Removing heroes’ statues on a whim

The plan by the Ministry of Defense to relocate the bust of Korean independent fighter Hong Beom-do standing in front of the main building of the Korean Military Academy in Seoul has become the latest political controversy. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup in a parliamentary hearing last Friday confirmed the plan was under consideration due to the debate about commemorating an individual with past communism affiliations at a military academy training cadets to prevent and win a war with North Korea. The government in 2018 erected busts of independence fighters Hong Beom-do, Kim Jwa-jin, Ji Cheong-cheon, Lee Beom-suk and Lee Hoe-young in front of the main entrance of the military academy. The Defense Ministry decided to relocate the busts because Hong had served in the Soviet Communist Party and it deemed it was “inappropriate” to celebrate figures with communist affiliations before a “symbolic building for cadet education.” The ministry is deeming renovating the location to commemorate the Korea-U.S. alliance.

While acting as an independent fighter based in Vladivostok, Hong had joined the Communist Party in 1927. But that history should not make the heroic general unworthy for military cadets of today. Many Koreans fighting for independence from Japan had to take refuge in the Soviet Union or the Chinese Communist Party. It had been a part of the strategy of the independence movement. Hong was relocated to Primorsky Krai, or the Russian Far East, with other ethnic Koreans as a part of the forced deportation under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1937 and lived in Kazakhstan until his death in 1943, managing a theater there. There were no records of him denying the South Korean government or helping the founding of the North Korean Communist Party.

President Park Chung Hee awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1962 to commemorate his achievements in battles with Japan. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans journal in August last year celebrated Hong as the hero of the Battles of Fengwudong and Qinshanli in Manchuria against Japanese forces. The Defense Ministry has installed his bust in front of the military academy based on accreditation. The Korean history textbooks would have to be corrected if the Defense Ministry is revisiting historical facts. The naval submarine named after the general would have to re-christened, and many of the records in war history would have to be erased.

Acts that denied the foundation of the South Korean government or falsified records should be corrected. But prudence is required to change the evaluation of historical figures. They must be based on objective facts and unaffected by personal opinions or ideology.