Some 154 professors and lecturers specializing in Korean history at universities around the world on Sunday released a joint statement opposing South Korea’s move to reinstate government-authored textbooks for secondary education.

The statement said that history textbooks in a democratic nation must respect various views and analyses, and be based on free discussion and research of professional historians.

They further said that the reinstatement of state-authored history textbook by the Seoul government was in line with its policies that have oppressed opportunities for free speech and liberty among the scholastic community for the past several years.

The statement was signed by such renowned professors as Bruce Cummings of the University of Chicago and Don Baker of the University of British Columbia. Also joining were John Treat of Yale University, Ross King of University of British Columbia, Yoon Seung-joo of Carleton College, Kim Sun-joo Kim of Harvard University and Remco Breuker of Leiden University.

Participants signed in from across the globe including the U.S., Singapore, Australia, the U.K., Japan, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Spain, Israel, Romania, Russia and Norway.

Their statement added that history did not entail precision as science does and that it is based on diverse insight of historians and that a single interpretation of history cannot make for good history.

They warned the state history textbook would negatively affect Korea’s international reputation as a democratic society and weaken Korea’s position in fighting against Japan’s historical revisionism. 

The discussion on the statement reportedly began on Oct. 17, with signatures collected from Oct. 21.

“It was not started by one person per se, but began as we started discussing the matter that we deemed was a serious problem via emails,” professor Nam Hwa-sook of the University of Washington was quoted as telling the Hankyoreh newspaper.

From news reports