Every four years, 50 million people, come
together. These people fill up large stadiums, big plazas and huge theaters.
Most of these people either have red shirts on or tattoos with the color of red
and blue on their faces or both. The most recent occurrence of this event was
2010, and such happening is estimated to repeat itself in 2014. During these
events, people forget whether someone is a person he or she knows or not. The important
thing is that they are all together, looking towards the same goal. This event,
which actually is the World Cup, helps the Korean minjok to once again be one,
being a reminder of what kind of people we are. However one thing that people are
not aware of is the truth of the term minjok. For quite a time, Koreans have
known the word minjok as something that binds a certain group of people, especially
with the same ethnicity, together. Some even think as if the term existed ever
since Dangoon ruled the Korean peninsula. However the reality is that minjok is
fairly a recent ideology, and it did not even originate from Korea. Also, while
people think of minjok as a bright and family-like concept, the true purpose of
the idea is much darker than what the general people view it as.
Before further explanations on the truth of
minjok, it is vital to consider the following question: What is the definition of minjok? Thinking
about this question for at least a minute will make someone’s mind burst. The
question is mostly about where the limitations of a single minjok should be
placed. Standards such as race, ethnicity, cultural identity and country of
birth are all the lines that should be considered when define minjok, but none
of these words successfully draw the accurate line between two different
minjok, for example the Korean minjok and the Chinese minjok. This mere fact
that minjok is so hard to define leads to countless arguments on what the true definition
of it truly is. Still in a general sense, minjok is mostly linked to a group of
people that are sharing the same idea and maybe the same ethnicity. With this
in mind, it is possible to look at certain historical clues that tells us how
the term minjok has originated in order to investigate further in how this
ideology is influencing our lives.
The beginning of minjok dates back to the French
revolution, a French nationalism, a kind of bond that makes people get together
for the same political purpose. However, the real usage of it is shown right before
the Second World War. In a popular theory, Adolf Hitler was behind the
widespread of the idea of nationalism, in other words, minjok. As Germany lost
World War I, the country landed on an enormous amount of war debt which caused
the entire society to collapse. Hitler, who was the potential leader of Germany
at that time tried to figure out a method to unite the citizens of Germany in
order to reconstruct the country from the pit it had fallen into. He decided to
borrow the ideology of ‘nationalism’ from the old French Revolution. The
nationalism of the Germans were set by Hitler, under the following beliefs: 1) People
of Germany are special, unlike any other race, as they are superior to all the
others. 2) The main cause of the disaster Germany is facing is the Jewish, and
they had been a parasite to the people of this country for a long time. 3) The
only way to recover from the crisis Germany is facing is by starting a war, win
the war and take over all the other countries that lead to our fall. This German
Nationalism, this set of beliefs, this German community, the German minjok ideology
of the 1930s is exactly what people know as the Nazis. Some may rage upon this
saying, that our identity of the Korean minjok could never be the legacy of the
Nazis. Fortunately, the Nazis are not the direct link to how our nationalism
was formed as the story moves on, to when the Japanese adapt this term for
similar usages.
Japan, which was always a frontier in adapting
western ideas, again took the idea from Germany for the similar reason, to form
a stabilized army. Japanese imperialists also given the citizens the ideas that
are quite like those of the Nazis that enabled themselves to morally justify “taking
over the entire Asian region”. The strength of such brainwashing was so intense,
becoming the secret of how kamikaze forces were created. However, the real usage
of such nationalism comes to the surface as Japan acquires its first colony,
South Korea. The very first action that the Japanese took as they inferior to
Japanese. For this to work, what the Japanese needed to do was to differentiate
the two groups of people. This is where the term of minjok comes out. The
Japanese government at this time used a double plan. To the outer world, they implanted
the idea that the Japanese people and the Korean people were initially one. The
government then stated that the long division caused the Korean side to
eventually be contaminated, and that the Japanese has the justification to rehabilitate
the country. From the inside the Japanese government promoted the idea that the
Korean people are inherently inferior to the Japanese, giving out the
righteousness of the Japanese colony. Surprisingly, as time passed the people
of Korea began to rather accept this idea of nationalism, and making the word ‘minjok’.
Leaders of Korea then used it temporarily to unite the people to get their country
back. In the end, the Leaders have succeeded, and Korea gained independence.
