The statue of Syngman Rhee, the founding president, which was installed on the campus of Inha University in 1984, is being removed. Yonhap News.  

It is the 80th anniversary of liberation. However, we cannot help but feel disheartened. This is due to the pain caused by the pardon of a woman named Yoon Mi-hyang.

Through the Yoon Mi-hyang pardon incident, we have come to understand that the Lee Jae-myung administration views the Korean people not as objects of respect, but as objects of ridicule. Had Lee Jae-myung respected the will of the Korean people even in the slightest, the pardon of Yoon Mi-hyang would have been impossible.

Therefore, we will state that we have witnessed the worst, low-quality behavior of the progressive movement, which merely pretends to be democratic. The pardon of former lawmaker Yoon Mi-hyang, who defrauded the comfort women survivors, was perhaps an event that had already been foreseen. And those who sought the reason for her pardon in the figures of Lee Jae-myung and his associates, who pardoned her, may have seen a terrible truth.

Poet·Columnist If one wishes to know why Lee Jae-myung had to pardon Yoon Mi-hyang, despite the significant political burden and immense criticism, one must consider that some of her husband's and family members are individuals who have engaged in pro-North Korean activities. I am convinced that they were a part of the enormous power that made Lee Jae-myung president. Therefore, those who sought to trap South Korea in a pro-Japanese frame, using the comfort women survivors as their pretext, viewed Yoon Mi-hyang as a meritorious figure who helped establish the leftist regime. These are the two reasons for pardoning Yoon Mi-hyang.

Consequently, some citizens and students under the influence of the Democratic Party and the progressive left have been learning a fabricated history, manipulated within the shadow of progressivism. And according to their goals and intentions, they have come to possess values entirely different from what they had before. As facts have changed, truth has changed, and as truth has changed, justice that upholds truth has also changed, and in accordance with the changed justice, educational content has also been altered.

The reason for the collapse of judicial justice in South Korea also lies here. This is because judges have learned a false history since childhood. Judges who emerged to protect the Democratic Party and Lee Jae-myung. Witnessing their rulings, which have abandoned common sense, the author laments the state of South Korean education. Those who claim to rule according to conscience are individuals who grew up learning fabricated truths and distorted false histories.

Therefore, it must be seen that the minds of South Korean prosecutors and judges have become like the brains of the brainless, having lost their self-purification capabilities. It is judged that they have been so thoroughly brainwashed into radicalism that it is beyond repair. Prosecutors like Cho Eun-seok and Min Joong-ki, who are currently exercising unchecked power in front of the public, and judges belonging to the Our Law Research Society are disabled individuals with skewed ideologies.

Pro-Japanese sentiment has been a deep-seated aversion linked to national sentiment for a very long time. The Democratic Party connected two figures to this aversion: Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee. This too was a manufactured emotional backlash. Yoon Mi-hyang's exploitation of the comfort women survivors also had this objective. It was to seize the initiative in South Korean politics.

However, history honors the great achievements of 'the founding and revitalization of South Korea' accomplished by these two figures, Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee. This was a generalized conclusion derived from universally valid historical facts. Yet, the progressives have overturned this objective evaluation. They have transformed Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee into heinous anti-democratic traitors and pro-Japanese collaborators.

Syngman Rhee was the president who defended the nation from communism amidst the ruins of the devastating Korean War. However, progressives refer to the Korean War as a ‘war of unification.’ They identified Syngman Rhee as the one who obstructed that war of unification and branded him with the stigma of being pro-Japanese. They even included General MacArthur as an anti-unification force and attempted to destroy his statue. General Paik Sun-yup was also vilified as a traitor who murdered his own countrymen. They have altered the truth of the Korean War to reflect North Korea's perspective.

Syngman Rhee was a staunch anti-Japanese proponent. Therefore, what defeated Japan feared most after its defeat was the demand for the 'return of Tsushima Island' concerning compensation for its colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Syngman Rhee, understanding Japan's intentions, strongly advocated for the return of Tsushima Island.

