The Korean National Defense Student Defense Corps and the Manufacturing of Warrior-type Students in Its Incipient Days
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2012, Vol 17, Issue 1
Abstract
Before and after the official inauguration of the Republic of Korea (ROK), not a few South Korean students opposed the polity, resisting it even at the cost of their lives. They vehemently inveighed against the polity for its factionality and regionality. In other words, they criticized the ROK for not being a nation-state from the standpoint of nationalism. Their ardent nationalist activism drove them to a variety of acts of opposition to the establishment of the ROK. Sometimes they engaged in actual, physical resistance, such as the Y?-Sun Uprising of October 1948. This not only gave a great shock to ROK authorities but also created an atmosphere of terror among ROK supporters. Seized with terror, ROK authorities desperately came up with counter-measures, putting them in action for the sake of the security of the ROK. As could be expected, the authorities went to every length to muzzle their opponents, to suppress all the subversive activities, and to eradicate dissident elements in schools. As a part of such efforts, they developed numerous and varied countermeasures in cooperation with related official agencies. The police, the Counter Intelligence Corps, and even the armies waged a campaign of purging all nonconformist elements from schools. They arrested suspicious students at will, severely interrogated them, and put some of them on trial while releasing others. The purge campaign pulverized almost all organized dissidences and critical student organizations, driving them out of schools. Then, ROK authorities established the Korean National Defense Student Corps (KNDSC) in middle schools and colleges across the country. After preparatory works such as organizing KNDSC units at the school level, the ROK Department of Education officially inaugurated the KNDSC in April 1949. The KNDSC was a typical example of a highly centralized top-down state institution in terms of its organizational process and structure. Also, it expressed other characteristics of a paramilitary organization in its primary motive for institutionalization, military drills as its primary activity, collective training in military ways, and other military-fashion practices. These characteristics of the KNDSC helped ROK authorities construct a system of surveillance over individual students and schools and to maintain strict control over them. Also, these characteristics facilitated the official agenda of manufacturing political subjects loyal to the ROK. KNDSC authorities tried to remold South Korean students for the sake of the ROK. For this purpose, authorities used military discipline and also collective training methods such as mass rallies and athletic meetings. These programs were developed to let students acquire military knowledge and skills and practices required for a warrior as well as healthy bodies. As important as, or more important than, practical training were the effects that collective training produced. All kinds of mass rallies and school ceremonies were exploited to transform an individual student into a collective being and ultimately collectivize all students. What draws our attention was that the collectivization of students called on the exploitation of elements of Korea’s past, such as hwarang of ancient Silla and the March First Movement of 1919. The authorities, referring to Korea’s past history, tried to nurture students as self-sacrificing warriors willing to die for the ROK. In this way, the KNDSC used every available means to fashion warriortype students in tandem with the contemporary ROK agenda of producing warrior-kungmin (國民). This constituted the contemporary political implication of the KNDSC in its incipient days from its inauguration to the outbreak of the Korean War.
Authors and Affiliations
Chong-myong Im
Keywords
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