Chapter 1: A Correct Perspective on the History of the Republic of Korea

Chapter 2: The Struggle for Liberation and National Foundation

Chapter 3: Building a Nation-State

Chapter 4: The Replacement of Nation-Building Forces

Chapter 5 High Economic Growth

Chapter 6: The Development of Democracy

Chapter 7: History of North Korea

References, Index

Why is it called ‘Korean History’ again?
Record the history of unity, not division!

Starting in late May, when the unseasonable heat began to arrive, an unseasonable historical debate began to flare up in Korean society.
It was an absurd incident caused by some left-leaning media, intellectuals, and politicians who, without any basis, branded a history textbook, unpublished, as "distortion." But it wasn't just a simple incident.
Rather, at the root of it all, the deep-rooted distortion and fabrication of the history of the Republic of Korea held by that faction were firmly entrenched.
In 2005, 12 prominent mid-career scholars from the academic world, deeply concerned about the reality that ideologically biased history textbooks were dominating the educational environment in schools, gathered together to form the Textbook Forum.
The result of this was the publication of 『Alternative Textbook: Modern and Contemporary Korean History』 by Kiparang Publishing in March 2008.

Professor Lee Young-hoon of Seoul National University, who took a leading role in writing this book at the time, rolled up his sleeves and got involved this time as well.
This is because, at the point of 2013, I felt the need to accurately and thoroughly record the truth of the absurd historical controversy that had once again surfaced, and to make it widely known not only to teenagers but also to young men serving in the military and the general public.
The author states, “As countries become more advanced, governments increasingly place greater emphasis on historical education for the younger generation, including understanding the nation’s fundamental ideology, why it is just, when and how it arose, and which political forces upheld it and established the nation.
Citizens of developed countries who have received such education from an early age are usually patriotic.
This is because they understand and agree that the country they belong to is an excellent political system founded on a just ideology, and that it guarantees the happiness of themselves and their families.
Therefore, when the nation is in crisis and the people of advanced countries call for him, they do not hesitate to throw themselves into battle.”

So what about South Korea? Korean politics and society harbor deep-seated divisions, which constantly surface in the form of conflicts and confrontations, both large and small, within politics and society.
The reality is that a national history shared by all citizens with patriotism has not yet been established.
The scholar's resolve in facing such a sad reality is unwavering: "We need to rewrite a history that the people of the Republic of Korea can proudly share."
The history of the Republic of Korea, as written and taught to date, has not properly evaluated the history of this country's founding and development.
So history has actually served to divide the people.
“We need to rewrite the history of unity, not the history of division.”

Economic growth and democracy established 40 years after the nation's founding
In 1988, a truly worthy nation was finally created!

Establishing a new nation is like creating something out of nothing.
First, the nation's basic ideology had to be firmly established.
This is because only then can the country be properly defended from hostile forces at home and abroad with different ideologies.
These nation-building challenges cannot be solved simultaneously.
This is because newly developing countries lack human and material resources.
The founding of the Republic of Korea also went through a difficult process.
The Republic of Korea announced its establishment to the international community on August 15, 1948.
It took about 40 years for a proper country to be created.
It was not until the 1988 Seoul Olympics that South Korea was evaluated as having achieved economic growth and established democracy, becoming a truly worthy nation.


There were countless trials in the meantime.
War broke out and countless people died.
There have also been several violent coups.
However, unlike other developing countries, South Korea possesses the human capital and political leadership necessary for nation-building.
Thus, among the countries that gained independence after World War II, it has become a model case for achieving both economic growth and democracy. "Nation-building" requires rational planning and sound leadership.
Humans cannot help but be in conflict over this.
The history of the last 60 years of the Republic of Korea has been like that.
The author repeatedly emphasizes how poorly prepared and hastily built this country was, and how it suffered great wounds in the process that could have been avoided.
South Korea started out as a country full of wounds.


The author's perspective on the May 16 military coup
“It was the starting point of revolutionary modernization!”

Looking back on May 16 from the perspective of today, 50 years later, two facts stand out.
First, May 16 was the starting point of the revolutionary modernization that Koreans would experience later.
Since 1963, the Korean economy has maintained high growth of 7-10% on average per year until 1997.
As a result, the per capita national income, which was only $82 in 1961, exceeded $10,000 in 1995.
It was an unprecedented rate of growth in the history of global capitalism.
Rapid economic growth has brought about truly great changes in the material and spiritual lives of Koreans.
This was possible because the young and capable May 16th generation monopolized power and consistently and efficiently pursued development policies in the right direction with a strong will to ‘modernize the country.’


Second, the fact is that May 16 was a continuation of Syngman Rhee's authoritarian regime.
President Park Chung-hee never showed a word of respect to founding President Syngman Rhee during his 18 years in power.
Park Chung-hee did not positively evaluate the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948, as he was convinced that he was creating a new history.
In that respect, despite his great achievements in the modernization revolution, he left a burden on the orthodox history of the Republic of Korea.
But paradoxically enough, he was none other than President Syngman Rhee's most loyal successor.
If the liberal democratic national system was established by the founding president Syngman Rhee, the April 19 Revolution and the May 16 Revolution pursued the historical task of filling the national economy's coffers on that foundation.
In other words, the April 19 Revolution and the May 16 Revolution were nothing more than two consecutive revolutions in which new political forces emerged to carry out the second stage of nation-building.


Negative history such as the anti-Yushin struggle is also recorded.
The Yushin regime, which lasted for seven years, collapsed due to divisions at the core!

The Yushin regime ran counter to the common political sense of the people.
Koreans, who have directly elected their president six times since 1952, have accepted the direct presidential election system as a valuable requirement of democracy.
The Yushin regime was far from the people's hearts from the beginning.
The Yushin regime entered a crisis in 1977.
U.S. President Carter, who took office early that year, criticized South Korea's poor human rights situation, advocating human rights diplomacy.
Carter brought out the card of withdrawing US troops from Korea to pressure Park Chung-hee.
Resistance forces at home were encouraged by Carter's criticism.
Beginning in the fall of 1977, protests by university students against the Yushin regime erupted again.
The number of political prisoners of conscience imprisoned for resistance against the Yushin regime surged to 1,239 in 1979.


Public anger toward the Yushin regime finally exploded.
In mid-October 1979, student protests broke out in Busan, escalating into riots with large numbers of ordinary citizens joining in.
The protests spread to the Masan and Changwon areas.
The government suddenly declared martial law and a state of emergency.
As the situation became more serious, the core of the Yushin regime split.
Kim Jae-gyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, inspected the protest site and concluded that the Yushin regime had reached its limits due to public discontent.
Kim Jae-gyu assassinated Park Chung-hee with a pistol at a banquet in Gungjeong-dong, Seoul on October 26.
With this, the Yushin regime, which had lasted for seven years, collapsed.
Additionally, the 18-year Park Chung-hee era came to an end.