An interesting story about one victim of the purge.

Just look at how the T&R is making elementary errors in their work:

http://rokdrop.com/2007/11/26/the-truth-is-of-little-concern-to-the-korean-truth-reconciliation-commission/

These guys are supposed to be trained historians who get paid to do what they do. So how in the world do they make such elementary errors like the ones I have pointed out? They are either incompetent or are intentionally ignoring evidence contrary to the pre-determined conclusion they are looking for.

Either way the T&R Commission is a failure and should be disbanded in favor of like I mentioned before a UN mandated group of some form that can provide an account of history not influenced by the politics of both the right and left.

A thoughtful comment, but I disagree that having such a thing as a truth commission stacked to one side isn’t a fundamental problem.

I’ll jump to a different but I think connected scene:

I remember a C-Span panel discussion at a conference of secondary school teachers in the US who spent a lot of time talking about how to get their students to openly discuss issues like Iraq War II. They spent all this time, in a room full of teachers from around the US, talking about how it was hard to get students to speak up in class on issues - like the war - even thought the students did have opinions.

At one point, one of the education professors who made up the panel said at the start how it was important to convince the kids that their point of view matter and they could say anything — create a climate where anyone could speak — then she added jokingly, “Then we can tell them what to think” by which she meant how the war is bad. (This was either just before the war began or while the main days of fighting was still going on).

Everyone in the room laughed…

I didn’t.

Because…..through the interaction between the panel and audience of teachers from around the country, you only heard one opinion — one voice.

That’s not good. And that’s why the voices of their students remained silent.

Having a wall of unanimity in a profession like secondary school teaching - or journalism - or the truth commission, is not good.

Maybe you have a lot of examples you can share where the Truth commission has produced a lot of stuff that runs counter to their core ideological beliefs, but until you do, I doubt it.

The core problem still remains. You can’t trust material coming from a stacked deck.

Whether we’re talking about a North Korea Human Rights stacked to the right or a truth commission stacked to the left.

What is their true agenda, because people like this never write for pure historical value. Are they being prodded/financed by the North for even more propaganda purposes?

So what, ROK mil. executed Communist Insurgents? A good practice in my book and one that should be given careful/quick review in today’s environment. The practice of communist insurgency can also have other names, such as traitor, sedition, etc., so in a state that is technically still at war, why shouldn’t these people who have been found out to be N. Korean spies, instigators, sabatoeurs, etc. be treated as non-uniformed enemy and tried in a military tribunal, then poste hastily executed?

Sounds Barabaric? Take a look at Iraq…do we have any POWs in their custody? Hell no! They have tortured and killed every service member that they have ever captured. But we, as a so-called enlightened faith-based society are whinning crocodile tears for legitimately captured insurgents on the battle field that are being held in Gitmo!

If we keep up with our bleeding heart do-gooder attitude, while trying to fight a brutal war with the Islamic factions and potentially Iran, and a potential war with Mr. Kim Insano, and the Chinese Dragon breathing down our neck (among just some of our more determined foes), then guess what Sports Fans…we will surely loose no matter how many $$$billions$$$ of dollars we throw at it.

So brutal wars need to be fought by brutal men, utilizing brutal techniques in order to break the enemy’s will to fight and his back at the same time. These Clowns want to die for their religion, a brainwashed dogma, control of the South China Sea, etc., then we had better be ready to bring the fight to them in spades, because it will be the only way we will win, if not at least survive.

I was, however, very disappointed, as I often am on a number of Korea weblogs I come across, when I see what could have been a good solid critical piece turn into rant against the “leftist agenda” in the commission and among the historians. All good historians have an “agenda,” of source which is the source of the “fire in their belly” and all history is at its core political. The denial of that fact by many historians is, in my view, either self-denial or deliberate deception.

The Truth & Reconciliation Committee and similar projects which are, unquestionably, staffed by passionate and strongly left leaning academics and journalists have done incredibly important work publishing and collecting materials, much of it not beneficial to their own positions, and while you are certainly right to attack and critique the errors and omissions they make, there is nothing wrong about having an agenda or having passionately progressive historians doing this work. This commission and other projects like it would never have existed if other political forces had sway - as they did for decades here. Likewise, solid documentation of atrocities in North Korea would not be gathered and the cause of human rights would not be sufficiently championed if the passionate activists with a “rightist agenda” did not do so much important work in this area.

The contributions of the scholars in the commission and, from my perspective as a historian, especially their published source editing and collecting provides an incredibly valuable service to anyone wanting to study these issues.

Let us, by all means confront them on their errors, complain about the omissions and lack of context shown through specific examples, but I hope you will consider writing future postings of this kind, which can potentially offer a mature engagement, without descending to the kind of polemic ranting found towards the end of the post in particular. Your posting will have far broader appeal and more lasting value.