Since the times of the Roman Republic up until 1896, Korea was a subject of Imperial China, bound by imperial decree, paid tribute to Chinese emperors and admired Chinese culture for ~2000 years but simultaneously forgot (or didn’t bother) to develop its own culture.

 

At the time of the 1988 Olympics, foreign tourists and athletes did not know where Korea was located on a world map. The lack of attractive culture made Korean gov’t and public feel an inferiority complex so they began claiming Chinese and Japanese culture as their own native culture as to market themselves to foreigners.

 

Problem is, since the 70s Korean schools stopped teaching Chinese characters, essential for reading classic texts like Records of The Three Kingdoms (1145, by Kim Bushik), Annals of The Joseon Dynasty and Chinese historical accounts on Korea.

This is how they create ”new” history, by ignoring primary sources or resort to outright fabrication so it fits their ”ideal” version of history, cherry-picking, omitting conflicting evidence, reacting to one line of text without reading the whole chapter in its entirety. Modern Koreans cannot read old texts from 19th century or before and the biased history education from kindergarten to university after WWII as well as media influence like Korean ”historical” dramas adds to that.

 

The top of Prime Ministers of Silla Kingdom (Hogong) was Japanese and the fourth king of Silla (Talhae Isageum) was Japanese. Mainland Chinese refugees settled in Korea in waves because of war (Qin unified China through conquest) as well as when Han Dynasty was chaotic on its last leg. They settled in Mahan and Jinhan. The Keyhole Tombs in southern Korea and the Mimana Nihonfu theory are controversial to the S. Korean gov’t. ”We were invaded 936 times and despite this we never lost ethnic autonomy”

In reality Korea never achieved independence on their own strength, they were dominated by Chinese, Japanese, Liao, Jurchen(Manchurian), Mongol, Soviet, American.

 

The 1910 Korea-Japan Treaty of Annexation was approved by the Eleven Great Powers including even Russia, following international law accordingly. We can further speculate that if Russia dominated Korea, Russia would have not approved of the pro-Japanese intellectuals and sent them to Siberia, then modernization would not have taken place.

Japan gets accused of suppressing Korean language yet this claim is historically inacurate. Hangul was first promulgated on October 9th 1446 but the nobles (yangban) were not keen on commoners learning to read and write yangban saw Chinese characters as superior and Hangul was banned in the 16th century. China and Japan had libraries and academic life whereas Korea (vassal kingdom of Ming and Qing) was poor materially and intellectually.

 

Japan taught Koreans to write & speak Korean

•Government General built 5000 schools

•Thousands of miles of railroads

•Population doubled from 13 million to 26 million, •Increased life expectancy from 24 to 56 years,

•Literacy rate increased from 4% to 60%,

•Doubled average income from $40 to $80

•Planted 600 million trees as part of nature conservation

•Newfangled public parks & cherry trees

• Infrastructure, industry, Supung/Suihō Dam one of the largest dams in the world at the time. Five of the seven generators were looted by the Soviet Army.

•Western legal system, Western medicine

•Outlawed medieval-style bodily punishments and selling of children.

(Among other things, just compare black-and-white photos of 1900s Korea vs 1930s under Japanese Rule)

 

All this in a span of 35 years. The ones who were robbed were the Japanese taxpayers and private persons whose private assets (hundreds of billions $$$ in today’s money) were confiscated by Soviet and American militaries, thereby violating the IV Hague Convention (1907) according to which an invading army must respect life, religion and property of private persons.

 

Korea cannot hide forever that its econmic growth (Miracle on Han River) came from stolen Japanese assets, human capital like higher education as well as economic assistance in the form of the 1965 Basic Relations Treaty between ROK and Japan and the Western technology transfers from Japanese companies as foreign aid. Besides, President Park was a former lieutenant in the Imperial Army he understood co-operation with Japan was important for his country.

 

When the US Far Eastern Command learned of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and Korea on August 9th the nearest US troops were stationed in Okinawa and they were afraid they would not make it in time to secure most of Korea (Pyongyang and Wonsan) before the Red Army would swallow the entire Peninsula. Soviets however, accepted the proposal of the 38th Parallel as the demarcation line for the Soviet and American occupation zones.

Japan should not be blamed for the division of Korea, Soviets refused the UN to hold general elections in the Soviet zone.

 

South Korea’s founding myth is the March 1 Movement (which leftist Wikipedia claims was peaceful in nature) Korean students were inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, later as tens of thousands began to rally for independence it took the appearance of an insurrection (pro-Japanese landowers, local government buildings and police stations were arsoned and looted) which later spread all over Korea. None of the agitators were dealt capital punishment and the longest prison sentences for the rioters were 2-3 years. Japan’s Peace Preservation Law made the Korean Communist Party go underground then there was armed resistance in the mid-30s organized by Chinese Communist Party/COMINTERN in Manchuria the remaining anti-Japanese guerillas fled to the USSR. Ordinary Koreans lives’ had improved so they had no reason to wage guerilla war. They were proud to be Korean and Japanese.

