Whitewashing History◈

My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                                           One thing I am finding scary is that a growing number of left wing

academics are publishing books that try to whitewashing (lie or misinterpret) the history of

Communism. I guess I should not be surprised---left wing academics have been growing in leaps

and bounds in the United States, Britain and South Korea. Case in point; the Great Leap Forward

that Mao Zedong started in China from 1958-1961. There are a growing number of not only

Chinese historians but also left wing western historians who believe that Mao did not know the

full effects of the famine as a result of his policies. That somehow the famine was the result of

bad weather. However, according to noted Dutch historian Frank Dekotter, Mao knew full well

what was happening, and from what records that have been smuggled out of China, did not

change his plans even though he knew millions were starving to death. Another case is that

of Kim Il-sung. According to those former high officials who escaped from North Korea, Kim

Il-sung had not only purged many thousands of former Korean Workers Party officials, but he sent

hundreds of thousands of families into his slave labor camp system where most of them died.

It is estimated that Kim Il-sung killed three million of his own people (The Black Book of

Communism). There are leftist historians that say Kim did not kill anyone, but this does not

sound right because of those who had escaped from North Korea and have provided information

on Kim's atrocities. Still, another attempt at whitewashing is to whitewash the Cultural

Revolution carried out by Mao Zedong.  There are so-called Chinese "historians" who state that

the Cultural Revolution actually benefited because the number of those who went to school rose. 

How that is possible is questionable since all of the schools were closed for most of the time of

the Cultural Revolution. In the end, most western historians including some Chinese ones agree

that the Cultural Revolution was a total disaster and should have been brought to an end.