University students are rising to eradicate the legacy of collaboration with Japanese colonialism at their respective schools. Korea University's student association has announced it will clean up the vestiges of Japanese colonialism and has already begun the work of drafting a list of collaborative activities. At Yonsei and Ewha Women's' universities the local Democratic Labor Party's (DLP) student committees are taking action, and at Seoul National University (SNU) the School of Fine Arts' student association is taking part, proposing coordinated action from the student association, the union of professors and other school employees, and the professors conference. Also of note is how students at these universities are calling for student body associations across the country to participate.
The people's desire for the proper establishment of the national spirit by doing away with the residual elements of collaboration is greater than ever before as a result of Japan's repeated provocations in the form of historical distortions and its claims on Dokdo, which it is doing instead of truly reflecting on the pillaging of the past. It is right that students should rise to the occasion when universities are the cradle of truth and freedom.
The roots of collaboration are deep in academia. Following liberation, pro-Japanese elements used their economic power to operate schools and based on those positions expand and reproduce their privileged status. A considerable number of collaborators entered the field of education and established the deep roots of pro-Japanese tradition in education and scholarship. You can see it in how statues of collaborators are right in prominent locations on school campuses for being the school founder or former president. Some among them supported the war mobilizations and led the way in the naeseon ilche campaign of "one Korea and Japan."
The recent episode in which a professor by the name of Han Seung Jo praised Japan's colonial rule over Korea is not just a problem of one person's individual views; it originated in the country's failure to deal with the colonial past in the 60 years after Liberation. One professor who took issue with the collaborationist activities of his predecessors was denied the opportunity to teach for a series of years at Seoul National University (SNU), and an individual suspected of pro-Japanese activities is having a hall named after him as a memorial, evidence of how backwards things are.
As noted by Korea University's student association, history that is not faced up to is repeated. Now is the time for school employees' unions and professors conferences to join in a struck removal of what still remains of the legacy of collaboration. It would be right for university officials and operating foundations to cooperate and not think of the effort as something uncomfortable.
The Hankyoreh, 26 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Statues of Collaborators on Campus |
