“Tan Yanks” and Black Korea

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-84
Author(s):  
Daniel Y. Kim
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Japanese Colonialism ◽  
Black Newspapers ◽  
Korean People ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Racial Solidarity ◽  
Mainstream Press ◽  
Hearts And Minds

This chapter analyzes cinematic and journalistic depictions of the Korean War that centered on the role played by African American soldiers serving in integrated combat units. Heroic depictions of “Tan Yanks” in both the mainstream press and black newspapers highlighted the usefulness of an integrated military to the global ideological battle against Communism, especially in terms of winning “the hearts and minds” of the formerly colonized. This chapter demonstrates how the Korean War facilitated the articulation of an early version of the ideology that Melanie McAllister has termed “military multiculturalism,” which is evident in two Hollywood films from the 1950s: Pork Chop Hill (1959) and All the Young Men (1960). This chapter also addresses two strains of Orientalism that also surfaced on the pages of black newspapers: the first expressed an Afro-Asian sense of racial solidarity and intimacy with the Korean people as a nonwhite nation that had suffered under a Japanese colonialism that had been supported by US and European powers prior to World War II; the second took shape as a fascination with amorous relationships that had formed between black servicemen and Japanese female civilians prior to and during the Korean War and the interracial desires they embodied.

Military Orientalism and the Intimacies of Collaboration

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-114
Author(s):  
Daniel Y. Kim
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Japanese Americans ◽  
Japanese American ◽  
World War ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
Cultural Sites ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Mainstream Press ◽  
The Military

The participation of Japanese American soldiers in the Korean War as it was depicted in Hollywood films, the mainstream press, and the Pacific Citizen is the focus of this chapter. Such texts reveal the “military Orientalism,” a subset of military multiculturalism, that took shape during the conflict, which posited Japanese Americans as citizen-subjects par excellence. This ideology asserted that the willingness of Japanese American men to serve their country in World War II (despite the racism of the internment) and in newly integrated combat units during the Korean War exemplified an ethos of sacrifice, a racialized value system crucial to their status as model minority subjects. This chapter traces the emergence of this military Orientalism across several cultural sites: two films that were released in 1959, Pork Chop Hill and The Crimson Kimono; tributes that appeared in the mainstream press to Nisei soldiers like Hiroshi Miyamura, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Korean War; Go for Broke!, a 1951 film set during World War II but released during the Korean War; and finally, the exhaustive coverage of this film’s production and reception in the Pacific Citizen, the newspaper of the Japanese American Citizens League.

scholarly journals Egyedi jellemvonások a modern dél-koreai kereszténységben = Unique features of Christianity in modern South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-247
Author(s):  
Fábian Armin Vincentius
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Korean People ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Korean Christianity ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
High Share

A „Han folyó csodája” kifejezésről sokan hallottak Dél-Korea rendkívül gyors és drámai fejlődésének eredményeként, ám az talán kevesek számára ismert, hogy a Japántól való felszabadulást (1945), illetve a koreai háborút (1953) követően a kereszténység is komoly áttörést ért el az országban. Jelenleg a lakosság több mint negyede, 13.5 millió személy vallja magát kereszténynek, a domináns protestáns felekezetek mellett pedig számottevő a hozzávetőlegesen 5 millió katolikus száma is. Mindez nemcsak a régióban található többi államhoz viszonyítva különleges, hanem azt is jelenti, hogy a Dél-Koreában élő keresztények aránya meghaladja az országban létező többi vallás követőinek számát együttvéve. A folyamat különösen érdekesnek tekinthető azon szempontból, hogy a távol-keleti állam teljesen más kulturális, vallási és történelmi szempontok alapján fejlődött a kereszténység megjelenése előtt, napjainkra azonban mégsem a sámánizmus vagy a buddhizmus, hanem a kereszténység bír központi szereppel vallási életében. Jelen tanulmány célja épp arra választ adni, hogy milyen okoknak köszönhetően volt képes a kereszténység hívek sokaságának bevonzására, illetve milyen egyedi, Dél-Koreára jellemző sajátosságok alakultak ki a fejlődés eredményeként. Jelen kutatás során egy rövid összefoglaló keretén belül szó esik a kereszténység Korea területét érintő kezdeti megjelenéséről, majd külön fejezetekben olvasható a katolicizmus, ortodoxia, anglikanizmus és protestantizmus helyzete. A munka autenticitásához és részletességéhez hozzájárul, hogy a szerző kilenc kvalitatív interjút készített a különböző felekezetek képviselőivel, illetve délkoreai tanulmányútja során személyesen is meglátogatta több felekezet lényeges helyszíneit. = The term "Miracle on the Han River" has been heard by many as a result of South Korea's fast and dramatic development, but it is probably known to few that in parallel Christianity managed to gain as well a significant popularity in the country after the liberation from Japanese occupation (1945) and the end of the Korean War (1953). Currently, more than a quarter of people living in South Korea consider themselves as Christians, and in addition to the dominant Protestant denominations, the number of Catholics is also significant with a number of around 5 million followers. The high share of Christians may seem peculiar not only compared to other states in the region, but also by acknowledging that before the emergence of Christianity Korea evolved based on different, cultural and religious principles. Still, instead of Buddhism or Shamanism nowadays Christianity has a central role in the religious life of South Korean people. This study attempts to find the main reasons behind the remarkable popularity of Christianity, as well as to show the unique features of South Korean Christianity resulted by the distinctive development. After a short introduction presenting the first stage of Christianity on the territory of Korea, the main features and situation of different Christian branches are discussed, namely Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Protestantism. Contributing to the authenticity and detail of the work, nine qualitative interviews with representatives of different denominations are included, all conducted by the author during his study trip to South Korea. Also, as the author had the opportunity to visit important religious sites during his field trip in Seoul, his experiences are briefly reported too in the study.

