Led by the main opposition Democratic Party, various civic groups including the Liberation Association are raising questions over his alleged pro-Japanese stance and distorted views on historical facts.
The Independence Hall of Korea, located in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, is a memorial museum dedicated to commemorating the country's turbulent history and serves as a spiritual beacon for Koreans, honoring the individuals and organizations that fought against Japanese colonial rule (1910~1945).
The appointment of the 68-year-old historian, who took his seat on Aug. 8, has been the center of controversy after the DP and the Liberation Association have accused Kim of being a pro-Japanese neo-rightist, who allegedly downplays the significance of the Liberation Day and holds different views on the founding of the country and other historical facts.
Kim was also criticized for advocating the removal of the statue of Hong Beom-do, a Korean independence activist and military general who led significant battles against Japanese Imperial forces during the colonial rule.
The association announced last week that it will not attend a commemorative event scheduled for later this week in a show of protest and hold a separate event. The Independence Hall of Korea later said that no commemorative event will take place there. Instead, Kim will attend another event hosted by the government, making it the first time in Korea's history that such event is not being held there.
The association also vowed that it will formally request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clearly state the ministry's position on the nullification of the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905. Article 2 of the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations Between the Republic of Korea and Japan addresses the invalidation of previous treaties, including those made during Japanese occupation.
Since its liberation on Aug. 15, 1945, Korea has made every effort to ensure that the shameful history of the Japanese occupation is never repeated, by identifying traitors and registering them in biographical dictionaries, among other measures, to remember the past and prevent a similar history from recurring.
However, inner conflicts continue for decades as some new-rightists claimed that the Japanese occupation had helped the modernization and development of Korea. Many of them are found to be descendants of pro-Japanese individuals who had actively worked with the Japanese to gain personal gain or profit.
Some of these new-right groups deny that there was no forced labor of Koreans in Japanese mines and "comfort women" consisting of teenagers and young girls who were dragged to Japanese frontline brothels during World War II, voluntarily worked as wartime prostitutes.
Although the first constitution, established by Korea's inaugural President Syngman Rhee and key government figures such as Kim Gu, officially states that the country was founded in 1919 by key figures from the Provisional Government in exile. However, some new-right scholars claim that the country was founded in 1948, when the Korean government was officially established, diminishing the significance of the provisional government that led anti-Japanese movements during the colonial rule.
In a press conference on Monday, Kim denied all the allegations against him, insisting that he did not disparage independence activists or defend Japan's colonial rule. "I have never defamed the Provisional Government of Korea or independence leader Kim Gu," he said.
"If my claims are incorrect, people should criticize me academically. Instead, they are conducting a public witch hunt against me, much like how the medieval church executed Galileo by burning him at the stake for advocating the heliocentric theory," he argued.
Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, was tried by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy in 1633 due to his support of the heliocentric theory, which posited that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Although he was found guilty of heresy, Galileo was not executed.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
