"To Preserve the Spirit of Korea despite the Disintegration of Its Form": Pak Ŭnsik and Hankuk T'ongsa ( A Painful History of Korea ) as a Beacon of Historical Nationalism

Abstract: This article will analyze historian Pak Ŭnsik's Hankuk T'ongsa ( A Painful History of Korea ) Hankuk T'ongsa (A Painful History of Korea) and argue that Pak was first and foremost a firm believer in the strength of history education to cultivate a resilient personality and will for Korea's national independence, which is why he emphasized that even if the form of a state should disappear due to an illegal occupation by a foreign power, history is the primary vehicle through which the state's national spirit is preserved. The nationalism of Pak's nationalist historiographical mindset was not just aimed at criticizing pro-Japanese collaborators who proactively led the Kapsin Coup but also groups such as King Kojong and officials who were too accustomed to comfort and wealth to promote meaningful change and the Tonghak , whose idealism for egalitarianism was quickly abandoned for progress's sake that they did not ponder too much about the means and ended up supporting Japanese colonial rule. Pak wrote A Painful History of Korea to critique a more comprehensive notion of "collaboration" than the usual sense of the term. A Painful History of Korea is a major record of the process behind Korea's annexation, intending to show its illegal nature. A Painful History of Korea encapsulates Pak's vision of nationalist historiography as a history which serves to not only preserve colonization as a shameful yet enduring lesson for future reference but also warn both Japanese collaborators and the world at large that colonization, from its inception to its formal practice, is and always will be fundamentally illegal.