Series Tomorrow's History — October 26, Looking Beyond the Mirror Toward the Future

History is not merely a record that preserves passing time in amber. Specific dates on the calendar that return each year are both profound questions posed to us by the past and a compass that allows us to gauge what lies ahead.

1. Yesterday's Decisive Moments: Harbin in 1909 and Gunjeong-dong in 1979

Today, October 26, is a day when the most dramatic and monumental inflection points of modern Korean history converge.

• October 26, 1909 Dr. Ahn Jung-geun assassinated Ito Hirobumi, the arch-instigator of Korea's invasion, on the platform of Harbin Station in China. That single gunshot was an eternal flame toward national independence in the darkness of colonial rule, and a righteous cry toward East Asian peace.

• October 26, 1979 The gunshot that rang out at a private residence in Gunjeong-dong, Seoul, brought down the curtain on 18 years of Yusin authoritarianism and authoritarian long-term rule. In the midst of tumultuous modern history, it was the moment when the age of dictatorship waned and a new space for democratization opened.

2. Today's Trajectory: The Legacy Left by That Day's Choices

The tragedies and resolutions of history are never confined to the museums of the past.

The value of Dr. Ahn Jung-geun's vision of a "Theory of East Asian Peace" calls upon us today to reconsider coexistence among nations, solidarity, and the value of peace. Furthermore, the yearning for democracy and the pain left behind by the 10·26 Incident continue as an eternal task: how to mature democracy in our daily lives beyond institutional change.

The social conflicts we face each day, technological innovation, and democratic procedures can all be truly understood only in light of yesterday's footprints.

○ Today's Historical Lesson

"The resolve of those who sought to become light even in the darkness of an era reminds us that it is the everyday solidarity and action of awakened citizens, transcending institutional change, that truly propels history forward."

3. Tomorrow's History: What Will We Record Today?

The values that figures of the past were willing to die for, and the moments when they turned history's rudder against the absurdities of their time, pose a question to us.

"What line of history will we record today without shame for the future to come?"

Beyond mere commemoration of events, we live in an era where today's choices become tomorrow's history. Humanity's solidarity in the face of climate crisis, the essence of journalism we must preserve amid rapidly changing AI and media environments, and coexistence with society's vulnerable are the beginning of the "tomorrow's history" we must urgently contemplate and record right now.

A solid stepping stone that goes beyond reminiscing about time that has passed, to designing a better tomorrow. We hope that today's daily serialization of "Tomorrow's History" opened by Suwon Ilbo becomes a profound resonance and timely insight in the lives of our readers.