The Intimacies of Conflict

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Y. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Transnational American Studies ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Rolando Hinojosa ◽  
Chinese Subjects

Though known primarily in the United States as “the forgotten war,” the Korean War was a watershed event that fundamentally reshaped both domestic conceptions of race and the interracial dimensions of US imperial endeavors as they took shape during the Cold War. The Intimacies of Conflictworks against the historical erasure of this event first by returning us to the 1950s, revealing the emotionally compelling dramas of interracial and transnational intimacy that were staged around this event in Hollywood films and journalistic accounts. Through detailed analyses of such works, this book illuminates how the Korean War enabled the emergence of not just a military multiculturalism but also a military Orientalism and a humanitarian Orientalism: cultural logics that purported to make surgical distinctions between Asians who were allies and those who were legitimately killable. This book also demonstrates how an emergent tradition of US novels, primarily by authors of color, provides an exemplary assemblage of cultural memory, illuminating the intimacies that join and divide the histories of Asian American, African American, and Chicanx/Latinx subjects, as well as Korean and Chinese subjects. Novels by eminent US writers like Susan Choi, Chang-rae Lee, Rolando Hinojosa, and Toni Morrison and the South Korean author Hwang Sok-yong speak to the trauma experienced by civilians and combatants while also evoking an expansive web of complicity in war’s violence. Drawing together both comparative race and transnational American studies approaches, this study engages in a multifaceted ethical and political reckoning with the Korean War’s unended status.

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.

Communist Parties Come to Power in Korea and Vietnam

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-142
Author(s):  
George W. Breslauer
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Korean War ◽  
World War ◽  
The North ◽  
Guerrilla War ◽  
Northern Half ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Status

In Korea, the USSR occupied the northern half of the country after Japan withdrew its occupation forces. The Soviets installed a regime of North Korean communists who enjoyed popular support due to their sacrifices in fighting the Japanese during World War II. The leadership convinced Moscow and Beijing to sanction and support an invasion of South Korea that they hoped would reunify the country. This led to the Korean War, which merely restored the status quo ante at the expense of millions of lives. The pathway was different in Vietnam, where a guerrilla war against Japanese, then French, occupation led to the victory of the Vietnamese communist party in the North.

Korean Immigration to the United States After World War II

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal Mun-hye Baik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Korean Women ◽  
World War ◽  
American Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Korean Immigration

Korean immigration to the United States has been shaped by multiple factors, including militarization, colonialism, and war. While Koreans migrated to the American-occupied islands of Hawai’i in the early 20th century as sugar plantation laborers, Japanese imperial rule (1910–1945) and racially exclusive immigration policy curtailed Korean migration to the United States until the end of World War II. Since then, Korean immigration has been shaped by racialized, gendered, and sexualized conditions related to the Korean War and American military occupation. Although existing social science literature dominantly frames Korean immigration through the paradigm of migration “waves,” these periodizations are arbitrary to the degree that they centralize perceived US policy changes or “breaks” within a linear historical timeline. In contrast, emphasizing the continuing role of peninsular instability and militarized division points to the accumulative effects of the Korean War that continue to impact Korean immigration. With the beginning of the American military occupation of Korea in 1945 and warfare erupting in 1950, Koreans experienced familial separations and displacements. Following the signing of the Korean armistice in 1953, which halted armed fighting without formally ending the war, the American military remained in the southern half of the Peninsula. The presence of the US military in South Korea had immediate repercussions among civilians, as American occupation engendered sexual intimacies between Korean women and US soldiers. Eventually, a multiracial population emerged as children were born to Korean women and American soldiers. Given the racial exclusivity of American immigration policy at the time, the US government established legislative “loopholes” to facilitate the migrations of Korean spouses of US soldiers and multiracial children adopted by American families. Between 1951 and 1964 over 90 percent of the 14,027 Koreans who entered the United States were Korean “war brides” and transnational adoptees. Since 1965, Korean spouses of American servicemen have played key roles in supporting the migration of family members through visa sponsorship. Legal provisions that affected the arrivals of Korean women and children to the United States provided a precedent for US immigration reform after 1950. For instance, the 1952 and 1965 Immigration and Nationality Acts integrated core elements of these emergency orders, including privileging heterosexual relationships within immigration preferences. Simultaneously, while the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act “opened” the doors of American immigration to millions of people, South Korean military dictatorial rule and the imminent threat of rekindled warfare also influenced Korean emigration. As a result, official US immigration categories do not necessarily capture the complex conditions informing Koreans’ decisions to migrate to the United States. Finally, in light of the national surge of anti-immigrant sentiments that have crystallized since the American presidential election of Donald Trump in November 2016, immigration rights advocates have highlighted the need to address the prevalence of undocumented immigrant status among Korean Americans. While definitive statistics do not exist, emergent data suggests that at least 10 percent of the Korean American population is undocumented. Given this significant number, the undocumented status of Korean Americans is a critical site of study that warrants further research.

“This Land Remains German”: Requisitioning, Society, and the US Army, 1945–1956

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (03) ◽  
pp. 476-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam R. Seipp
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
Real Property ◽  
Us Army ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article examines debates over the requisitioning of real estate by the US Army during the decade after the end of World War II. Requisitioning quickly emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the relationship between German civilians and the American occupation. American policy changed several times as the physical presence of the occupiers shrank during the postwar period then expanded again after the outbreak of the Korean War. I show that requisitioning became a key site of contestation during the early years of the Federal Republic. The right to assert authority over real property served as a visible reminder of the persistent limits of German sovereignty. By pushing back against American requisitioning policy, Germans articulated an increasingly assertive claim to sovereign rights.

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