Minjok

“Patriotism is, fundamentally,

 a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....”

-George Bernard Shaw

Not so long ago, I believed the concept of Minjok as a cultural community. Since my earliest childhood, I was taught that a person who shares same culture as me is Han (Korean) Minjok, so I thought that all Korean can be defined as our Minjok. However, I was little bit concerned when I saw foreign people with different appearance compared to “normal Koreans”, speaking Korean and proving themselves to have Korean nationality. I questioned myself, “Can they be defined as our Minjok?”

Well, despite the fact that I was too young to understand what Minjok means, Minjok actually has a very vague meaning. Commonly, Minjok is translated into nation; according to the dictionary, nation can be referred to group of people who shares unity among them. This unity includes culture, territory, the language, the history, beliefs, and the race. However, this classification is so obscure. Can we say that Jews are same Minjok even though they haven’t lived in same territory for several thousands of years? Most of Jews are living in different country, accepting the cultural values of the places. Also, can we say a person who shares a language as a same Minjok? For example, there are about 8000 languages on the world. However, people were able to only define 200 distinctive Minjok among the world. In different analogy, the people of Switzerland have 4 official languages, but they are defined as single Minjok.

Well, what is Han Minjok then? Do they even exist?

The fact is that, Minjok doesn’t really exist anywhere. This means, that there is no physical division between people that make “that people A Minjok”, or “that people B Minjok”. It is believed that Minjok is a concept that exists just in people’s mind. Benedict Anderson, pioneer of this thinking, had said that Minjok is just an “imagined community”. He explained that Minjok is only imagined by people as a community; this means that people interacting with same type of culture, education, history and etc. starts to think that they have a strong bond between them, and call themselves same Minjok.

A book called “Nationalism (민족주의-by 장문석)” said that all cultural traditions are created for political purposes. According to the readings, the concept of Minjok is often used to make people concentrate on an idea. For example, we are always taught that South Korea and North Korea should unite. Many pamphlets, books, songs, newspapers, and especially education, says that we have to unite because we are Han Minjok. But, what is Han Minjok? It had already been divided into different countries for 50 years, and also, remember that just about 20 years ago, South Koreans have always despised North Koreans because they had different ideology. Then, why do Korean call for united Minjok so suddenly? This is great example of how Minjok-Making (idea injection) done by the society affects people into think in a way. Because the society created all the cultural traditions to make people concentrate on “Uniting Korea”, people now believe, that their Minjok’s ultimate mission is to do that.  

According to Anderson’s book, Minjok is an imagined community. A Minjok comes to existence after injection of ideas through education. First of all, a person, who is born in a society or country, is made to have “Same Minjok Identity” to fit the need of society. The person is forced to adopt ideology and values of the society, thus becoming part of the Minjok. Then later on, this person repeats all these steps to other new born person. And, these people, who are made to be the Minjok, are ready to be used as the part of society.

To describe the term in an extreme way, Minjok is “created” for this particular reason: to manage mass of people efficiently, and to unite them. Speaking more seriously, Minjok is only a tool. Minjok itself is not a bad concept. Normally Minjok can grant the society more stability, better development, and social cohesion. Even though it is a tool, normally, Minjok only acts like a lubricant for society to run fluently. However, when concept of nation develops into nationalism, it becomes a real devastating tool.

Nationalism can be simply defined as “Only for our Minjok’s sake”. This extreme case of Minjok, however, acts as biggest weapon when some madness is put into them. Development of the word “nation” is deeply related with nationalism movement happened during early 20^th century. Until the late 19^th century, not many people knew the word nation; because the word hasn’t been utilized for the word we know it now. However, for some reason, it had suddenly appeared on the history of human race with cruelty, called the nationalism. World couldn’t stop themselves in 19^th~20^th century. Countries fought for more land, causing wars, genocide, and lunacy. Imperialism prospered, and many countries were colonized. However, one important thing was missing. It was the motivation or the will of the normal people to colonize, or cause war against other countries and fight for the country’s wealth. There was no need for the individuals of the country to sacrifice their life to make the country bigger, and prosperous, because their life was already in misery, and it was their priority to make themselves a better life. As a result, ruler of each country came up with concept of nationalism.'

It is already mentioned in the beginning that “all cultural traditions are created for political purposes”. The proof of this sentence can be found in European history during this age. Many European countries started creating traditions for their own country, such as flag, national anthem, memorials, myths and Heros. These kinds of man-made traditions created national sentiment, thus creating many different Minjok ready to be utilized.

The prominent example is Hitler. Hitler can be explained as a one who first carries out a genocide using a tool called “Minjok”. Holocaust, mass killing of Gipsy, and World War II all originated from this same idea, nationalism. The rise of German nationalism was mainly due to devastated country after World War I. After the World War I, only thing left on the land was despair. However, in this moment of despair, there came their ruler: Hitler. After Hitler got control over Germany with Nazi, he had modified the cultural, historical, racial and ethical sense of Germans. He announced that the race of German, the Arians, is the best among all others. Also, the education toward public all changed. The result was terrible. Only in several years, Minjok of German had changed into a Minjok which Hitler wanted to make. After that, he utilized this Minjok as a tool to fulfill what he wanted. This, in fact, showed how easily and how madly a concept of Minjok and nationalism can turn into.

