Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Revolutionary Reeducation Camp (2)
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One day, soldiers flooded into Pingfang, south of Harbin, erecting barbed wire fences and putting up temporary buildings.
The locals watched the spectacle with curiosity at first, but gasped in horror and turned away the moment they realized who these people were.
The Security Agency.
Just hearing the name was enough to silence a crying child.
Its notoriety had only grown since the Yi Seongjun regime took power.
"Don't even look at them."
The adults sternly warned their children.
Before long, dozens of trucks loaded with people pulled into this secretive camp in Pingfang.
The moment the people arrived at the camp, they saw soldiers stationed everywhere and assumed it was a military base.
Of course, it wasn't a military base.
"W-where have you brought us?"
"Instructor!"
"Yes, Camp Director."
"The punk who just opened his mouth—put him on a hunger fast."
"Understood."
The revolutionary reeducation camp fundamentally avoided using violence.
After all, this was a place to drain out militarism—why would they resort to violence, which was an extension of military culture?
Instead, they starved them.
The inmates received a meager meal from the camp each morning and had to endure hunger the rest of the day.
"What the hell is this? If you're going to drag people here, at least feed them properly!"
No matter how fiercely they protested, nothing changed.
However, if they laid a hand on a guard, military boots would fly at them immediately.
The people gradually grew accustomed to the rules of the revolutionary reeducation camp.
Of course, not all inmates were starving.
"We'll serve a bowl of beef soup to the brothers participating in today's reading session."
The camp held reading sessions every evening, and simply attending got you food.
Sometimes it was noodles, sometimes beef soup, but it was always enough to fill your belly.
Even the civilians who had initially ignored the sessions began sneaking peeks one by one as hunger wore them down, and soon they started showing up.
What happened at the reading sessions was simple.
"The book we'll read today is General Yi Seongjun's Sayings. Read it carefully and memorize the content. Those who answer questions correctly later will get an extra serving."
People had to read the Yi Seongjun series—Yi Seongjun's Sayings, Galaxy Heroes Saga, Yi Seongjun's Personal Essays, Yi Seongjun's Admonitions, Biography of the Great Man Yi Seongjun, Yi Seongjun's "On Democracy"—and share their impressions.
If the camp director deemed an impression outstanding, you could even earn a reduction in your sentence as a reward.
As time passed, attendees competed to devour Yi Seongjun's books.
In truth, the so-called books by Yi Seongjun were nothing more than the groundwork he'd laid for his coup—utterly useless for cultivating democratic citizens.
But there was no alternative.
Handing them Western books on mass democracy would only challenge Yi Seongjun's rule.
To resolve this contradiction, the Security Agency made inmates read the empire's "recommended reading," the Yi Seongjun series.
It was something Yi Seongjun himself never could have imagined, but that's how fieldwork went.
How many times had desk-bound orders diverged from reality?
"What book did General Yi Seongjun walk 50 kilometers to a bookstore to read when he was eight years old?"
"Clausewitz's On War."
Such absurd claims were accepted as perfectly normal in the camp.
Even the civilians who sneered at this nonsense while reciting it at first eventually came to believe it sincerely.
The reason was simple.
"I'm not praising Yi Seongjun just for a bowl of rice. I'm praising him because he truly is a great superman."
A collective brainwashing Yi Seongjun had never anticipated unfolded daily in the reeducation camp.
People saluted under portraits of a smiling Yi Seongjun looking down on them, ate their meals under his gaze, and studied his writings.
Kim Seongju, the Security Agency commander who visited to inspect the revolutionary reeducation program, was greatly pleased with the results.
"Good. Excellent. This is true revolution. What could be a finer revolution than engraving the three characters 'Yi Seongjun' into their minds?"
To Kim Seongju, a sincere follower of Yi Seongjun's ideology, the whole situation seemed splendid.
Naturally, when he reported to Seongjun, he could answer confidently.
"The inmates are undergoing 'civilianization' exactly as Your Excellency intended. No one will dare defy Your will and babble about 'annexation' anymore."
It went without saying.
