Liberating the Child-Heart

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafna Zur
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Military Government ◽  
United State ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
The Korean War

This chapter turns to children’s literature at its most significant watershed moment: the liberation of Korea from its thirty-five-year colonization. In the five years between 1945 and the Korean War in 1950, the Korean peninsula experienced the euphoria of liberation, the arrival of the United State Military Government in Korea, the hardening of ideological positions, and the ensuing mass migration up and down the peninsula, as well as the official establishment of two separate and mutually intolerant regimes. Children’s literature provides a fascinating counterpoint to these historical shifts by showcasing powerful nationalist tendencies that set the tone for a new beginning, while simultaneously presenting strong undercurrents remaining from the colonial past. Most significantly, this chapter looks at the much-celebrated and freshly liberated child-heart and questions the extent of liberation in light of a newly forged relationship between Korea’s new young citizens and their liberated land.

Occupation, Diplomacy, and the Moving Image

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sueyoung Park-Primiano
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Military Government ◽  
American Military ◽  
Cultural Imaginary ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Educational Films ◽  
Straightforward Interpretation ◽  
The U.S

This chapter, by S. Park-Primiano, examines the use of noncommercial films by the U.S. military to facilitate its diverse roles during its occupation of South Korea in the aftermath of World War II. Used by the American Military Government in Korea, educational films aided the U.S. military's efforts to Americanize the Korean population and combat Communism. Films were also used to inform and rally support for its policy in Korea from American military and civilian personnel at home as well as abroad. For this purpose, the U.S. military sought cooperation from and enlisted the assistance of Korean filmmakers in the production of films about Korean culture and history that challenge any straightforward interpretation of Americanization or a unidirectional influence. Moreover, such conflicting efforts had a long-lasting effect in South Korea. It was a practice that was continued by the succeeding information apparatus of the U.S. State Department and the United Nations during the Korean War and beyond to further expose the need for a closer examination of U.S. control of the Korean cultural imaginary.

scholarly journals Emotional preparation for the unification of Korea: Through the embracement, forgiveness and love shown in the Gospel of Matthew

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
In-Cheol Shin
Keyword(s):  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Matthean Community ◽  
Definite Solution

The greatest wish of the Baeda l people, or South Koreans, living in the Korean Peninsula is the unification of Korea. However, even when it has been 70 years since the outbreak of the Korean War, the two Koreas that used to be one nation are still in conflict. There have been many discourses on unification over the past 70 years, but these discourses still fail to create clear rules and a framework for unification. Discourses from the perspective of biblical theology offer insight regarding the problems at stake as well as alternatives, but they do not offer perspectives on a definite solution. This article, in line with its statement on biblical theology, does not pretend to contribute to a clear-cut solution to meet the challenge of Korea’s unification. Rather, this article intends to contribute to the formation of an emotional consensus that can contribute to the unification of Korea by looking at the teachings about peace in the Gospel of Matthew. The article explores whether the notion of embracement, forgiveness and love written during the conflict between the Matthean community and Formative Judaism can be applied to help create an emotional bond between the two Koreas. The terms embracement, forgiveness and love found in the Gospel of Matthew are upheld as symbolising peace derived from opposition and conflict. Jesus taught us to overcome situations of opposition and conflict through embracement, forgiveness and love.Contribution: The purpose and contribution of this article was to discuss if the notions of embracement, forgiveness and love found in the Gospel of Matthew can be helpful for the emotional preparation of the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula by comparing the situations reflected in the Gospel of Matthew and that of the Korean Peninsula.

(Re)mapping the Yanggongju and the Camptown in Shin Sang-ok's Hellflower

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Laura Ha Reizman
Keyword(s):  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The South ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
New Era ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Love Triangle

The Korean War (1950–53) changed the material and affective landscape of the Korean peninsula and ushered in a new era ruled by a military dictatorship dependent on US military power. With bases dotting the South Korean peninsula, former agricultural villages became camptowns that catered to the needs of American soldiers. This article focuses on the South Korean melodrama Chiokhwa (Hellflower, 1958), directed by Shin Sang-ok, which narrates a love triangle between two brothers and Sonya, a camptown prostitute or yanggongju. It examines the role of the postwar environment in constructing the spaces of the subject. Using the yanggongju figure as a technology of postwar memory, this work reevaluates the ecology of ruination left in the wake of the Korean War—as portrayed through Sonya, scenes of the city, the camptown, the base, and the surrounding fields and marshes—to explore the sense of loss and displacement of this period.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-132
Author(s):  
Suhi Choi
Keyword(s):  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
A Site

