Perception of August 15 Remembered in and Forgotten from Korean Textbooks

There seems to be a significant variation in the memory of August 15, 1945, between the nation and individuals despite the fact that this memory is historicization of shared experiences, i.e., collective memory. This can be seen by examining the memories at the national level. South Korea remembers August 15 in terms of defeat, liberation, and restoration, whereas North Korea remembers this event in connection with victory and liberation, Japan with end of war or defeat, China with victory and liberation, and Taiwan with end of war and restoration. South Korea and North Korea at first remembered this day as “Liberation Day,” but the name of this day changed after independent governments were established in each nation. South Korea changed the name of this day to “Independence Day,” whereas North Korea called it “Memorial Day for National Liberation.” This division in names represents a giant barrier as great as the division of the system, and the rift in the two different celebrations of the same memory became wider, aggravated by the asymmetric development of economics and exclusiveness between the two nations. Especially in the case of South Korea, August 15 has been remembered as a mixture of the day of liberation and restoration, but it became firmly established as Independence Day in the 1970s, which continued to the present. On the other hand, the term liberation has been strictly excluded as being a derogatory leftist word. Transformation in the memory of the process of liberation or restoration is apparent now that socialism has fallen, the Cold War system has been dismantled in recent years, and confrontation between the North and South Koreas have been mitigated. This will soon lead to a transformation in the memory of August 15.

keywords: Memory, liberation, restoration, theory on the legitimacy ofKorean provisional government, textbook., Memory, liberation, restoration, theory on the legitimacy ofKorean provisional government, textbook.

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Article Contents

Vol.8 No.1

Perception of August 15 Remembered in and Forgotten from Korean Textbooks

Abstract

Reference

The Review of Korean Studies