From the Foundation

Assistant Program Officer Oba visited South Korea in December 2007 and February 2008.

During his visit in December, he met with Mina Rhyu, who teaches at the Institute of Japanese Studies at Kookmin University in Seoul. Although her title is “research professor,” Rhyu is extremely busy giving lectures. She has also been working on the project “A Study on the Formation and Transformation of Confucian Culture in Colonial Korea: The Reorganization of Confucian Ideology and the Legacy of Colonial Culture” using fiscal 2006 and 2007 grants from the Research Grant Program. The project aims to illuminate the process through which Confucian culture took shape in South Korea under the leadership of the Government-General of Chosen (Korea) during the colonial period. Transcending arguments about the colonial government’s merits and demerits in terms of political and economic history, Rhyu spoke passionately about the need for bridging the gap between Japanese and Korean perceptions of history by drawing history based not on ideological attitudes but on a consideration of how people actually lived their lives at that time.

Mr. Oba next paid a visit to the Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research close to Seoul National University, where he met with Professor Young-Hoon Rhee and three other researchers at the Institute. Famous for his research on the Korean economy during the colonial period, Professor Rhee is presently head of the Department of Economics at Seoul National University. A team led by him is undertaking the project “Social Changes in Rural Korea in the Years of Wartime and Liberation (1937–50): An Experimental Study of Continuity and Discontinuity” using a fiscal 2006 grant from the Research Grant Program. This project seeks to re-examine the impact of the mobilization of goods and laborers in the colonial period on rural villages in South Korea after the war. More specifically, the project involves the creation of a database from scores of documents, including land ledgers for the area targeted in the survey, deacquisition records, lists of conscripted laborers, and reports from victims. Thanks to the cooperation of several volunteers, mainly graduate students, the work has generally progressed smoothly, but there have been some problems, particularly in obtaining deacquisition records in the face of barriers created by the personal information protection law. The Foundation intends to consider the best way in which a database created through this kind of process can be utilized.

In February, Mr. Oba met with Professor Yong-Sang Lee from the School of Railroad Business and Management of Woosong University in Seoul. The university’s campus is actually located in Daejeon, but since Professor Lee is also an advisor to the Korea Railroad Research Institute, he travels back and forth between the two cities. Using a grant from the fiscal 2006 Research Grant Program, Professor Lee is undertaking the project “Continuity and Discontinuity: A Study of the Socioeconomic Influence of Korean Railways During the Colonial Period.” The project aims to reveal what, if any, effect the railroad system established during the colonial period has had on Korean society or the economy and to lay the groundwork for railroad policy and research on the history of railroads in Korea. Since the Korea Railroad Research Institute wields significant influence on railroad policy decisions in Korea, the results of the project are expected to have great social impact in the country.