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역사왜곡 (For Foreigners)

Japanese Scholars There is an interesting anecdote related to Professor Kim Japanese Scholars Japanese scholars also had students abroad, such as
Take Control of Yong-seop, a historian, who was lecturing at Seoul Nation- Train Korean Dr. Edward Wagner of Harvard University in the United
Korean History al University. One day, Professor Kim Won-ryong, expert Studies Scholars States. Dr. Wagner completed his graduate studies at Har-
in art and archaeology, came into the class and said, “This Abroad vard University, where he studied Korean history under

is Yasukazu Suematsu, who taught me at Gyeongseong Japanese colonial historian Professor Toru Takahashi from
(Keijo) University during the occupation. I brought him 1953 to 1955. This led to the establishment of a Korean
here because he wants to observe your lecture. Is it okay?” language course at Harvard University and the opening of
So the Japanese scholar entered the class, and eventually the Institute of Korean Studies. Dr. Wagner himself was
Professor Kim Yong-seop moved from Seoul National certainly a pro-Korean professor, and he probably had no
University to Yonsei University to teach history. bad intentions. However, he may have been unknowingly
Through this small incident, we can see how Yasukazu taught Japanese colonial viewpoint from a Japanese pro-

Suematsu, a standout among Japanese colonial historians, fessor, and what he learned was projected onto Korean
Prof. Kim Yong-seop kept tabs on his students when he came to Korea. After studies at Harvard and the students he taught. Of course,
liberation, he wrote The Rise and Fall of Mimana, which Korean studies at Harvard University in the United States
is the final, systematic version of the ‘Mimana-fu’ theory, had an impact on the rest of the country.
which states that Japan colonized the southern part of the In the East Coast of the United States, there is Harvard
Korean Peninsula for 200 years between the 4th and 6th University, and in the West, there is UCLA. At UCLA,
centuries. He went back and forth between Korean and there is a Korean Studies Institute, and the director of
Japanese academias to ensure that his theory was accepted the institute is John Duncan, who is known as the ‘god-
by Korean scholars. father’ of Korean studies. His lectures have hundreds of

thousands of views on his YouTube channel, and he said,
“You think Korean history is five thousand years, but that’s
wrong” And he also said, “We historians think that Korea
didn’t fully enter the historical period until the first cen-
tury BCE or the first century CE, depending on when you
look at the starting point of Korean history,” Moreover, he
Prof. John Duncan
said, “Korea didn’t fully enter the historical period until

the first century CE” A professor specializing in Korean
studies said, 'Korean history is less than 2,000 years old”
He would not be saying that if he was not influenced by
Japanese colonialism.

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