivors--that is the formal apology from the Japanese government about Japan's war crimes during WWII. South Korea's history wars have now entered into the public sphere, and this textbook controversy has become a highly politicized issue in South Korea. 
 
Professor Han Hongkoo of Sungkonghoe University will discuss how deep-seated conflict in South Korean society is rooted in the country's course of decolonization through the examination of re-nationalization of history textbooks and the comfort women issue. He argues that South Korea's inability to avow the purge of pro-Japanese collaborators has been a fundamental issue in bringing harmony to South Korean society. First, he will discuss how the country's history war astutely shows the constant struggle between the progressives and the conservatives. The abolition of government history textbooks was an integral part of democratization by rectifying distorted Korean history since the 1980s. However, the Park government's re-nationalization of history textbooks astutely reflects the retrogression of South Korea's democratization. Second, he will address the larger impact of "reverse democracy" in South Korean society with the key expressions prevailed in South Korean society, such as "hell Korea," and "Born with golden/silver/wooden spoon in one's mouth." Lastly, he will discuss his method to fight against the re-nationalization of history textbooks through his current project-the biographical anthology of Anti-Constitutional Activists.

Source: This is one part of the announcement entitled "Coming up at The Sigur Center for Asian Studies" received by e-mail from the Sigur Center for Asian Studies [gsigur at gwu.edu] on January 31, 2016.


Frank Joseph Shulman
Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies
9225 Limestone Place
College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 (U.S.A.)
E-mail: fshulman at umd.edu