History hangs heavy as South Korea’s Park Geun-hye prepares for summit with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe

The South Korean leader has sparked controversy domestically with a plan to rewrite textbooks while Abe brings his own historical baggage

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Protesters wearing masks of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye stage a rally against Abe’s planned visit in Seoul. Photo: AP

Published: 12:30pm, 31 Oct 2015Updated: 12:32pm, 31 Oct 2015

Historical interpretations have long bedeviled relations between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But with Abe about to arrive in Seoul on Sunday, Park’s latest historical intervention has generated a storm domestically, rather than internationally.

The furore began on October 12 when Park’s government announced that middle and high school history textbooks would, from 2017, be written by government authors. Current textbooks are produced by private publishers after being approved by an independent panel of experts.

“The correct way to raise our future generation is to instil in them pride in our country,” she said the following day.

On Tuesday, she told the National Assembly that revised textbooks would give children “a proper view of history”.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye says the future generation should be instilled with pride in the country. Photo: EPA

The plan has sparked debate and protests by civic groups and opposition lawmakers. “A good president makes history,” said opposition leader Moon Jae-in. “A bad president makes history books.”

Many interpret the intervention by the conservative Park as an attempt to whitewash atrocities committed by right-wing forces and individuals during South Korea’s tumultuous recent history.

Information about massacres of leftists by Seoul forces before and during the 1950-53 Korean War was suppressed for decades. Only after left-wing governments won power in Seoul in 1998 and 2003 were those atrocities officially acknowledged.