李舜臣에 대한 記憶의 歷史와 歷史化

History and Historicization of Memories of Admiral Yi Sunshin

“Imjin Waeran,” in which Korea, China, and Japan intervened, was a war that had a great influence on Choson Dynasty. Choson was almost ruined due to this war. However, Koreans have tried, for hundreds of years since the war, to remember “Imjin Waeran” as Yi Sunshin’s war. Most of Koreans have remembered the war as a magnificent victory of Yi Sunshin, looking away from the tragic defeat and the misery of the war. Especially during the Japanese colonial period, Koreans revered Yi Sunshin as a divine hero. During the Yushin [Revitalizing Reforms] period, he was even deified as the sun of Korean people. As Yi Sunshin was remembered as a victorious hero, the historical reality of the tragic defeat of Choson in “Imjin Waeran” could be forgotten. Although it is true that Yi Sunshin is a great man, that does not mean that Choson won the war or Korea became stronger than Japan. The history of the memories of Yi Sunshin has been constructed to conceal the history of the defeat. It is necessary for the scholars who study “Imjin Waeran” to examine the war from the perspective of East Asian history, freeing Yi Sunshin from being used as a tool to solidify Korean nationalism.