How would the reunification of two Koreans impact the case of memorializing the Korean War? The unified land of Korea itself will present a unique memorial site of the Korean War that is filled with cacophonous sets of objects, rituals, and bodies. Such a site will provoke us to witness many ironic puzzles of memories: one’s oppressive ideology could be another’s legitimate saga; victims at a memorial on one side could be recalled as perpetrators in a memorial on the other side; and heroes of one site could be villains of the other. Surely, the unified land of Korea will increase the chances that we will see not only the enmeshed lines among victims, heroes, and perpetrators of both war realities, but also our acts of remembering themselves. It will become a revived palimpsest that invites us to uncover complex layers of memories that conflict with one another and thus are not wrapped up merely with the narrative in hegemony. In these ways, the reunification of the two Koreas potentially will transform the Korean Peninsula from a topography of terror into a subversive platform of empathic mourning.

Britain's Retreat East of Suez and the Conundrum of Korea 1968–1974

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-95
Author(s):  
Tae Joon Won
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Korean Waters ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The 1960S

This article examines the discussions and decisions which occurred within the British government concerning Britain's military involvement in the Korean peninsula at a time when Britain was pulling out of its military obligations in Asia – colloquially known as the ‘retreat East of Suez’ – in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. After the end of the Korean War, Britain created the Commonwealth Liaison Mission in Seoul and provided a frigate for use in Korean waters by the American-led United Nations Command and British soldiers for the United Nations Honour Guard. When relations between North and South Korea reached crisis point at the end of the 1960s, London was concerned that Britain could be entangled in an unaffordable military conflict in the Korean peninsula. The Ministry of Defence therefore argued for the abolition of the commitment of the British frigate, but the Foreign Office opposed this initiative so as to mitigate the blow to Anglo-American relations caused by Britain's refusal to commit troops to Vietnam. When Edward Heath's government negotiated a Five Power Defence Agreement with Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand in April 1971, the Ministry of Defence was, despite the objections of the Foreign Office, finally successful in repealing the frigate commitment for reasons of overstretching military resources. Furthermore, the Ministry of Defence then called for the abolition of the Commonwealth Liaison Mission altogether when it was then discovered that the British contingent of the United Nations Honour Guard would have to fight under the command of the United Nations Commander in case of a military conflict in the Korean peninsula. But this proposal too was rebuffed by the Foreign Office, concerned that such a move would greatly damage Anglo-Korean relations at a time when Britain was considering establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Kim, Soo-yong (September 23, 1929--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Cook
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Military Government ◽  
South Korean ◽  
North Korean Defectors ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Youth Films ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Korean Film

Trained as a filmmaker during the Korean War, Kim Soo-yong debuted in 1958 amid the South Korean film industry’s postwar recovery and became one of the representative Korean filmmakers of the 1960s. Under the film policies of Park Chung-hee’s military government, the film industry suffered from censorship and quotas. The literary film emerged as an important genre signifying quality and artistic merit. Kim’s 1965 Kaenmaŭl [Seaside Village] marked him as a leading director of literary adaptations, which account for half his prolific oeuvre of over one hundred films. Kim also worked in popular genres, including comedy, melodrama, youth films, and anti-communist films, but is remembered for films that display realist, non-paternalistic perspectives on postwar society. His 1963 film Hyŏlmaek [Kinship] depicted the generational divide among North Korean defectors living in poverty on the fringes of society in the industrializing South. Seaside Village provocatively took on the sexuality of widows in a fishing community and contained lesbian innuendos. Several of his films also demonstrated a formal modernism. The 1967 An’gae [Mist], regarded as one of his highest achievements, employs experimental montage and a temporally complex flashback structure. In later years, he has been credited with helping ease film censorship in South Korea.

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