Ever since Korea recovered from the colonization
of the Japanese, the country had gone through a series of great changes. During
the 1960s and the 1970s, one of the most controversial leaders of South Korea
took over the nation through military power. This man was in reality, a
dictator, but was one of the most important figures in the development of
Korean economy. Park Jeong-hee was the person who was responsible for
constructing all the basic infrastructures of a modern country. He was also responsible
for the great development that followed even though Korea just recovered from
the Second World War. Despite this leader was a great one, he was a dictator,
and needed a plan to maintain his power without being overthrown by the
citizens. Park Jeong-hee thought such plan was essential especially since the
people were craving for freedom and democracy after the independence. Park
Jeong-hee then brings out the old weapon, the weapon called the Korean
nationalism. The former president once again used the concept of minjok, in
order to set the priorities of the country to be development and recovery. He shouted
out that it is important for everyone to be together, to join their workforces
for the country. Just as expected the people of South Korea focused more on
what the president told them less concerning about their personal gains and
freedom, eventually leading to the gigantic development our country was enabled
to flourish. This call for gathering workforces is the most recent time of
which the term Korean nationalism was officially used by a strong power.
In summary, between the ideology of the Nazis
to the nationalism of contemporary South Korea lie several cases of which the
idea of minjok was used in order to change the interest of the citizens of a
country, from their personal interest to the overall development of the country.
Unlike what many think, the term minjok is not a jolly and family-like idea.
Looking back at what history tells you, the concept of minjok is merely an idea
spread out by the government or another superpower for the purpose of
distracting you from seeing what the real truth is. But is this true? It may be
the grounds of the creation of the term, but in the current society it is hard
to see any depression or government secret behind the shouts of the red demons
during the world cup season. In conclusion, it can be said that the idea of minjok
has fundamentally changed. While in the past it was for putting people together
for a purpose, today it is for being together for a purpose. People are not
being forced or brainwashed into believing that we are one, but they are rather
unconsciously just the same minjok. No one teaches a person to like Kimchi, or
perhaps Dokdo, or even the Korean national soccer team, although they are quiet
bad in performance. These are simply what makes our minjok our minjok. Having
these factors is exactly what makes us Korean. However this is where the
contemporary definition of minjok becomes hard to set. With all the foreign workers
flowing into Korea and with the increase of Korean people immigrating to other
countries, what is the correct line that differentiates the Korean minjok from the
rest?
Going back to the past, all the countries
that had the concept of nationalism had a similarity. The lines drawn to divide
‘us’ to ‘them’ was purely by the countries people and the race. For the Nazis,
their minjok was consisted of only German people of the German race. For
Japanese, the people superior to the inferior Koreans were no one but the
Japanese themselves. The reason to why this was possible was the fact that back
then, moving to another country to live there and learn the culture at the
place was a very rare occasion. So, back then there were no conflicting values
on who should be included as our minjok and who should not be. Coming back to
the present, many people are moving around making it hard to set the standards
on who is our minjok and who isn’t. For example, while some believes Sam Hammington,
an Australian person who moved to Korea who speaks perfect Korean and shares
many of the cultural identities that we have, to be part of the Korean minjok,
others do not. Like this, the conflict is open on whether minjok should be
considering more on the cultural parts and the beliefs an individual has, or on
the ethnic and racial aspects of an individual.
Personally, I think that it is not right to
draw a line on who is included in our minjok or not. The idea of minjok is
simply a helping hand, to gather people around to achieve goals that one person
alone cannot achieve. Nowadays, the term minjok is mostly used when there is an
event that unintentionally gathers people together. So, in a way, people who
are enraged by the provocation by Japan, people who are shouting out for the
victory of the South Korean soccer team, people who are part of the Korean
identity during these special events are truly the ones we can call ‘our minjok’.
And no matter where you live and where you were born in and what kind of skin
color you have, one can be our minjok if they feel the same like everyone else
in Korea. In conclusion I believe it is unnecessary to define minjok in the
first place, the important thing is the feeling. The feeling just like when you
hear good music. You do not know what kind of music is good, it is just that it
IS good. In the end, for me, minjok is just a word. But the important thing is
the bond that this word carries. The bond of which makes me understand other
people and interact with them. The bond that helps me know if I am home or not.
The bond that ensures me who I am. The bond called minjok.
