Posted on 04/17/2008 1:06:56 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
This is the first in a two-day series exploring the South Korean population’s perception of the U.S. military presence.
SEOUL — When the Korea Military Academy asked its incoming cadets in 2004 to name South Korea’s main enemy, they were shocked at the answer: 34 percent said the United States while only 33 percent said North Korea.
The country’s top military leaders asked that question of the 250 cadets — among the smartest university students in the nation — because they wanted to know if a 2-year-old surge of anti-Americanism had influenced the future military officers, Kim Chul-woo said. He is a spokesman for the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, which conducted the survey.
The academy’s then-superintendent, retired Lt. Gen. Kim Choong-bae, was so concerned about the survey results he cut the cadets’ boot camp from six weeks to four.
During the two extra weeks, cadets attended classes on South Korean history to learn how the country got its independence, what happened during the Korean War, and the role the United States played in the war.
Teachers told them about the U.S. Military Academy at West Point class of 1950, whose cadets graduated less than a month before the start of the Korean War. Nearly 50 of those cadets were killed.
“The [KMA] cadets were shocked. They said, ‘We didn’t know that,’” Kim said.
The cadets told academy officials they had leftist teachers in middle and high school who told them the United States was trying to dominate South Korea.
“The young cadets were kind of victims of the wrong education. They were kind of indoctrinated by the wrong education, the wrong textbooks,” Kim said. “Youngsters have no idea what was the Korean War, what was the contribution by the United States. They’ve been educated with a different perspective for the past 10 years.”
Because of the survey, the academy began using a more U.S.-friendly history textbook that Kim said was “based on facts rather than opinions.”
Today, more than half of South Korean high schools are still using the old textbooks, published by a company called Golden Star, said Shin Sun-ho, an education researcher for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Shin said a few South Korean politicians have criticized the book for being sympathetic to North Korea, but he said that wasn’t the case.
“If it was, it wouldn’t have been adopted as a textbook by the government,” he said.
The textbook is used in elective history courses for 11th- and 12th-graders.
Kim said the anti-Americanism of four to six years ago has died down, but many South Koreans still believe North Korea wants to use its nuclear capabilities against the United States or Japan, not South Korea.
Some favor reuniting with North Korea so the South can have access to those capabilities, he said.
Kim said Korea Military Academy officials asked incoming freshmen in 2005 and 2006 the same question, but the United States didn’t make the top three countries viewed by cadets as South Korea’s main enemy.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the academy survey was conducted only in 2004, and declined to comment on what the school teaches its cadets.
ping
Holy crap! It sounds like the ROK might be more infected with moonbats than even we are. That's extremely depressing.
It’s good to see that the ROK commanders are correcting the problem, and they are great to be so honest about it. Outstanding!
An extending tour of the DMZ ought to clear out any delusions. The moonbats can simply take a long walk North...
I made my son watch all 14 videos.
Thank you. I didn’t see it and will take a look now.
In the meantime, have a look at these photos—especially the page behind the second link (obstacles next to roads—for tipping over onto the roads). Some of the scenes are similar to those that I saw in the other travel account.
http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-1/
http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-2/
Ganzahmeda!
Park Chung Hee rolling over in his grave. Oh well, Korea has a history of cutting off at the knee capable leadership when time of crisis seemed remote.
For you consideration for an education ping. Pretty interesting to see the same things happening in another country, as happen here.
There is a Korean guy who works on my base that served in the Korean War. One of the things that annoys him the most is how ignorant the younger generation. He is very grateful and is afraid of younger Koreans ruining the US/ROK alliance. I’ve had several conversations with the older generation of Koreans and many see it that way as well.
Ignore the bad grammer, been one of those days.
This one is truly bizarre. Pay close attention to the captions.
Marathon Runner - DPRK Movie Clip
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8567380762375579530
Having spent 6 out of the last twelve years in South Korea... I’ve been quite aware of this. Which is why I really do not support our continued involvement with their country.
For their younger generation is truly lost... and will shortly be in power. Once the older generation, the generation that remembers our help in the Korean war and its aftermath, grow old and die.
Very sad. How can they not know about the Inchon landing, the frozen Chosin, Task Force Smith....Sad
Ping
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