Korean Catholicism After Liberation

The Korean Catholic church seemed to be riddled with uncertainties over its extent of social participation shortly after the liberation of the Korean Peninsula in 1945.

At least that was my sense after reading O Kyong-hwan's article. (Korean Catholicism Since 1945, in The Founding of Catholic Tradition in Korea, Ed. Chai-Shin Yu, Asian Humanities Press 2004).

After Liberation the church realized that the percentage of the lower class is far smaller than that of the population as a whole.

"This was not always so. Most Korean Catholics were poor up until the 1960s. Afterwards the situation seemed to have changed, for reasons which are not yet clear. If the reason is that the church has been more inclined to mission to the middle class while remaining indifferent to the lower classes, it would be a big problem, and the church's actual mission activity would be far from and inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible and its own injunction of "Take care of the poor first," O wrote.

Despite the church's participation in the democratization movement, "it showed an excessive adhesion to the Democratic Party led by Chang Myon (pictured). " Chang became the second prime minister of South Korea in 1960 after Syngman Rhee's government was ousted by a student-led pro-democracy uprising.

"These acts made the people think that the church was joining hands with a specific political figure and party," O noted.

Then there was the North-South division, which in O's view "symbolized the lack of ethnic self-determination", made "the social structures of North and South Korea inhuman", and hence unification "should have been the church's greatest concern."

"About the late 1940s, when the division became fixed, the church could have said to have helped it take root rather than helping to overcome it ... the church scarcely understood the sociological meaning of the division and the harmful effects it would have on social structures."

Immediately after Liberation, two political groups in the South were pitted against each other, with one advocating division while the other unification through negotiations with the North. The first group was represented by Lee Sung-man (or Syngman Rhee), while the latter by Kim Ku and the Korean Provisional Government. At first the church was indecisive but later decided to align itself with the pro-division group.

O said it is "obvious that the church, a small religious group, could not have a strong influence in deciding the nation's fate."

But it is also clear that the "church's traditional anti-Communist line and the Communists' extreme oppression of the churches in Eastern Europe and North Korea (had) created a great fear and distrust of Communists among Christians and clergymen in South Korea."

"Even if the church had supported the other group, the one against the division, the result would have been the same, because there existed foreign powers of superior strength. The leaders of the church were lacking in sociological knowledge and historical knowledge about the matters of nationalism, division, and unification, and seem to have made a regrettable choice."

Korean Catholicism Under Japanese Rule

Perhaps one of the reasons why Catholicism gained popularity in Korea was due to the role of high-profile Catholics who participated in the independence movement (pictured) against Japanese annexation and later occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

As Choe Sok-u pointed out, the anti-Japanese resistance movement led by An Chung-gun, a devoted Catholic, "was typical of the Catholic movement to protect national independence."

So Sang-don, who launched a movement to raise money to repay Japanese debts was also a devout Catholic.

"The Korean government owned a huge amount of debt to Japan at the time. Considering that this debt would accelerate Japanese aggressive intentions in Korea, So called on the people to raise money to pay back the Japanese debt so as to keep Japan from invading Korea ... this movement continued ... until 1910 when Japan annexed Korea." (Korean Catholicism Yesterday and Today, in The Founding of Catholic Tradition in Korea, Ed. Chai-Shin Yu, Asian Humanities Press 2004).

After the annexation, the Anak Incident occurred where An Myong-gun initiated a campaign to raise funds for the independence movement. This led to the arrest of both himself and his comrades.

During the March 1 1919 Independence Movement, students of seminaries in Seoul and Taegu took part in the movement despite the Church's opposition towards participation in such political movements.

In Kanghwa and Kwangju, Catholics led the movement, while in Ansong Father Gombert protected in his church villagers pursued by the Japanese police.

After the failure of the March 1 Independence Movement, resistance movements were launched, including the Righteous People's Corps, a Catholic Independence Army.

In Shanghai where the Interim Government of Korea was organized, several Catholics joined this government-in-exile.

But in spite of Japanese oppression, "the Korean church grew steadily with the number of dioceses increasing. Until 1910 there was only one diocese in Korea, but there were nine dioceses in the country at the end of the Japanese rule."

Korean Democracy

One of my favourite writers on Korea Bruce Cumings (pictured) suggested that even though South Korea had attained "procedural democracy", it had not yet achieved "substantive democracy."

This meant that its people had attained "the forms of democratic participation", but not "the reality of daily participation in decisions affecting their lives." (Counting the Blessings of Democratic Politics, in Insight Into Korea, Herald Media 2007)

Even so, Cumings concurred that the problem is not unique to Korea, as "the system of American democracy and American justice tells you that if you follow electoral court procedure, the outcome will be democracy and justice."

