For over two decades, Kim Dong-Choon has written about the history of violence leveled at the pop... more For over two decades, Kim Dong-Choon has written about the history of violence leveled at the population since Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule and partitioned by Soviet and US forces in 1945. His research and theoretical reflections on state violence—committed by US forces, the South Korean police, military, and right-wing groups, as well as by leftist guerillas and the Korean People's Army—offer unique insight into what he calls the war politics that established and consolidated North and South Korea. Rather than ending the war, the armistice that halted the fighting in 1953 institutionalized this war politics, sustaining not only a near-war situation along the DMZ but also a “state of exception” within both Koreas. In the interview, conducted by Henry Em and Christine Hong in 2012, Kim Dong-Choon explains how the division system, and the war politics that sustains it, function as a bulwark against the consolidation of democracy in South Korea.
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Korea had been a Japanese colony from ... more <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Korea had been a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. Instead of becoming independent and unified, it was divided in the aftermath of World War II. The chapter describes how the American Cold War strategy of anti-communism penetrated the internal politics of South Korea, and distorted, or even prevented, like in other countries the process of decolonization, keeping the colonial apparatus in place. The historical task of reshaping the post-colonial order in East Asia was overshadowed for the US by requirements of its new hegemony and the need to rebuild the region's capitalist economies. The systematic elimination of former independence activists, including right-wing nationalists in South Korea, by extreme anti-communists who had worked for the Japanese foretold the dominance of anti-communism in politics. The ideology of anti-communism brought South Koreans permanent surveillance, political terror, and mass killing like during colonial subjugation.</jats:p>
Dong-Choon Kim seeks to understand the true impact of the Korean War (1950-1953) on South Korea&#... more Dong-Choon Kim seeks to understand the true impact of the Korean War (1950-1953) on South Korea's people and society. How did key figures such as President Syngman Rhee respond when North Korean troops crossed the thirty-eighth parallel and what does this tell us about the nature of the South Korean state at the time? How did South Koreans experience the North Korean occupation and what happened once Seoul and other areas were restored? Why were so many people brutally massacred by both sides? How does the war continue to influence South Korean institutions and society? This social history of the Korean War addresses these crucial questions, exposing and probing the war's deepest wounds, wounds long concealed by Cold War rhetoric and successive oppressive military regimes in the South.
The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 2017
In the 1950s, Christianity and educational achievement were the primary means for Koreans to brea... more In the 1950s, Christianity and educational achievement were the primary means for Koreans to break through the misery and powerlessness that the conflict from June 1950 to July 1953 had caused. Along with education, religion was a promising route in securing familial welfare for South Koreans. Among the several religions and denominations, Protestant churches were more popular for the uprooted people residing in urban areas. These two privately motivated daily activities—education and religion—captured the concern of the Korean people who had lost everything during the war. Under President Syngman Rhee’s “police state” and infrastructural ruin, religious and educational institutions filled the vacuum in the Republic of Korea that the Korean War had left in civil society. The Korean “habitus” of family promotion in the 1950s foretold the fast economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper will show how South Korea, during that decade, witnessed the formation of a new familialism,...
Asian Journal of German and European Studies, 2017
I focused on how the domestic social grounds of anticommunism were interlinked with the external ... more I focused on how the domestic social grounds of anticommunism were interlinked with the external atmosphere like U.S. occupation, divided state-building and the Korean War. I especially emphasized the role of the Japanese collaborators in the post-colonial politics. Anticommunism as a political ideology surrendered to anticommunism as a rationale for the survival of class interests when historical task of overcoming colonialism was dominated by the Cold War atmosphere and full scale war. When North Korea’s threats came to reality by the outbreak of the Korean War, hysteric style of anticommunism came to dominate the other forms of anticommunism. The chronic occurrence of anticommunist hysteria may be explained by the political landscape. It was not just the result of U.S. occupation force’s policy, the international Cold War, but of the failure of de-colonization, by which former Japanese collaborators became the hegemonic groups among Korea’s anticommunists, left dark shadow on Sou...
For over two decades, Kim Dong-Choon has written about the history of violence leveled at the pop... more For over two decades, Kim Dong-Choon has written about the history of violence leveled at the population since Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule and partitioned by Soviet and US forces in 1945. His research and theoretical reflections on state violence—committed by US forces, the South Korean police, military, and right-wing groups, as well as by leftist guerillas and the Korean People's Army—offer unique insight into what he calls the war politics that established and consolidated North and South Korea. Rather than ending the war, the armistice that halted the fighting in 1953 institutionalized this war politics, sustaining not only a near-war situation along the DMZ but also a “state of exception” within both Koreas. In the interview, conducted by Henry Em and Christine Hong in 2012, Kim Dong-Choon explains how the division system, and the war politics that sustains it, function as a bulwark against the consolidation of democracy in South Korea.
