• CONCEPT AND COMMUNICATION
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• no.24
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• pp.165-191
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• 2019

Since July 2019, South Korea and Japan have been engaged in a cultural and economic conflict which originated in the differing stances of the two governments on the issues of sexual slavery and forced mobilization of Korean laborers before and during World War II. This ongoing dispute is a reminder that the fact of colonialism and the question of how it should be interpreted have not gone away: these are still present tense issues. The book's subtitle The Origin of the Korean Elite, What Did They Do When They Came back to Korea? makes clear that the elite class which held power and influence in the newly born Republic of Korea were actually educated in Japan, at the Japanese Imperial University. This book examines evidence which sheds light on the motives of Korean students attending the Imperial University, describing their academic studies and their lives after the liberation. By revealing this enduring substratum of "Japanese origins" at the heart of the South Korean establishment, a current which is not generally realized by Koreans today, the book allows us to re-examine our origins and thus to better understand our present-day identity and situation. It also addresses the question of how to confront these difficult questions, proposing a "historicization of what happened during the colonial period," which is not about hiding or minimizing the importance of our origins, but about facing up to reality as it actually happened.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.199-222
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• 2022

It has been 100 years since the excavation of Geumgwanchong (Gold Crown Tomb), a tomb that was accidentally discovered in Noseo-ri, Gyeongju at the end of September 1921 during Japanese colonial rule. Although it is known for its discovery, not only in the Korean Peninsula but also in Asia and beyond, the excavation report was published in Japanese and English by the Government-General of Korea in 1924 and 1928, three years after the excavation. TOMB "KINKANTSUKA" or THE GOLD CROWN TOMB at KEISHU, AND ITS TREASURES) was published as a series of books and picture books. The excavation report was prepared by Kosaku Hamada (濱田耕作), who was a member of the Ruins Investigation Committee of the Japanese Government-General of Korea (later became the President of Kyoto Imperial University, Kyoto, Japan), and Sueji Umehara (梅原末治), who was commissioned to investigate the remains of the Japanese Government-General of Korea. In this paper, the preface was written in July 1922, about half a year after the excavation of tombs, which was much earlier than the official reports, in the 'Korean and Chinese reading book (稿本 高等朝鮮語及漢文讀本 巻五)' by Hamada Kosaku (濱田耕作) for high school students in Korea, which was titled 'New Excavated Artifacts in Gyeongju (慶州의 新發掘品)' with a subtitle '絶大의 發見', a slightly awkward expression in Korean, but it means 'a very big discovery'. The meaning has been introduced as a single unit, emphasizing its significance in terms of the achievements of the excavation of Geumgwanchong, academic and archaeological discoveries, and cultural history in Korean language rather than Japanese language. Since the manuscript was written immediately after the excavation, the excitement as an archaeological researcher at the time of the excavation and expectations for future research can be read as it is. In this paper, I would like to introduce the voice of the excited field leader of the Japanese Government-General of Korea after the excavation of Geumgwanchong in 2022, the 100th anniversary of the writing. In addition, the process from the discovery of the tomb to the preparation of the report was summarized in one chronological table to make it easier to understand the series of flows.