The meaning of Minjok was defined above. Then, coming back to the beginning, can this question be answered now? “What is Han Minjok?”

During the early 20^th century, Japan colonized most of Asian countries. They were famous for their cruelty, inhumanity, and exploitation. Korea was threatened the most, for the strong national sentiment and resistance. As a result, Japan started a policy to turn Han Minjok into Japan Minjok. Why? It is because if it was successful, they would be able to kill the national consciousness of Han Minjok which was last thing left as a Korean. In contrast, the secret leaders of Korea knew that national consciousness was last thing left that makes Korean exist, so they worked hard to keep this. They created flag, newspapers, national anthem, as well as hero such as Lee Soon Shin in order to keep this from collapsing. Because, collapse of 民族意識(national consciousness) meant that existence of Korean culture, history, and language would extinct, giving Japan better control over whole nation. However, in reality, many people chose to change their mind, becoming informer of Japan. This was because there was much more benefit of being obedient to invaders than resisting them. This proves that, Minjok can be created by people, but also that people can choose to change Minjok.

a flag that should never be used again..

Actually, it is so ironic that a concept that Korean people protected with life actually came from Japan. Many people believe that the word Minjok existed since long ago. This is possible, because Koreans named themselves Han Minjok, and made themselves to exist since 3000 B.C. However, the word Minjok originated from Japanese word “Minzoku”, around 1905 when interference of Japan incremented. So the truth is, that there wasn’t a term like Minjok before that, and also the history we know about Minjok was all written after that based on the real historic base, and also, some fiction. But the origin of word isn’t everything that was affected by Japan. Actually, it can be said that most part of Korean’s early Minjok spirit was partly or completely made by Japan.

How to destroy Minjok Spirit?

This is due to the 民族抹殺政策 (policy to obliterate Korean culture) done by Japan that Korean Minjok spirit partly contains Japanese ideas. It was pretty funny to find out that something Koreans believe to be the center of Han Minjok spirit was actually a tool for better ruling in Korea made by Japanese. This policy basically destroyed old Korean language, the tradition, the history, and beliefs. An example of wrong Minjok spirit passed down from Japan is the belief that “Korea is single nation state”. Originally, this idea was made by Japanese invaders, to make Koreans believe that Korean Minjok and Japan Minjok is the same nation. However, the origin of this idea was forgotten, and nowadays school teaches student how proud it is to be a part of single raced country. Proud of what? For being the only single raced country in the world, and thinking ourselves to be superior to other multi-raced countries? Where is the proof? Isn’t this similar to how Hitler persuaded Arian people? This idea is definitely remnant of Japanese colonization period. There are many more examples of how remnants of Japanese colonization period were assimilated other than this. This proves how Japan tried to use the Minjok spirit as a tool to control people, as well as trying to erase the original spirit of a nation.

Even after the colonization period ended, Korean had to face a new intrusion to their Minjok ideas, by the president Park. Park basically practiced what had happened as a nationalism movement before. He brainwashed the nation, so that whole country follows what he says. So, for another tens of years, Korean Minjok had to be used as a tool of political purpose.

Conclusively, it can be said that Han Minjok has not yet found their “Real self”. The basic elements that make Han Minjok, such as language, culture, history, and beliefs were always disguised or distorted by the either foreign power or internal power. So, Koreans do not have their own Identity. They have educational systems from Japan, territory set by the U.S and Soviet Union, history modified and distorted by China and Japan, language deeply affected by Japan and lastly, beliefs made by Japan Imperialism and dictators such as Park and Jeon.

Korean fighters for independence, Kim Goo had said “People who forget the history of their country has no future”. It will also apply for Minjok: “People who forget the identity of their nation has no future”. Koreans have lost their true identity in process of their Minjok being used by the supreme powers. Even now, the concept of Minjok is being used by politicians often, to raise their votes and later, for better control of the country. In the future, it will be the goal of Han Minjok to find their real Identity, and think outside the artificial fence made by the powers. Not in such a case, the concept of Minjok will still swing their power to control, and utilize people as a tool. The concept of Minjok will not disappear, unless the strong bond between people disappears. So, it is the future goal of people to change the purpose of Minjok: from the tool of the powers to the tool of people. 

As I conclude, Minjok is something that can be made, modified, or changed in the needs of people who are ruling them. It is not even that hard. Change in the culture, education, and history can do it, as well as making of new traditions. Minjok had been always changed so that it fits the need of people at the time, and it will change in the future. Our Minjok, Han, will change too. Even though I cannot see the future, I’m sure about one thing. In any way, there will be attempt to change the Minjok of Han, by giving changes to any of elements above. It is our goal, to resist this, for the sake of our real Minjok, and for the people who are included in it.