Korean textbook controversy refers to controversial content in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

-approved

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

textbooks used in the

secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

(high schools) in South Korea. The controversies primarily concern portrayal of North Korea and the description of the regime of the South Korean president and dictator

Park Chung Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

Historical context

The controversy's origins can be traced at least to 2013, when South Korea's

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

instructed publishers to revise their history textbooks. In 2015 the South Korean

National Institute of Korean History The National Institute of Korean History (NIKH; ) is a South Korean government organization in charge of researching, collecting, compiling, and promoting materials related to Korean history. It was established as the Office of National History ...

announced plans to replace existing history textbooks in high schools with one authorized version by March 2017. The state-issued textbooks are to be written by a government-appointed panel of experts. In the larger context, this controversy is a part of an ongoing dispute on whether the state should control the content of history textbooks, and possibly enforce a monopoly, or whether individual schools (or teachers) should be free to choose their own textbooks. South Korea used to have state control over textbooks until the rules were relaxed in 2003 leading to the appearance of several competing textbooks used since, particularly since 2010.

Criticisms

Existing textbooks have been criticized by the government as well as by the Korean right or conservative side for being too positive on North Korean topics, and for "liberal, left-leaning" bias. On the other hand, the left, also described as liberals and progressives, represented among others by ''

The Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' () is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternative to existing newspapers, which were regarde ...

'' newspaper, are critical of the changes such as removing any mentions of the

Geochang massacre The Geochang massacre (, Hanja: 居昌良民虐殺事件) was a massacre conducted by the third battalion of the 9th regiment of the 11th Division of the South Korean Army between 9 February 1951 and 11 February 1951 of 719 unarmed citizens i ...

and excluding photos of the first North–South summit, which they have described as biased towards a conservative view of history and the state that lends legitimacy to the pre-democratic, authoritarian, conservative governments. In particular, the regime of Park Chung Hee, the father of the then current Korean president,

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until Impeachment of Park Geun-hye, she was removed from office in 2017. Park was the first and to date only woman ...

, is seen by liberals as given a "white-wash" treatment by the new revisions. The conservatives rebuke that the current textbooks describe Park Chung Hee and his predecessor,

Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965), also known by his art name Unam (), was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisiona ...

, in an excessively negative manner. Other controversial topics involve the framing of the pro-democratic protests against Park's regime, or the inclusion of the story of Korean teenage heroine

Yu Gwan-sun Yu Gwan-sun (; December 16, 1902 – September 28, 1920) was a Korean independence activist. She was particularly notable for her role in South Chungcheong during the March 1st Movement protests against Japanese colonial rule. She has since be ...

. Liberals had also criticized the action on the grounds that the government control over textbooks is limiting freedom of speech and spreading propaganda. As of October 22, 2015, a petition against the new textbook reform had over 50,000 signatures. The government has also been facing several lawsuits, including one by the current textbook authors who accuse the government of

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

. The plan has been described as controversial, and has led to public protests. Over 400 Korean history professors have expressed their opposition to the proposal. Outside Korea, the proposal has been criticized by over 200 professors of

Korean studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes South Korea, North Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history, Korean culture, Korea ...

. An opinion poll showed the Korean public opinion divided into approximately 50% against the new textbook plan, and 36% in favor. Several commentators compared this to the

comfort women Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese , a euphemism ...

issue, noting that with the recent government interference into the content of history books, South Korea is losing its moral high ground from which it previously criticized the Japanese government for its perceived historical textbook problems.

Historical context

Criticisms

See also

References

Further reading