An essay examining Kim Gu’s anti-Japanese ideology, the collapse of Korea’s class system during modernization, and the historical outlook of Moon Jae-in’s administration. It explores conflicts over historical perception and modernization.

February 27, 2019
In any case, he was a corrupt man from beginning to end.
Moon Jae-in, who openly declares that he most admires such a man, is an even worse president than Kim Gu and among the worst in history.
If I recall correctly, Kim Gu belonged to the yangban class.
In other words, Kim Gu’s abnormal hatred toward Japan and the Japanese likely stemmed from the events of 1910, when the Korean Empire, on the verge of national collapse, resolved to seek annexation by Japan and requested it, and Japan accepted.
During the following thirty-six years, Japan invested more than twenty percent of its national budget annually into the Korean Peninsula and rapidly modernized Korea, which had been one of the poorest regions in the world.
Japan recognized that the root of Korea’s many social problems lay in an extreme class discrimination system—arguably worse and more rigidly stratified than India’s caste system—which had kept the peninsula in a state resembling an ancient autocracy.
Japan swiftly dismantled this class system.
As a result, the yangban, the privileged class that had long dominated and exploited the peninsula, were dismantled.
This resentment may well explain Kim Gu’s intense hatred toward Japan.
In any case, he remained a corrupt figure from beginning to end.
Moon Jae-in, who professes the greatest admiration for such a man, is a president even worse than Kim Gu and among the worst in history.