I Will Stage A Coup D’état

One day, soldiers swarmed to Pingfang south of Harbin¹, setting up barbed wire and erecting temporary buildings.

The locals were curious at first, but as soon as they realized who these men were, they turned away in terror.

Defense Security Command.

A name so vicious it was said to stop crying children.

Under Lee Sung Joon's regime, the DSC's notoriety had only grown.

"Don't even look at that place."

Adults sternly warned their children.

Soon after, dozens of trucks loaded with people entered this secretive camp built in Pingfang.

Upon arrival, seeing soldiers everywhere, people thought it was a military base.

Of course, it wasn't.

"W-where have you brought us?"

"Instructor!"

"Yes, Director."

"The bastard who just opened his mouth, starve him."

"Understood."

The Revolutionary Re-education Camp didn't use violence as a rule.

After all, it was a place to drain militarism, so they wouldn't use violence, an extension of military culture.

Instead, they starved them.

Inmates received meager meals each morning, suffering from gnawing hunger daily.

"What the hell is this? If you've brought people here, at least feed us properly!"

Fierce protests changed nothing.

However, touching a guard's muscular body immediately invited a heavy boot to the face.

People gradually became accustomed to the camp's draconian rules.

Of course, not all inmates were left starving.

"A bowl of steaming rice soup for anyone who participates in today's reading session."

The camp held nightly reading sessions, and those who participated earned precious food.

Sometimes it was slippery noodles, sometimes hearty rice soup, but the meals were always enough to fill one's aching stomach.

Even those who initially ignored the sessions began attending one by one, eyeing the opportunity as torturous hunger set in.

The reading sessions were simple.

"Today we'll read General Lee Sung Joon's quotations. Read carefully and memorize the content. Those who answer questions correctly later will receive an extra meal."

People had to read and present their thoughts on the Lee Sung Joon series -  including "Lee Sung Joon's Quotations," "The Legend of the Galactic Heroes," "Lee Sung Joon's Editorials," "Lee Sung Joon's Moral Lessons," "The Biography of Lee Sung Joon," and “Lee Sung Joon's thoughts On Democracy."

Presentations deemed excellent by the director could earn a reduction in "sentence length" as a tantalizing reward.

As time passed, attendees competitively devoured Lee Sung Joon's works like ravenous beasts.

In truth, Lee Sung Joon's books, the mere groundwork for his coup, did nothing to foster democratic citizens.

However, there were no better options.

Using Western democracy books would only encourage those wishing to challenge Lee Sung Joon's iron-fisted rule.

To overcome this contradiction, the DSC had them read the Lee Sung Joon series, the Empire's state-sanctioned "recommended reading."

Of course, this wasn’t Lee Sung Joon’s intention, but somehow things turned out this way.

After all, how often do operations differ from lofty desk-issued orders?

"What book did General Lee Sung Joon read when he walked 50km to a bookstore when he was only 8 years old?"

"Clausewitz's On War.²"

Such nonsense was accepted as fact in the camp.

Even the literati who initially sneered at these absurdities began to believe them sincerely.

The reason was simple,

I'm not praising Lee Sung Joon just for a bowl of rice. I praise him because His Excellency Lee Sung Joon is truly a great superhuman, a saint made flesh.

This collective brainwashing, unforeseen by Sung Joon, occurred daily in the Revolutionary Re-education Camp.

People saluted Lee Sung Joon's smiling portrait, ate under his watchful gaze, and studied his writings with fervor.

Defense Security Commander Kim Sung-joo, visiting to inspect the revolutionary education, was greatly satisfied with the results.

"Good. Very good. This is the real revolution. What better revolution than implanting Lee Sung Joon's name deep in their minds?"

To Kim Sung-joo, a sincere follower of Lee Sung Joon's ideology, the entire situation seemed excellent.

Naturally, he could report confidently to Sung Joon,

"The inmates are being ‘civilianized' according to Your Excellency's intentions. From now on, no one will dare speak of 'annexation' against Your Excellency's indomitable will."

Of course.

Those who entrusted their judgment to Lee Sung Joon wouldn't dare demand anything from the regime.

"Is that so?"

With the success of the first Revolutionary Re-education Camp, similar camps began sprouting up across the country like mushrooms after rain.

The number of inmates quickly jumped into the thousands.

Now in the Empire, 'revolution' first brought to mind these notorious camps.