 

Korea was, legally speaking part of Japan and therefore part of Axis Powers but the Republic of Korea gov’t kept on insisting they deserved treatment of a Victor Nation and demanded war reparations.

 

The S. Korean (and N. Korean) gov’t keeps on insisting that all of the tribes that lived in/near modern Korea were the same ”Korean race”. The founders of Goguryeo Kingdom and Baekje Kingdom were related to Manchurians, Buyeo/Fuyo (扶餘) they were completely different from Koreans (Han韓) and Chinese (Han漢) and because Goguryeo/Gaoguli had a fierce militaristic culture, Korea claims the kingdom as their own history. If they lose Buyeo/Fuyo tribe from their ethnic profile, they lose the historical claim to Goguryeo.

I’m not saying they should erase it completely but instead admit that they were dominated by a more powerful foreign kingdom.

Confucianism holds a disdain towards militaristic culture, martial arts, physical labor and merchants, it is understandable that Korean nationalists would want to claim a foreign kingdom as their own since Joseon was considered weak in their eyes and gave them a sense of inferiority.

 

In short, Korea did not have warriors (Bushi武士) like Japan and martial arts were not practiced by Koreans until the 1920s-30s under Japanese Rule. Archery is Korean tradition but they did not have spear/ swordsmanship tradition they disliked close-combat and prefered matchlocks instead.

 

If you look closely they are near-exact imiations of Chinese and Japanese martial arts or they use a Korean reading of the same word like Kendo is Geomdo, Aikidō is Hapkido, Jujutsu is Yu•sul etc.

 

An American Steve Capener at the University of Montana wanted to research the origins of Taekwondo in 1995 ”Problems in the Identity of T’aegwondo and Their Historical Causes” .

He came to the conclusion it was a near-imitation of Karate, however the Montana Taekwondo Association demanded the article to be deleted. It took six years for S. Korean media to admit Karate influenced Taekwondo. Six years.

 

Even Thailand is angered because Korea claims Muay Thai is ”originally Korean”.

 

Despite biased history education and popular culture there was nevera class of ”elite warriors” in Korea.

 

According to Records of The Three Kingdoms, Hwa•rang (translates to flower boys) were sons of nobles in Silla Kingdom selected by ”a pretty face” to become performers and entertainers, not warriors. Hwarang were exempted from military service during the Goryeo dynasty, how could they be elite warriors if they were exempted from combat? This doesn’t add up.

 

Hwarang history became distorted during the Korean War, Syngman Rhee wanted young men in the ROK army to be patriotic and defend their country from communism so he needed an example from history (there was none to be found, so something had to be invented) (10% of Korean history is real and 90% is fabrication).

 

Lastly I would say that Isabella Bishop Bird is probably one of the most famous Westerners to have visited and written about pre-industrial Japan and Korea ”Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” (1879) and ”Korea and Her Neigbours (1898)”

 

William Griffis – Corea The Hermit Nation (1882)

”Corea has no samurai. She lacks what Japan always had – a cultured body of men superbly trained in both mind and body, the soldier and scholar in one, who held a high ideal of loyalty, patriotism and sacrifice for country.”

 

The Father of modern Korean literature Lee Guang-su points out many aspects of Korean nationality: false words, fraud, mutual distrust, flowery words, empty arguments and opinions, flattery and truckling, false obedience, adaptation to the majority, shamelessness, abuse, servility, cowardliness, indecision and unsocial selfishness.

 

In his book Yun Dae-rin remarks on the Korean language include,

 

”It is unfit for scientific descriptions”

 

”It is unable to comprehend matters objectively and focus on the subject,”

 

and ”It lacks the spirit to see things rationally.”

 

Shocking Confession about Taekwondo’s Past 2002 Lee Chong Woo Vice-President of Kukkiwon interview

 

Interviewer: ”When was the first time you became involved with martial arts?”

 

”It was right after Liberation (August 15th 1945). I suppose it was my dream of my adolescence around the age of seventeen, and I had a vague hope of becoming an unbeatable martial artist..”

 

”When I heard there was a particluar place in So-Gong-Dong, Seoul where they could train someone in martial arts I went there..”

 

“It was a Judo school during Japanese Rule and they used to put up a sign saying “Martial Arts Facility” in which they had Judo and Kwon Bup Division”

 

“From then on, I learnt Karate in the Kwon Bup Division. Kwon Bup is the same as the Japanese Karate.”

 

Interviewer: ”Many Taekwondo textbooks set the time of Taekwondo’s beginnings as the pre-Three Kingdoms Period. Even with all the historical assumptions, it seems somewhat extreme.”

 

“I am one of those who wrote that in the textbook. To be frank, we did not have much to write about. At an early stage in the course out introducing Taekwondo to foreign countries, when we said “Taekwondo was a traditional Korean martial art,” it was well justified and accepted.”

 

However Koreans are still shamelessly conducting international propaganda that Taekwondo originated in Korea…