The Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery and the Korean Revolution Museum

A docent at the Korean Revolution Museum explaining the activities of 1920s independence activists such as O Tong-jin, Chang Ch'ŏl-ho, and Yang Se-bong.

(Photo courtesy of the author)

On the 14th, the day before "Fatherland Liberation Day" (Liberation Day), Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong Un visited the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery on Mount Taesŏng in P'yŏngyang to pay tribute to the anti-Japanese martyrs. This year he was accompanied not only by senior cadres of the Party, government, and military, but also by his wife and his daughter Kim Ju Ae. In the South, August 15 has been officially designated and commemorated as "Kwangbokchŏl" (Liberation Day) since 1949, but in the North it is called "Fatherland Liberation Day."

Buried here are more than 140 figures who took part in the youth movement together with President Kim Il Sung and key cadres who were active in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. In South Korean terms, this corresponds to the "graves of independence patriots" at the National Cemetery, where patriots of the Japanese colonial period and figures of the Provisional Government are interred. Other anti-Japanese martyrs are buried at the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery in Sinmiri, P'yŏngyang, and at revolutionary martyrs' burial grounds established in major provincial cities.

On the same day, senior cadres including Cabinet Premier Pak Thae Song and Party Organizational Secretary Cho Yong Wŏn also toured the Korean Revolution Museum on Mansudae Hill. This is a museum that comprehensively assembles everything from the anti-Japanese struggle of the colonial period to the history of socialist construction, spanning from the 1920s to the present, with more than 100 exhibition halls alone. Each year, more than 2 million young students, Party members, workers, and soldiers visit to receive education in revolutionary tradition. Beyond its professional research staff, more than 50 specialist docents alone are assigned to serve visitors. In South Korean terms, it is comparable to combining the Independence Hall of Korea and the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.

North Korea evaluates the Korean Revolution Museum as a "grand hall of revolutionary-tradition education," and propagandizes that "all the historical objects and materials preserved and exhibited in the museum are the most precious treasures to be handed down through the generations." Original materials collected in China, Japan, and domestically are stored and displayed here. Across North Korea, historical exhibition halls have been established at each of the so-called "anti-Japanese battle sites," including the Poch'ŏnbo Revolution Museum in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province — which corresponds to a branch of the Korean Revolution Museum. The personnel assigned to such revolution museums and revolutionary historical exhibition halls alone number more than 6,000.

North Korean cadres touring the Korean Revolution Museum.

North Korea also systematically cultivates personnel to research, propagandize, and provide education on the anti-Japanese struggle. Research and historical-site specialists are produced by the history departments and revolutionary-history departments established at Kim Il Sung University as well as Kim Hyŏng-jik University of Education, Kim Ch'ŏl-ju University of Education, and provincial universities of education. After graduating from university and the doctoral institute (graduate school), research personnel advance to the Revolutionary History Research Office of Kim Il Sung University, the Institute of History and the Institute of Revolutionary History at the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Korean Revolution Museum, where they research revolutionary history; some are appointed as professors at various universities. Graduates of the revolutionary-history departments at the P'yŏngyang and provincial universities of education are assigned to revolutionary historical exhibition halls established throughout the country, where they work as cadres and docents.

After the publication in the early 1980s of the four-volume section on the history of the anti-Japanese armed struggle within the "Complete History of Korea" (Chosŏn Chŏnsa), and following the publication in the 1990s of President Kim Il Sung's memoir "With the Century" (Segi wa Tŏbulŏ), North Korean research on the anti-Japanese armed struggle stagnated. Articles emphasizing the historical significance of the anti-Japanese armed struggle continue to appear in academic journals such as the Workers' Party theoretical journal Kŭlloja and Historical Science (Ryŏksa Kwahak), but they merely repeat almost identical content in a formulaic manner.

Indeed, when researchers from the Institute of History of the Academy of Social Sciences attended an international conference held at Yanbian University in 2018, their presentations amounted to little more than summarizing the contents of "With the Century" rather than presenting their own research findings. It was doubtful whether they had even examined the original Japanese materials produced during the colonial period or the original Chinese Communist Party materials. The political rhetoric that revolutionary tradition must be inherited remains as strong as ever, but as the second generation of researchers has withdrawn from the front line, a qualitative decline in research capacity has become conspicuous.

In the mid-2000s, North Korea's representative second-generation revolutionary-history researchers — such as Ch'oe Sang-sun, Vice-Chairman of the Korean Association of Social Scientists; Song Tong-wŏn, Director of the Institute of Revolutionary History at the Academy of Social Sciences; and Chŏng Ch'i-gŏn, Head of the History Department at Kim Il Sung University — frequently visited the South and appeared at international academic conferences, but all have now retired.

Even so, in North Korea the history of the anti-Japanese struggle is taught as a separate school subject, and the cultivation of researchers and their placement in society are carried out systematically.

The Korean Revolution Museum in North Korea.

What, then, is the reality of our own research on the history of the independence movement and of the Independence Hall of Korea, which stand in comparison to North Korea's "revolutionary-history academic community" and the Korean Revolution Museum?

