12 people including Paik Seon-yeop, how they were disparaged

The government decided to delete the phrase “pro-Japanese anti-national actors (pro-Japanese)” inserted during the Moon Jae-in administration from the burial records of some heroes and national meritors buried at the National Cemetery, including the late General Seon-yeop Paik. did. It is said that it is a policy to consider various matters, such as when the bereaved family applies for deletion. Along with this, the government is known to look into whether the process of selecting ‘1005 pro-Japanese people’ by the ‘Pro-Japanese National Act Fact-Finding Committee’ in 2005 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration was appropriate. The basis for labeling those who were buried in the National Cemetery as ‘pro-Japanese’ is the list selected by the pro-Japanese investigation committee, and there is controversy over the fact that the composition and evaluation standards of the investigation committee were biased.

Currently, there are a total of 12 people of national merit who are marked with the phrase ‘pro-Japanese’ in the saddle record section that can be viewed on the National Cemetery’s website. Including General Baek, the first army general of the ROK Army, Kim Baek-il, commander of the 3rd Regiment of the National Defense Guard (predecessor of the ROK Army), Kim Seok-beom, 2nd Commander of the Marine Corps, Kim Hong-jun, founding company commander of the 4th National Defense Guard Regiment, Baek Nak-joon, the first Yonsei University President, Baek Hong-seok, the first Army Special Forces Commander, Song Seok-ha, former Director of the Institute for National Defense , Shin Eung-gyun, the first director of the Defense Science Research Institute, Shin Tae-young, the 4th Minister of National Defense, Shin Hyun-joon, the first Marine Corps Commander, Lee Eung-joon, the first Army Chief of Staff, and Lee Jong-chan, the 8th Minister of National Defense.

In March 2019, during the Moon Jae-in administration, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs decided to specify the phrase “pro-Japanese” in the saddle record because they were on the pro-Japanese list. It was an arbitrary measure without any public discussion or legal process. According to the coverage of this magazine, some high-ranking executives, such as Piu-jin at the time, took the lead and dealt with it quickly. At the time, it was even pointed out that there was a possibility of ‘defamation of the dead’ from within, but it was reported that some executives pushed forward, saying, “‘Upper house (presumed Blue House)’ and ‘Yeouido (ruling party)’ order.” Even when General Baek passed away in 2020, the phrase “pro-Japanese” was inserted into the burial information of his deceased on the basis of this decision.

Since the phrase ‘pro-Japanese’ was inserted without any relevant laws or regulations at the time, it is known that the current Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs made a decision that deleting it could also be taken arbitrarily without any amendment to the law. An official from the Ministry of Veterans Affairs said, “We will delete the phrase sooner or later after going through various procedures, such as whether to apply for survivors.”

More fundamentally, the government plans to look into the appropriateness of the pro-Japanese investigation committee’s ‘pro-Japanese’ regulation procedures and methods. A government official said, “It has not been confirmed yet,” but “there is a need to resolve the question as questions are constantly raised as to whether the list of the pro-Japanese investigation committee is truly credible.”

The Pro-Japanese Investigation Committee was created under the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2005 through a special law under the direct control of the president. From 1948 to 1949, pro-Japanese groups were searched out through the Special Investigation Committee on Anti-National Activities (Anti-People’s Special Committee), chaired by independence activist Kim Sang-deok, but after 70 years or so, they decided to select pro-Japanese groups again메이저사이트. The committee was launched after controversy over its bias as it consisted of 11 members, including the chairman, four recommended by the president, three recommended by the chief justice, and four members of the National Assembly. At the time, most of the votes to designate pro-Japanese groups were said to have been decided by a vote of 9 to 2 or 8 to 3.

When the investigation committee announced the list of 1,005 pro-Japanese people in 2009, four and a half years after the investigation, controversy over unfairness and partiality arose. This is because people who had not been a problem in the past were stigmatized as pro-Japanese based on their history of serving in the Japanese military and the Gando Special Expeditionary Force during the Japanese wartime system. Among them, there are many heroes who defended the country after the 6·25, such as General Baek Seon-yeop. People such as Baek Nak-joon, the first president of Yonsei University, who founded and led the Republic of Korea in the post-liberation government, education, religion, and culture were also included because they were forced to join the student army due to Japanese coercion or were listed in a government-affiliated group.

On the other hand, leftists such as Yeo Woon-hyung, who wrote a letter of conversion pledging allegiance to Japan and received large sums of money from the governor-general of Joseon, were recorded in newspapers and documents at the time. Nanpa Hong was on the pro-Japanese list, but was dropped from the final list because an administrative lawsuit was filed. Dr. Nam Jeong-ok, a former researcher at the Military Compilation Research Institute, said, “The fact that General Baek worked for the Gando Special Expeditionary Force was known through his autobiography in the 1980s. He said that he made it public because he was proud of himself,” and said, “It is inappropriate to call him pro-Japanese just because he was in the Gando Special Unit in the Japanese wartime system.”