"In fact the outcome can be an unelected president who gets into the Oval Office through the 18th century elitist device of an electoral college, or representatives who, judging by their own performance on television, are not qualified to run the country."

Cumings said that one of the most important achievements to have come out of the country's democratization in 1987 "was to open the way to the grandest Korean value, the reunification of the peninsula."

He argued that as long as dictators ruled, unification was impossible, adding that no South Korean leader before 1987 imagined unification other than the extension of the southern system to the north, which would invariably lead to the second Korean War.

"Moreover, as long as the dictators were in power, North Korea was under no pressure to democratize, and gained legitimacy from its history of anti-Japanese struggle, whereas all the southern regimes until the 1990s were full of people who had collaborated or cooperated with imperial Japan (or their sons and daughters)."

"By inaugurating a long period of reconciliation, peaceful coexistence, economic exchange and people-to-people contacts, Kim Dae-jung set in motion the only strategy that might actually change, open, and eventually democratize the North, if slowly."

Yes, we hope the "if slowly" part will materialize. And not at a sudden and destabilizing pace.

Ancient Korea and Chinese World Order

An account of how Korea joined the Chinese world order in the fifteenth century.

During the Koryo period (918 - 1392) Korean leaders reportedly turned to appeasement when the Mongol hordes (pictured) rode across the Yalu River into northern Korea.

Korean monarchs formally recognized the new Mongol dynasty set up in China, and even complied with Mongol demands that Korea build and man two huge fleets for the Mongol invasions of Japan.

"However, this attempted appeasement backfired. The Japanese sought revenge against the Koreans for their assistance to the Mongols." (The Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding North Korea by Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones and Joseph Tragert, Alpha Books, 2003).

These attempts led to pirate raids on Korean trading ships and ports in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was followed by a full-scale effort to conquer Korea at the end of the sixteenth century.

These moves forced Korean monarchs to decide that "the best way to protect their domain from marauding horsemen and seafaring pirate was to join the Chinese world order," as well as allowing China to manage its foreign affairs.

"Confident in Chinese ability to deter or deal with any invaders, Korea did not maintain any significant military forces after the 1598 expulsion of Japan's samurai invaders."

Korea's Influence on Japan

After Shilla's forces overwhelmed the Paekche kingdom (18 B.C.E. - 660 C.E.) during the ninth century, Paekche's royalty and nobility fled to western Japan.

There, according to Japan's oldest historical record, the Korean Paekche nobility merged with Japan's newly emerging nobility to form the Japanese imperial family and aristocracy. (The Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding North Korea by Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones and Joseph Tragert Alpha Books, 2003).

Paekche's craftsmen also brought knowledge of paper making, printing with carved wooden blocks, and the making of lacquer ware and ceramics to Japan, while Korean monks reportedly gathered in central Japan in Nara (pictured, temple in Nara), Japan's oldest capital.

Paekche's symbols of royal authority were later adopted by Japan's imperial family, including the sword and curved jade jewel.

Ancient Koreans also introduced their Japanese counterparts to the Buddhist scriptures and Chinese writing system.

One Country Motto

More excerpts from The Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding North Korea by Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones and Joseph Tragert (Alpha Books, 2003).

The authors wrote that the motto "han nara" or "one country" was banned in South Korea prior to 1988 during the decades of authoritarian rule as it was considered a "communist" term.

"But now South Korea's main opposition political party proudly wears the label, "han nara dang", or "the party of one country.""

This change in attitude is said to be a result of the 1992 Olympic Games when the two Koreas decided to field a single team, and where the common flag depicted the entire Korean Peninsula on a white background (pictured).

Kim Il Sung and His Personality Cult

Still on The Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding North Korea by Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones and Joseph Tragert (Alpha Books, 2003).

The authors suggested that the survival of Kim Jong Il's regime is due to "a keen sense of nationalism, a pervasive fear of foreigners, and a strong desire for national unification and for individual survival, plus some respect for their leader."

Noting that the North Koreans reverence for their Great Leader Kim Il Sung (pictured, in his younger days) is compared by outsiders "to that of a religious cult", the writers concurred - rightly, in my view - that "this is somewhat misleading."

"Kim II Sung, like Japan's emperor, came to personify Korean nationalism and the Korean nation, at least in the minds of North Koreans. They do not distinguish between love of nation and respect for their Great Leader."

"Rather than propagating a personality cult, Kim used history to fuse himself with the Korean nation and its independence. Any (one) who attacks him is seen as assaulting the beloved nation."