Museum_of_Japanese_Colonial_History_in_Korea
Museum of Japanese Colonial History in Korea
History museum in Seoul, South Korea
The Museum of Japanese Colonial History in Korea (Korean: 식민지역사박물관) is a privately owned history museum in the Yongsan District of Seoul, South Korea. Its collections cover the period between 1910 and 1945 when Korea was under Japanese rule.
Established | August 29, 2018 (2018-08-29) |
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Location | 27 Cheongpa-ro 47da-gil, Yongsan District, Seoul, South Korea |
Coordinates | 37.545747717533274°N 126.96683166871598°E / 37.545747717533274; 126.96683166871598 |
Type | History museum |
Collection size | 70,000 (2018) |
Owner | Center for Historical Truth and Justice [ko] |
Website | historymuseum.or.kr (in Korean) |
Korean name | |
Hangul | |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Singminji Yeoksa Bangmulgwan |
McCune–Reischauer | Shingminji Yŏksa Pangmulgwan |
The museum's permanent collection comprises over 70,000 artifacts from the colonial period.[1] It has a full original copy of the Korean Declaration of Independence.[1][2] The museum also has a copy of the autobiography of Kim Ku: the Diary of Kim Ku.[2] Most of the collection consists of the everyday lives of normal people during the colonial period.[1] A portion of the museum discusses ethnic Korean collaborators with the Japanese colonial regime.[1]
The museum is the first to be fully privately funded in South Korea.[3] The museum was established 11 years after it was first proposed, and cost ₩5.5 billion ($5,000,000). ₩1.5 billion was raised by the donations of over 4,800 private citizens. ₩103 million came from Japanese donors. Of the total cost, ₩3.3 billion was secured by the time of the museum's establishment, and owed the rest was owed to lenders.[1] The museum was established in the Yongsan District of Seoul on August 29, 2018.[4][2][1] By the time of the museum's establishment, they had digitized 60% of their collection.[1]
The museum was created by the organization Center for Historical Truth and Justice [ko] (CHTJ), which was established in 1991. The organization has since put significant effort in documenting people or groups that collaborated with the Japanese in committing human rights abuses. Before it had a museum, the CHTJ made a number of temporary exhibitions. Despite being made hastily, the exhibitions received a highly positive reception, with some even being shown in Pyongyang, North Korea. Between 1995 and 2015, the CHTJ created over 30. In 2011, they announced their intent to create a permanent exhibition space.[5]
However, the group's stance against collaborators put it at odds with the previous conservative governments in South Korea.[1][5] Kang, Lee, and Kim noted that South Korean conservatives are generally considered to portray the Japanese colonial period in a more positive light. Park Chung Hee, a landmark conservative president in South Korean history, features prominently in the CHTJ's displays on collaborators with the Japanese.[6]
- Seung-yeon, Kim (2018-08-27). "(Yonhap Feature) First civic museum on Korea's colonial past looks beyond showing history". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
- Ji-hye, Shin (2019-08-15). "[Eye Plus] Japanese colonial history in Korea at a glance". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
- Kang, Lee & Kim (2019), pp. 92.
- "Colonial history museum". Yonhap News Agency. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
- Kang, Lee & Kim (2019), pp. 95–96.
- Kang, Lee & Kim (2019), pp. 96–97.
Sources
- Kang, Dae Joong; Lee, Hong; Kim, Seungeun (2019-11-20). "Museum as a (De-)Colonizing Agency and Participatory Learning Space: South Korean Experience". Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education. 31 (2). ISSN 1925-993X.