At the Liberation Day commemoration held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, President Lee Jae-myung set out a grand vision in his congratulatory address, declaring, "Together with the people, I will write a new history of liberation." President Lee stated: "So that we may properly honor the noble spirit of the fallen patriots, we will treat surviving patriots and independence merit-holders with even greater distinction, further expand the discovery of and honors for as-yet-uncommended independence activists, actively establish domestic and overseas facilities commemorating the independence movement so that its values may take deeper root in our daily lives, and be sure to convey the proud footsteps of history ever more widely to future generations." He also stressed that the state would devote all its capacities to correcting the legacy of a mistaken history and to safeguarding the honor and lives of those who devoted themselves to independence.

Regrettably, however, it rings hollow, an empty echo — because it differs little from the congratulatory addresses delivered by previous presidents on past Independence Movement Days (March 1) and Liberation Days. In last year's Liberation Day address as well, President Lee pledged to properly remember and record the history of the independence struggle, to build it together with the people, to extend the utmost courtesy to surviving patriots, and to broaden the scope of compensation for the bereaved families of independence merit-holders. It is unclear what achievements or notable policy changes there have been over the past year.

Holding grand ceremonies and commemorative events, and newly establishing facilities to commemorate the independence movement, does not by itself cause the values of the independence movement to take root naturally in our daily lives. Above all, surveying overseas independence-movement historical sites, discovering as-yet-uncommended independence activists, and correcting the legacy of a mistaken history all require research capacity in independence-movement history to underpin them.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Liberation in 2015, films on the theme of the independence movement — including "Assassination" and "The Age of Shadows," as well as "The Battle of Bongodong" and "Harbin" — were produced one after another to great acclaim, and many documentaries reexamining the lives of independence activists were also made. Yet the academic research ecosystem that forms the very foundation for popularizing the history of the independence movement is collapsing rapidly. In academic circles, there are concerns about the withering away of independence-movement research.

Among second-generation independence-movement historians, laments are heard that "now there is neither the environment to learn independence-movement history at university nor anyone to teach it." The second-generation independence-movement researchers who began their research at university in the 1980s and took to the lectern will all retire within the next five years. Universities, for one reason or another, are not hiring successor professors. The independence-movement history courses that had been offered at universities are disappearing one by one. A rising generation specializing in independence-movement history at the graduate level is hard to find. Needless to say, researchers of the history of the socialist movement — needed both to broaden the scope of independence-movement history and to enable a critical understanding of North Korea's "revolutionary history" — are all the scarcer. The fact that Seoul National University has, to this day since Liberation, never had a professor specializing in the independence movement is deeply symbolic.

The Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

The Institute of Korean Independence Movement History at the Independence Hall of Korea, which opened in 1987 as the country's only research institution for independence-movement history, has performed a considerable role over some 40 years, but its function of cultivating and conducting research on independence-movement historians has weakened.

Independence-movement historians emphasize that, before it is too late, the independence-movement materials scattered across various institutions must be gathered to compile a comprehensive collection; that translation work must be carried out on the primary materials collected in China, the United States, Japan, and elsewhere for the sake of the next generation of researchers; and that, in that process, both the personnel and the capacity for independence-movement research must be developed.

In its work report this year, the Independence Hall of Korea set out a plan to "provide integrated access routes to dispersed independence-movement materials and strengthen the Independence Hall's function as a digital-based public-history platform." As a medium- to long-term task, it also announced that it would provide integrated and customized information and services tailored to users' needs by building an information system incorporating AI and big data. The direction of the work is properly set. Yet the budget related to the collection, organization, and disclosure of materials has scarcely increased. It is also uncertain whether the budget for building an AI- and big-data-based information system will be reflected next year.

The history of the independence movement is not merely a set of past historical facts but serves as a reservoir that generates the discourse of the present and the future. Research on independence-movement history is also connected to national identity. To restore the withering research ecosystem of independence-movement history, no clear and realistic alternative comes to mind other than raising the role and function of the Independence Hall of Korea and its Institute of Korean Independence Movement History. For this, there must first be budgetary support. The point is to invest more in the recruitment of specialist personnel and the systematic building of archives, rather than in one-off event costs.

In last year's Liberation Day address, President Lee said that trust is built not by words but by action. For the congratulatory address not to become empty words, bold government-level support for the Independence Hall of Korea must follow. The standing and role of the Independence Hall, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, must also be strengthened independently. Before criticizing the distortion of independence-movement history and the political bias of the exhibition materials at North Korea's Korean Revolution Museum, we must squarely face our own reality and seek solutions.

It is my hope that the Independence Hall of Korea will break free from the yoke of political controversy and disputes over historical perspective, and establish itself firmly as the central institution for independence-movement history — through civic education, specialist research, and the provision of primary materials.

About the Author

Jung Chang-hyun  |  Director, Peace Economy Research Institute

Historian and journalist. Graduated from the Department of Korean History, Seoul National University; completed doctoral coursework at the same institution. Currently Director of the Peace Economy Research Institute. Has pursued research, writing, and journalistic activities in the fields of inter-Korean relations and modern North Korean history for nearly 30 years.