However, it was Kim Il-sung who obstructed this. Kim Il-sung initiated a war that killed millions of compatriots, created 10 million separated families, and reduced the land to ruins. Amidst this, the issue of Tsushima Island's return disappeared. Japan then prospered by supplying war materials. Therefore, the one who caused the loss of Tsushima Island and, conversely, saved Japan, was Kim Il-sung.

With all these facts losing the power of truth, which party is the Democratic Party that instead praises Kim Il-sung as a great figure who started a war of unification? Furthermore, we believe it is now 'time to explain to the people' that those who falsely accused Syngman Rhee of being pro-Japanese are, in fact, pro-North Korean individuals and the progressives of South Korea, and that they are now gathered within the forces of the Democratic Party.

Syngman Rhee was our president who released anti-communist prisoners of war and secured national security by extracting the stationing of US troops as a condition for approving the armistice agreement. The United States provided half of its annual budget in aid to the devastated South Korea, and the immense costs of stationing US troops also served as a great impetus for the development of our society and economy. Truly, Syngman Rhee was a heroic savior of the nation who led security and the economy.

Syngman Rhee's thorough anti-communism stemmed from his experience with the barbaric behavior of communist party members when he was president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai. He witnessed their ferocity, with which they attacked anyone, young or old, and observed the collaboration between the Japanese and Lenin in the Battle of Free City, and he also witnessed that the assassins of Kim Jwa-jin, the hero of the Battle of Chingsanri, were communist party members who had been co-opted by the Japanese. Syngman Rhee deeply realized the harm of communism by observing all of this.

The independence movement in the United States provided an excellent opportunity to cultivate international acumen. At that time, Syngman Rhee was the only political leader who understood America and the world. Among various independence activists, only Syngman Rhee understood diplomacy. He was a figure whom the United States found troublesome. Thus, Syngman Rhee was a valuable diplomatic asset for the nation, and he was a Korean who worked diligently enough to earn a doctorate during that difficult period. The Japanese imperialists had placed a substantial bounty of 300,000 dollars (approximately 5 billion won in today's value) on Syngman Rhee's arrest. At that time, the first bounty for Kim Gu, a prominent independence activist, was 200,000 dollars.

The United States strongly disliked Syngman Rhee. After liberation, when Syngman Rhee's return to Korea was blocked because he was not always compliant with American orders, General MacArthur, appreciating his anti-communist ideology, allowed him to return. It was due to MacArthur that the era of Syngman Rhee began.

And after enduring the devastating Korean War, he designed the future of South Korea. It was also Syngman Rhee who established the Atomic Energy Research Institute. He was the great architect of South Korea.

The Democratic Party and the progressive left mock Syngman Rhee's flight to Busan during the Korean War as 'a cowardly escape abandoning the people,' but in any war, the leader of a nation is never allowed to be captured. If Syngman Rhee had remained in Seoul and become a prisoner of Kim Il-sung, everything would have ended.

Democratic Party progressive figures often speak of Syngman Rhee's dictatorship. However, dictatorship was the act of individuals like Lee Ki-bung and Kwak Young-joo, who sought to monopolize power. The fraudulent election was also the act of Lee Ki-bung and those in power who blinded Syngman Rhee. Unfortunately, he was an unfortunate figure who could not grasp the situation due to the barrier of people.

As soon as Syngman Rhee heard the shouts of the April 19 Revolution, he immediately departed for Hawaii. At this time, Syngman Rhee left behind the poignant words of a democrat, "The people must step down if they demand it," embodying the will of the people. However, setting all of this aside, the progressive left denounces Syngman Rhee as a pro-Japanese collaborator and a dictator. History has begun to wear the red mask of progressivism over truth.

Syngman Rhee was a grandfather who loved South Korea until his eternal sleep in Hawaii, and an eternal nationalist. Therefore, if you call such a Syngman Rhee pro-Japanese, what are you, who gave a free pass to Yoon Mi-hyang? Let me ask again, who are you?