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Korea had been a Japanese colony from ... more <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Korea had been a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. Instead of becoming independent and unified, it was divided in the aftermath of World War II. The chapter describes how the American Cold War strategy of anti-communism penetrated the internal politics of South Korea, and distorted, or even prevented, like in other countries the process of decolonization, keeping the colonial apparatus in place. The historical task of reshaping the post-colonial order in East Asia was overshadowed for the US by requirements of its new hegemony and the need to rebuild the region's capitalist economies. The systematic elimination of former independence activists, including right-wing nationalists in South Korea, by extreme anti-communists who had worked for the Japanese foretold the dominance of anti-communism in politics. The ideology of anti-communism brought South Koreans permanent surveillance, political terror, and mass killing like during colonial subjugation.</jats:p>
Dong-Choon Kim seeks to understand the true impact of the Korean War (1950-1953) on South Korea&#... more Dong-Choon Kim seeks to understand the true impact of the Korean War (1950-1953) on South Korea's people and society. How did key figures such as President Syngman Rhee respond when North Korean troops crossed the thirty-eighth parallel and what does this tell us about the nature of the South Korean state at the time? How did South Koreans experience the North Korean occupation and what happened once Seoul and other areas were restored? Why were so many people brutally massacred by both sides? How does the war continue to influence South Korean institutions and society? This social history of the Korean War addresses these crucial questions, exposing and probing the war's deepest wounds, wounds long concealed by Cold War rhetoric and successive oppressive military regimes in the South.
The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 2017
In the 1950s, Christianity and educational achievement were the primary means for Koreans to brea... more In the 1950s, Christianity and educational achievement were the primary means for Koreans to break through the misery and powerlessness that the conflict from June 1950 to July 1953 had caused. Along with education, religion was a promising route in securing familial welfare for South Koreans. Among the several religions and denominations, Protestant churches were more popular for the uprooted people residing in urban areas. These two privately motivated daily activities—education and religion—captured the concern of the Korean people who had lost everything during the war. Under President Syngman Rhee’s “police state” and infrastructural ruin, religious and educational institutions filled the vacuum in the Republic of Korea that the Korean War had left in civil society. The Korean “habitus” of family promotion in the 1950s foretold the fast economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper will show how South Korea, during that decade, witnessed the formation of a new familialism,...
Asian Journal of German and European Studies, 2017
I focused on how the domestic social grounds of anticommunism were interlinked with the external ... more I focused on how the domestic social grounds of anticommunism were interlinked with the external atmosphere like U.S. occupation, divided state-building and the Korean War. I especially emphasized the role of the Japanese collaborators in the post-colonial politics. Anticommunism as a political ideology surrendered to anticommunism as a rationale for the survival of class interests when historical task of overcoming colonialism was dominated by the Cold War atmosphere and full scale war. When North Korea’s threats came to reality by the outbreak of the Korean War, hysteric style of anticommunism came to dominate the other forms of anticommunism. The chronic occurrence of anticommunist hysteria may be explained by the political landscape. It was not just the result of U.S. occupation force’s policy, the international Cold War, but of the failure of de-colonization, by which former Japanese collaborators became the hegemonic groups among Korea’s anticommunists, left dark shadow on Sou...
The most terrible massacres that occurred in the Korean peninsula in the 20th century, The Nation... more The most terrible massacres that occurred in the Korean peninsula in the 20th century, The National Guidance League massacre.
On the Impact of the National Division and the Korean War in the Korean Peninsula upon South Kore... more On the Impact of the National Division and the Korean War in the Korean Peninsula upon South Korean Politics Contemporary Korean Political Thought in Search of a Post-Eurocentric Approach (Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory) by Kang Jung In (Editor, Contributor), Lexington Books, 2014.11.20 ISBN-13: 978-0739181003 ISBN-10: 0739181009
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Contemporary Korean Political Thought in Search of a Post-Eurocentric Approach (Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory) by Kang Jung In (Editor, Contributor), Lexington Books, 2014.11.20
ISBN-13: 978-0739181003 ISBN-10: 0739181009