[KS] Korean War atrocities

[Mark Peterson]

Greetings,

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.

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.

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.

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.

for what it's worth....

best regards,
Mark



On May 18, 2008, at 8:18 PM, Brother Anthony wrote:

> 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 http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/1264317_968.html  
> 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 http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/manhistory/vod/vod.html 
>   with the programs listed in reverse order.
>
> 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.
>
> Brother Anthony
> Sogang University, Seoul
> http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/

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