More on Hwang and Korean Nationalism

The New York Times gets it:

Mr. Cheon said the worship of Dr. Hwang was also rooted in the fierce nationalism fostered during the decades of military dictatorship, until the late 1980’s. “We were taught constantly about national interests and that the ends justified the means,” Mr. Cheon said. In this atmosphere, Dr. Hwang became untouchable.

“Many of us didn’t trust him,” Kim Jae Sup, professor of developmental biology at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said of Korean scientists. “But the pressure from the public and government to support him actually inhibited our criticism. We couldn’t say anything. That’s why scientists posted evidence against him on Web sites. It was anonymous.”

. . . .

The newspaper touched upon one of the undercurrents in the wave supporting Dr. Hwang: South Korea’s sense of rivalry with Japan, its former colonial power, and its fixation with elevating its position in the world.

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