Quo Vadis for Koreans

The following events took place in April of 1994.

I got an email from one of my young Korean friends saying that a country's strength should not be judged by cars, but by its "philosophy" (whatever it means). Earlier, from a Japanese TV program, I saw a Japanese historian saying it is 100 times or 1,000 times more difficult to make "kokoro" than making good cars. These two comments are consistent with with each other, and consistent with my belief. I have many things to say along this line.

• Again in April of 1994, I had a chat with one of my Japanese friends, and he seems to know about Korea. On my blackboard, he wrote 1392 from his memory as the year Yi dynasty started. He also wrote 1443 as the year the Hangeul characters were promulgated, and he also wrote on the board "Un-moon" in Chinese characters. Frankly, I could not do these even though I often bragg about my memory power. He even said that the Mongolian army could not cross the Korean strait because they were on Korean-made, ships which were too weak to withstand Taiphoon. He then asked me whether Koreans intentionally built those inferior-quality ships to destroy the Mongolian army.

• I told him those Korean ships had to be inferior because Korea's best wood-workers had to work on a more important project. They were carving 80,000 wooden plates for the Tripitaka Koreana (collection of Buddhism scriptures). I often say that this massive workd is like Henryk Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis." For writing this novel, Poland's Sienkiewicz got the 1905 Nobel prize in literature. We carved 80,000 wooden plates in order to protect our own "national identify," and Sienkiewicz wrote Quo Vadis in order to assert that Poland is alive and well as one nation.

• Koreans and Poles have one thing in common. They both resort to God when things are hopeless.

  There are many Christians in Korea, and the Quo Vadis is understood there as a book written for a missionary purpose. It talks about Emperor Nero persecuting Christians in Rome, but the Christians become the winners.

  I also knew about the Quo Vadis in Korea before coming to the United States in 1954, but I did not know its author was a Polish Nobel winner until 1975.

  Nero, and the burning of Rome.

  When I heard this from one of my Polish friends, I was immediately able to sense that the real purpose of the Quo Vadis was to indict atrocious Russian rulers who ran Poland ruthlessly for 125 years until the end of World War I. (Poland was a divided country, occupied by Russia, Prussia, and Austria). I then asked my Polish friend whether my understanding is correct. He said "You are damn right!". He then asked me how I was able to sense this so quickly. I then told him Korea is like Poland, but I did not have enough time to give him full details.

  Here are my detailed stories.

  1. Like Poland, Korea was invaded many times by foreign powers, and Koreans had to live under foreign oppressions. The most recent experience was the occupation by Japanese. We also remember the Mongolian invasion in the 13th Century among others. Throughout those difficult times, Korean have been able to maintain their own identity and develop their own wisdom.

     The Japanese occupation did not end happily. The country became divided, and we went through three bloody years of the Korean War. Yet, Korea emerged as a thriving nation. As in the case of Poland's Sienkiewicz, Korean should be able to produce at least one Nobel prize in literature. I had this view even before 1975.

  2. In 1974, the National Science Foundation withdrew its financial supports for my research program. This was a death sentence for me as a research scientist in the United States. The Foundation gave me very civilized reasons for terminating its support, but my understanding was quite different. It was a reprisal to my claim that I am smarter than a pampered group of American physicisits. You may go to my webpage for this story.

     In 1975, I was looking desperately for an outlet from this crisis. Sienkiewicz served as an inspirational figure for finding my solutions to the problem.

     I received another death sentence in 1983, and I hope I could disclose its contents in the future. Based on what I do these days, you would agree that the United States has been very nice to me. I clearly understand why we had to hear about Galileo Galilei when we were in elemenatry school.

  3. Koreans know they get punished severely for saying things against authorities. This appears to be the case even these days. Let us look at the Tale of Choon-Hyang. The purpose of this story was to indict a corrupt local governer, but it was a wrapped up with sweet love story.

     Sienkiewicz of Poland could not attack the Russian rulers directly, but he had enough freedom to condemn Nero in his Quo Vadis. Likewise, I had to develop an indirect logic in my science writings to get my articles published in American journals. These days, I am using my internet webpage to translate those articles into the direct logic. I am also able to address those issues in my conference talks and in invited review articles.

     Indeed, Sienkiewicz was one of my saviors. I was able to appreciate him thanks to my Korean background.

  Henryik Sienkiewica played an important role in my personal and professional developments. Recently his statue was erected at Warsaw's Lazienki Park (pronounced as wazienki park), and I went there in 2007 and had this photo. I also had this photo with a Polish lady who became very happy when I explained to her who Sienkiewicz was. She of course knew all about him. To her, it was interesting to meet a non-Polish man admiring Sienkiewicz so much.

Since my first visit to Poland in 1994, I went there many times. Here is my webpage based on my past trips to Poland. The more I learn about Poland, the more I learn about myself.

This page has been constructed and is maintained by Y.S.Kim.

How is this man entangled with Einstein?

copyright@2012 by Y. S. Kim, unless otherwise specified. The photo of Korea's 80,000 wooden plates (known as the Tripitaka Koreana) is from Wikipedia.