If someone went missing, people would say,

"Where did that poor fellow go?"

"Went for a reeducation about the revolution."

"Ah, I see."

Everyone came to understand it this way.

Of course, one wasn't limited to a single 'revolution'.

The notoriously stubborn military man Lee Beom-seok didn't break even after three grueling 'revolutions'.

"The Empire must bear Korea's burden!"

He refused to renounce Japanese annexation, even under threat of agonizing death.

There was no choice but to keep 're-educating' him relentlessly.

"But Mr. Kim, how did you end up here?"

Kim Won-bong, a leftist military man, had no reason to be brought in.

He never spoke of Japanese annexation.

The reason for his detention was simple,

"You slandered His Excellency Lee Sung Joon!"

Initially, the re-education targets were literati who upset His Excellency by advocating Japanese annexation.

But as with all organizations, once the camps started running, they created their own prey to expand their reach.

"Revolution is essentially imprinting His Excellency in people's minds. How can we leave those who deny him be? If we do, more rotten oranges will appear."

"That makes sense."

So they rounded up anyone who uttered even slightly disrespectful words about Lee Sung Joon.

And 're-educated' them until they broke.

Even Syngman Rhee³ was caught this way.

"What's so wrong about calling a military dictator a military dictator?! I can't even write a line in the newspapers anyway."

"This man's got no fear. Add three excruciating months to his sentence."

As more notable figures were detained, Lee Sung Joon began to sense something was amiss.

"Huh? What? They're arresting everyone who criticizes me?"

Contrary to Sung Joon's intentions, the Revolutionary Re-education Camps were heading in a strange and disturbing direction.

To assess the situation, Sung Joon visited a camp himself.

"Long live His Excellency Lee Sung Joon!"

"Oh, Your Excellency! I was born to serve you!"

At first, Sung Joon thought he'd entered a fanatical cult.

But that wasn't it.

The guards proudly reported to Sung Joon during his inspection,

"Your Excellency, these are the results of our camp's civilianization efforts. Everyone has imprinted you in their minds, memorizing your every word and action, fully devoted to the revolution."

"I... I see."

He couldn't admit there had been a misunderstanding now.

An authoritarian leader must be infallible in judgment.

A leader who makes mistakes is no longer special.

Besides, now that he was here, he realized there wasn't a suitable replacement for the "Lee Sung Joon Series."

It would be contradictory to teach democracy under a military dictatorship, wouldn't it?

"Well, keep the Lee Sung Joon Series readings... moderate."

Of course, his instructions weren't followed in practice.

The readings continued to flourish and propagate in the camps.

This revolutionary indoctrination achieved its initial goals.

It crushed the Japanese annexation theory and silenced anti-Lee Sung Joon's voices in society.

However, if you ask whether this indoctrination had a positive effect on the Korean Empire, the answer is absolutely not at all.

As a side effect of the insidious brainwashing, it produced various social misfits, from cults worshipping Lee Sung Joon as a messiah to disturbingly fanatical followers.

"Your Excellency! You are like a divine being descended to save Korea! Please ascend the throne and lead the Empire to glory!"

"These bastards have gone utterly mad."

Even Lee Sung Joon couldn't bear the disastrous harmful effects and ordered the camps closed immediately.

"Your Excellency! Why discard such a useful tool as revolutionary indoctrination?"

"Just close them. Now."

The Revolutionary Re-education Camps existed for only a brief but impactful period in the Korean Empire's history.

However, as facilities operated by a great power, quite a few fascist-leaning countries were morbidly interested in their results.

Among them were Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy.

"Revolutionary Re-education Camps, huh? We've got political prisoners crawling all over like cockroaches. Why don't we subjugate them like the Koreans do?"

"It would be delightfully wicked to have them recite the Führer's 'Mein Kampf' and praise him excessively. Come to think of it, this could be even more sadistically entertaining. Imagine seeing those Social Democratic bastards groveling and praising the Führer."

This was the moment an unwanted, dark Korean Wave began - one that Sung Joon never wished to export but nonetheless unleashed upon the world.

1. Pingfang District is one of nine districts of the prefecture-level city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China, forming part of the city's urban core2. Vom Kriege is a book on war and military strategy by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, written mostly after the Napoleonic wars, between 1816 and 1830, and published posthumously by his wife Marie von Brühl in 18323. Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee is also known by his pen name Unam. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948