역사와 기억 : 건국연도와 연호, 그 정치적 함의

Abstract

The controversy over the national foundation year of the Republic of Korea(ROK), became a political hot potato for over a decade with regards to the “National Foundation Day”, and “government-designated national history textbook”. The controversy seemed to have been resolved when President Moon Jae-in declared that the foundation year of the ROK as “1919” and that “2019 is the 100th anniversary of the national foundation” in 2017. In addition, declaring national foundation in 1919 was evaluated as being patriotic as such action commemorates Kim Koo and the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.<BR> However, based on this study, Syngman Rhee was the actual founder and a leader of ‘1919 national foundation theory’. This theory is first, a way of recollecting the inheritance of legal tradition for Korea without the participation of Kim Koo and his group. Second, a way of recollecting the ROK as not the divided nation but the only central government of the Korean peninsula. Last but not least, an expression of the desire to be unified by the ROK. Behind the curtain of the founding nation theory of 1919, there also was a selfesteem of Syngman Rhee, the President of the Hansung Provisional Government.<BR> The year 2019 is a historic period that marks the 100th anniversary of the 3·1 movement and an establishment of the provisional government. In addition, the year is a period of transition for the Korean Peninsula to surpass beyond the Division, the War, and the Cold War to more expanded terrains.<BR> In the wider perspective of the entire Korean peninsula, the 3·1 Movement, the establishment of the Provisional Government, and the founding of the ROK are separate issues in different dimensions. It is a monopoly and coercion to commemorate above three events comprehensively as one, which also is incompatible with the historical facts of the time. Now is the period to ponder on how to remember the three events in a wider, open view to communicating with North and South.