This article examines the various ways in which the Park Chung-Hee regime used history, the significance of these methods, and how we might overcome their negative influence on the present. The Park regime emphasized foreign aggression and our ancestors’ insufficient response to it until the late 1960s, when the regime changed the focus of its policy to historical incidents in which national crises were “overcome”, highlighting “the greatness” of this positive tradition.
In accordance with this switch in policy, the Park regime first adopted various measures to elevate Yi Sun-sin, the symbolic historical figure of national defense, to the level of “the national hero.” By thoroughly cleaning up and repairing the Hyeonchungsa, the shrine for Yi Sun-sin, the regime transformed it into the national holy ground. The regime also erected statues of Yi Sun-sin in many places including downtown Seoul, celebrated his birthday as a national holiday, and distributed commemorative songs and various books, including his diaries. During the 1970s, the regime also cleaned up and repaired historical sites related to heroes or incidents of national defense, developing new historical sites all over the country. In addition, in order to highlight the greatness of this national tradition, it newly developed sites commemorating the unification of the three kingdoms by Silla in Gyeongju and cleaned up and repaired sites related to wise national thinkers such as King Sejong and Yi Yul-gok. Towards the late 1970s, the regime revived the traditional concepts of loyalty and filial piety and taught them to students in ethics classes.
By using history in this way, the Park regime tried to imbue its people with statist discourse in particular, the concept of selfless devotion to one’s country. The regime wanted people to sacrifice themselves willingly for the sake of the state and nation just as the historical heroes of national defense had done for their kings. In short, the Park regime interpellated heroes and incidents of national defense from history in order to internalize statism in the minds of its people.
The Park regime’s highly fragmented and biased understanding of Korean history has exerted a strong influence on Koreans. It is important to address this negative legacy of the Park regime and to introduce diverse perspectives on Korean history that can help us more fully understand Korean historical figures and events.