Ideology clash regarding 'Best Books' selected by state agency

The "Youth Intellectual Forum Story K (Story K)," a media organization, reviewed the 345 books selected as excellent history books by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism from 2006 to 2015. This organization made the criticism that 24 of 128 books on Korean modern history are politically biased. With a rightist tendency, Story K sees the books as promoting leftist ideas. The organization claimed that one out of five books that the government selected deny Korea's legitimacy and progress and take positive views of North Korea.

Among the books that Story K called biased is "Read Joseon, the Ruined Country" that was selected as an excellent book in 2011. The author (Kim Gi-hyup) writes in this book, "Korea is still a colonial society. Even though there is no colonizer, the country longs to serve a master be it the U.S. or huge international capital. This phase alone might draw such an angry response as "How can you call Korea a colony?" This phrase is the two last sentences of the epilogue, the history scholar's conclusion.

Kim Gi-hyeop summarizes the process of Japan's colonization of Korea with historical data. He argues that when the Western countries expanded their influence to the East, Joseon went through modernization forced by Japan and lost traditions that should have been preserved. He points out that the fundamental damage of the forced modernization is the unstable transition between traditions and changes. Kim states that leadership of a country disputing with people on profit used to be the utmost shame but not anymore. Such expressions as "Korea is still a colony," and "Korea's modernization is a rape child," should be therefore understood in this context.

Another organization, the 'Anti-nationalization of Korean History Textbook Network', is promoting a campaign called 'understanding our history through reading history books'. One of 30 books that this leftist organization selected, "The Birth of Democratic Republic," was also selected as an excellent book by the Ministry, which Story K also criticized. It is not right to think of an opposite political view as an extremist. Such an attitude results in intimidating those in the middle.