▲ Historian Park Hwan poses for a photo at a hotel lobby in Yanbian in northeastern China on Aug. 19, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ Park Hwan gives a talk to students during an overseas tour program of historical sites, led by the veterans ministry, in northeastern China on Aug. 18, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ Park Hwan, a history scholar and a former history professor at the University of Suwon, talks to students during a tour of the birthplace of Song Mong-gyu, a poet and independence fighter, in Yanbian, northeastern China, on Aug. 19, 2026. (Yonhap)

By Kim Hyun-soo

YANBIAN, China, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- Korea's struggle for independence from the Japanese colonial rule was a "lofty cry" for universal values, such as peace and humanitarianism, not merely a nationalist movement, a South Korean historian said.

Park Hwan, a scholar who has spent more than four decades researching Korea's independence movement during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, said the significance of the movement is often viewed too narrowly through a domestic lens.

"Many countries, including China, Russia, the United States, Mexico and even the Cuban government, supported Korea's independence movement," Park said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency during a recent tour to historic sites in Manchuria, now northeastern China.

"Korea's independence movement was not a movement solely for Koreans. It was a struggle that pursued universal human values, including justice and humanitarianism," he said.

Park cautioned against viewing Korea's independence movement through a chauvinistic lens, saying such an approach could obscure the broader significance of the movement.

"The independence fighters issued a lofty call to the world in pursuit of peace and universal human values," he said, noting that many of them also joined forces with foreign advocates in China and Japan who opposed imperial Japan.

Park cited Ahn Jung-geun, the revered independence fighter who assassinated a senior Japanese colonial official in China 117 years ago, as a prime example of an independence activist whose vision extended beyond Korea to a broader pursuit of peace in East Asia.

"When asked about his final wish shortly before his execution on March 26, 1910, Ahn said he wanted to lead three cheers of 'long live peace in the East,'" Park said.

Before his execution by the Imperial Japanese Army at China's Lushun Prison, Ahn had been writing the "Theory of Peace in the East," a work arguing that Korea, China and Japan should coexist peacefully without invading one another and join forces to counter Western imperialism, according to Park. Ahn died before completing the book.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which Park views as an early stage of a third world war, he said the ideals and values pursued by Korea's independence fighters remain relevant today and can help chart a course for the future.

"Studying the ideals and history of independence activists offers valuable lessons for understanding the direction Korea and the world should take," he said.

Asked how overseas historic sites related to Korea's independence movement should be preserved, Park said the issue should be approached from a broader perspective grounded on cooperation with China, recalling how the two countries once helped each other to jointly counter imperial Japan.

"Korea and China once helped each other in the spirit of friendship and mutual support during the independence movement," Park said. "I believe that restoring trust in Korea-China relations and further developing bilateral ties would provide a broader foundation for both countries to respect each other and, in turn, jointly preserve and maintain historic sites related to the independence movement."

As a historian whose family has carried on the profession for four generations, from his grandfather to his father and now his children, Park said he was disheartened by the declining interest in history as an academic field.

"Demand for history has indeed waned with the changing times, particularly in the era of artificial intelligence," he said.

Even so, the government should recognize the value of history in the broader context of national development and help nurture future historians by creating more career opportunities and preserving history departments at universities, many of which are increasingly being phased out, Park insisted.

"South Korea seems to be overly focused on keeping pace with the changing times while failing to take a broader, future-oriented view from a historical perspective," he said. "It is unfortunate that the government is effectively fostering an environment in which history students are left with the perception that 'you will starve if you study history.'"

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