<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Greetings,</div><div><br></div><div>On the subject generally -- not specifically concerning any one place and time -- I've found a recent film to be very helpful in launching discussions about the situation in Korea just before the war, (and into the first part of the war, too). The film Taebaek Sanmaek (translated as Taebaek Mountains) is an Im Kwontaek full-length feature film that functions like a docu-drama, but is actually based on Cho Chøngnae's multi-volume mega-novel by the same name.</div><div><br></div><div>In it, one town, Pølgyo, is caught in the middle and torn back and forth by the communists and the nationalists. In reality, Pølgyo was such a place. It changed hands four times, and each time the victors executed their enemies and retaliated for the previous executions. It's a gruesome film in many ways, but it was a gruesome time, and through it all the humanity of those good people caught in the middle shows through. An Sung-gi plays the lead -- a school teacher but son of a landlord who is criticized and accused by each side as being sympathetic to the opposite side, yet somehow he maintains his position in society, and more importantly, his life.</div><div><br></div><div>It's a nicely done piece of cinema, if you will, based on an important literary work, that shows the human dimension of the Korean catastrophe. All-too-often, we deal with the War as an event in the political history of Korea. To do so leaves out the heart of the issue. </div><div><br></div><div>Cho's position, and that of the film, is that there were well-intended people on both sides, as were villains who let political judgment or ambition cloud their view. It's a kind of "pox-on-both-your-houses" piece, but works very well. The proof is in the pudding -- I've had wonderful discussions a papers come from students after we've gone through the film. It really opens their eyes and helps them think about the Korean War and Communism and the government in a new and different light.</div><div><br></div><div>for what it's worth....</div><div><br></div><div>best regards,</div><div>Mark</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On May 18, 2008, at 8:18 PM, Brother Anthony wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div>The atrocities did not begin with the outbreak of the war. There were a considerable number of terrible massacres in the years preceding. Sometimes people speak as if the Cheju Island massacres were an exceptional event. they were not, of course. The massacres in villages around Jiri-san suspected of helping partisans are known to some, but there were many incidents in other places that have remained completely unknown. Here too, 4.19 saw the beginnings of a healing process that was totally stopped and even reversed after 5.16, when sometimes the very tombs of victims whose remains had been recovered by families in the preceding months were obliterated. There was a very powerful programme aired on KBS in 2003 about that, in the 'human history' series (Inmul hyondaesa) which is archived at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/1264317_968.html">http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/1264317_968.html</a> where a few very old members of the victims' families dared to speak out, some stressing that even now the younger members of their families wanted them to stay silent. Many of the early programs in that series were very powerful, before it grew tame with a change of personnel. The full list of programmes is at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/vod.html">http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/vod.html</a> with the programs listed in reverse order.<br><br>It is certainly to be hoped that the truth can be spoken and some justice rendered before it is too late. Particularly terrible in that program was the fact that the families of those killed often know where the bodies were dumped, on hillsides or in caves, but are still (or were still in 2003) prevented from giving them proper burial.<br><br>Brother Anthony<br>Sogang University, Seoul<br><a href="http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/">http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><img src="http://mail.sogang.ac.kr:80/receiveMDNResponse.do?from=ansonjae@sogang.ac.kr&to=koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws&mid=26426785.1211163508522.JavaMail.root%40mail&store=%2Fmindex1%2Fsogang.ac.kr%2F412%2Fansonjae&host=mail.sogang.ac.kr" height="1" width="1"></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>