Korea And The World

The newest “textbook controversy” currently shaking up South Korean politics is a stark reminder that defining history, and writing about history, is neither neutral nor a-political. The Korean government is currently drawing heavy criticism for its attempt to unify all teaching materials into a single, state-commissioned textbook. The move triggered nationwide protests, including over 15,000 educators across the country and a petition signed by over 300 professors from the nation’s top universities. To provide context and shed light on these “history wars” between Japan and Korea, and within Korea itself, we decided to take a step back from today’s controversies and had the privilege of interviewing Professor Henry H. Em. He recently published The Great Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea (Duke University Press, 2013) in which (In his most recent book) he explains how Meiji Japan methodically surveyed Korea’s history in order to find aspects of its past that would justify Imperial cont