Why would those who had entrusted their judgment to Yi Seongjun demand anything from the regime?
"Is that so?"
With the first revolutionary reeducation camp proving successful, similar camps sprang up like mushrooms across the nation.
The inmate population jumped to thousands overnight.
In the empire, "revolution" now first brought reeducation camps to mind.
If someone nearby went missing,
"Where's that guy?"
"He's off to reeducation."
"Ah, I see."
Everyone understood it that way.
Of course, there was no rule saying you only had to go once.
Lee Beomseok, the famously stubborn civilian infamous for his intransigence, had gone through reeducation three times yet refused to break.
"The Republic of Korea has a duty to shoulder Korea's burdens!"
He wouldn't give up on annexing Japan even if beaten to death.
There was nothing for it.
He'd just have to keep going to reeducation.
"But Teacher Kim, how did you end up dragged here?"
Kim Wonbong, a left-leaning civilian, had no real reason to be hauled in.
He hadn't advocated for annexing Japan anywhere.
The reason he was brought in was simple.
"You slandered His Excellency Yi Seongjun!"
The initial targets for reeducation were civilians who had irritated His Excellency by pushing for Japanese annexation.
But as with all organizations, once the camps started operating, they created their own prey to expand.
"Reeducation is ultimately about engraving His Excellency into their minds. Can we leave those who deny him alone? Letting them spread would just produce more rotten oranges."
"That makes sense."
So they rounded up anyone who uttered even slightly irreverent words about Yi Seongjun.
And subjected them to "reeducation."
Syngman Rhee was dragged in that way too.
"What's so wrong with calling a military dictator a military dictator when I saw one? I can't even write a line in the papers anyway."
"This guy's got no fear. Add three months to his sentence."
As more prominent figures started getting dragged in, even Yi Seongjun sensed something off.
"Huh? What? They're locking up everyone who just badmouths me?"
Contrary to Seongjun's intentions, the reeducation camps were veering in a strange direction.
To grasp the situation, Seongjun visited a camp himself.
"Long live the revered Yi Seongjun!"
"Ah, Your Excellency! I was born on this earth for you."
At first, Seongjun thought he'd wandered into a cult headquarters.
But it wasn't.
The guards proudly reported to Seongjun, who had come to inspect.
"Your Excellency, these are the results of our civilianization efforts. Everyone has engraved you into their minds and is utterly devoted to the revolution, memorizing your every word and deed."
"I... I see."
He couldn't admit now that there'd been a misunderstanding.
An authoritarian leader had to be infallible in judgment.
A leader who made mistakes was no longer special.
And now that he was on-site, he realized there was no suitable replacement for the "Yi Seongjun series."
Educating on democracy under a military regime was a contradiction anyway.
"Just... tone down the Yi Seongjun series readings appropriately."
Of course, that directive wasn't followed on the ground.
The Yi Seongjun series readings continued to thrive in the camps.
In any case, the revolutionary reeducation program achieved its modest goals.
It crushed the Japanese annexation theory and drove anti-Yi Seongjun voices underground.
However, it brought no positive effects to the Great Korean Empire.
As a side effect of the brainwashing education, it mass-produced social misfits—from cults worshiping Yi Seongjun as their guru to rabid fanatic followers.
"Your Excellency! You are a superman sage incarnate, descended to save Korea! Ascend the throne and lead the empire!"
"Have those bastards lost their minds?"
Even Yi Seongjun couldn't endure the fallout and ordered the reeducation camps shut down.
"Your Excellency! Why discard such a fine tool as revolutionary reeducation?"
"Just close them."
The revolutionary reeducation camps existed in Great Korean Empire history for a very brief time.
But they were facilities run by a great power.
Quite a few countries took interest in their results.
Among them were Germany and Italy.
"Reeducation camps, eh. We've got political prisoners crawling all over the place—maybe we should manage them like the Koreans do."
"Have them recite the Führer's Mein Kampf and chant praises to him. Come to think of it, that sounds more fun. Imagine the Social Democrats chanting praises to the Führer."
It was the moment an unwanted, absolutely undesired dark Hallyu began exporting.