LINC+ project team regional cooperation center pursues ‘historical records’ project with local non-profits and press companies
Highly evaluated for preserving community values and national records
Professor Choi Beom-soon receives ‘Prime Minister’s Award’ from the government for contributions to national records management
[January 21, 2021]
<Members of the ’Corporate Research Association Shade: Shade and Them’ are in a meeting to organize records on Korean atomic bomb victims archived at the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives>
The historical records project being pursued by YU (President Sur Gil-soo) has been recognized for its value as national records.
The regional historic/cultural contents investigation/collection/discovery/recording project being pursued by the YU LINC+ Project Team Regional Cooperation Center (director Choi Beom-soon) is being highly evaluated for preserving the value of the local society and as national records. They are represented by ▲the records organization and digitalization project for the Korean atomic bomb victims records at the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives ▲Gyeongsan cobalt mine civilian massacre records production project.
In particular, this regional historical records project is meaningful in that it was initiated and led by the private sector including universities. The project was pursued under the leadership of the YU LINC+ Project Team Regional Cooperation Center together with the non-projfit organization <Corporate Research Association Shade: Shade and Them> and the local press company <Gyeongsan Newspaper>. Center Director Choi Beom-soon (YU Professor of Japanese Language and Literature) who led this project was recognized for his efforts for the discovery and preservation of regional historic records and was selected for the government prize for his contributions to the 2020 national records management and received the Prime Minister's Award.
<’Corporate Research Association Shade: Shade and Them’ organizing records at the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives>
<Corporate Research Association Shade: Shade and Them> is a non-profit organization composed of alumni of the YU Department of History. They are producing contents in the humanities for the social minority. They are discovering and preserving the records of those who have been socially alienated and acting as a medium to convey it to the public. This organization pursued a digitalization project for the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives records together with the YU LINC+ Project Team Regional Cooperation Center.
Director Choi said, “We have been interacting with Hiroshima, which is a sister city of Daegu, and our sister university since 2015. During this, we became aware of the issue with Korean atomic bomb victims and held an international academic conference on the date of opening the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives in August of 2017.” He further explained about the project saying, “With the establishment of the LINC+ Project Team Regional Cooperation Center in 2018, we began pursuing the digitalization of the records at the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives as part of the community contribution project together with the ‘Corporate Research Association Shade: Shade and Them’.
Up until now, personal information held by the Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Archives, oral testaments, and tens of thousands of records were organized and digitalized, and a total of 33 collection books were produced. In 2019, they contributed to finding 11 Korean atomic bomb victims that were omitted in the atomic bomb victim records of the Hiroshima region in Japan.
The Gyeongsan cobalt mine civilian massacre case records production project pursued together with Gyeongsan Newspaper also made significant progress. Since first covering the cobalt mine case in Pyeongsan-dong, Gyeongsan in 1994, Gyeongsan Newspaper published a total of over 500 articles on the incident over a period of 26 years. This report served as a trigger for solidarity among surviving families, fact-finding missions, and restoring their honor, and they helped to win the lawsuit against the state to bear responsibility.
The YU LINC+ Project Team Regional Cooperation Center and Gyeongsan Newspaper worked together to produce video records of surviving families and a book containing the testimonies of surviving families regarding the Gyeongsan cobalt mine civilian massacre, and also completing digitalizing the photographs and videos.
Director Choi said, “This year, we plan to complete the Gyeongsan cobalt mine civilian massacre records production project that began back in 2019 by publishing a white book. YU will take be a leading advocate in preserving and finding regional historic cultures and accumulate various contents to create historic and cultural value for the region.”
