[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 59, Issue 25
Bruce Cumings
rufus88 at uchicago.edu
Thu May 22 13:33:19 EDT 2008
With reference to Michael Knudson's posting, it would be good for him
to get some background before accusing others of leaping to
conclusions based on their place of residence or the university where
they teach. It would also be good if he examined his assumption: the
truth does not make you free, but makes life difficult for Americans
in Korea.
Widespread atrocities committed by South Koreans and Americans in the
first months of the war have not been news since they were reported
widely in Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and many other
publications from that time that one might find on a barbershop
table. Reginald Thompson's Cry Korea (1952) is an excellent
eyewitness account that make harrowing reading, even today. Killings
and massacres were subsequently verified by declassified documents,
which made clear that the mayhem was much more widespread than
reporters thought; I documented many atrocities similar to the AP
account in my 1990 book, based on unimpeachable sources. I noted
internal evidence that Americans knew that South Koreans had
perpetrated the horrible massacre at Taejon. Korean historians have
unearthed mountains of evidence along similar lines, in the
relatively free atmosphere that democratization has provided since
about 1987. People have not been running amok in Kwangju because of
this evidence, however; instead Koreans are examining it in an
admirable truth and reconciliation process based on the most
successful of such efforts, namely the one in South Africa.
Mr. Knudson might do well to ask himself why his own government
witnessed these massacres and did nothing about them, connived with
the perpetrators to cover them up, blamed them on North Koreans when
they knew that was a lie, and chose at the highest levels (the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, in the fall of 1950) to keep an extensive
photographic record secret--until an enterprising Korean, Dr. Do-
Young Lee, finally got some of them declassified in 1999.
Bruce Cumings
On May 22, 2008, at 11:00 AM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
> Send Koreanstudies mailing list submissions to
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> <<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Cosmetic Surgery in Korea (Nathaniel I. Braun
> Hyperabundance)
> 2. Re: Korean War atrocities (utwingnut at gimail.af.mil)
> 3. Re: Korean War atrocities (Leonid Petrov)
> 4. Re: Korean War atrocities (George Katsiaficas)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 17:29:06 -0400
> From: "Nathaniel I. Braun Hyperabundance" <nathanbraun at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
> To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Message-ID:
> <49a251870805211429q47f27312q77e6f769c0a99c6c at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Of course, Seoul is the global capital for plastic surgery. One
> only has to
> visit, and look around, and think about it for a little while.
>
> Yes you can quote me on that.
>
> Nathan
>
> On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 5:53 PM, Son, Hijoo <hijoo at humnet.ucla.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Woo Keong Ja published an article in Korea Journal (summer 2004)
>> titled
>> "The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry" which is
>> available
>> online. It is part of her dissertation she finished in 2002 at
>> Yonsei,
>> titled YOsOng Ui oemojuUi wa sOnghyOng Uiryo sanOp in the sociology
>> department.
>>
>> Hijoo Son
>> Ph.D. Candidate
>> UCLA
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws on behalf of S. Kim
>> Sent: Mon 5/19/2008 12:56 PM
>> To: Korean Studies Discussion List
>> Subject: Re: [KS] Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
>>
>> Dear Professor Robinson,
>>
>> Ms So Yeon Leem, a PhD candidate at Seoul National University's
>> Program in
>> History & Philosophy of Science, is currently working on that very
>> issue.
>>
>> She gave a presentation, "Light-Touched Bodies, It's Natural!:
>> Medical Skin
>> Care Technologies in Korea," at the Society for the History of
>> Technology
>> Annual Meeting in Washington last year. This year, she'll be
>> giving another
>> related talk, "Cyborg Women who Make Women Beautiful: Following
>> Skin-Care
>> Experts in Korea," at the 2008 Social Studies of Science Annual
>> Meeting.
>>
>> So Yeon should know other cultural studies/anthropology/history
>> scholars
>> working on that area as well.
>>
>> I'll forward your e-mail to her.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Sang-Hyun Kim
>> Research Fellow, Program on Science, Technology & Society
>> John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: michael robinson
>> To: 'Korean Studies Discussion List'
>> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 3:28 PM
>> Subject: [KS] Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
>>
>>
>> Dear List:
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm working with several students and some HS teachers that have all
>> contacted me recently with an interest in the issue of cosmetic
>> surgery in
>> Korea. They are hearing that Korea is a plastic surgery Mecca in
>> East Asia
>> and possibly on a broader scale. Does anyone out do work on this
>> issue or
>> is conversant with others' work in this area? All I can do is
>> confirm the
>> general story, and I know there has been some good work done on
>> this. I'm
>> busy preparing to take a group to Korea so I'm not in a position
>> to work on
>> this..any help would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Mike Robinson
>>
>> Indiana University
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> NATHANIEL I BRAUN
> Hyperabundance
> +1 818 480 8211
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 12:27:27 -0400
> From: "utwingnut at gimail.af.mil" <utwingnut at gimail.af.mil>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Korean War atrocities
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Cc: utwingnut at gimail.af.mil
> Message-ID: <730b807f7368409f8f4c3d92e54b5aca.utwingnut at gimail.af.mil>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Friends,
> I may not have the background or the education that many on this
> list have but I would like to ask
> all of you to show caution in your investigation of war time
> atrocities. What has particularly
> caught my eye is the fact that Georgy Katsiaficas lives in Kwang Ju
> and works for Chun Nam
> University. As we all know, Kwang Ju and Chun Nam University are
> historically a hot bed for Korean
> political activity and has seen it's fare share of demonstrations
> (protests). I agree that this
> should be investigated. But, as one who has lived and worked in
> Korea and in Kwang Ju in particular
> I fear that if this investigation is not done in a sensitive
> manner, emotions will run high and
> people could get hurt.
>
>
> Respectfully,
> Michael Knudsen
> Salt Lake City, Utah
> utwingnut at gimail.af.mil
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> The original uncropped version of this moving photo in Taejon
> (which I was
> shown by the son of one of these executed prisoners in 2002)
> clearly depicts
> a uniformed American standing in the foreground overseeing the
> executions. I
> am surprised that the uncropped version was not mentioned--nor was
> direct US
> involvement in this particular massacre. Apparently, more than half a
> century after this tragedy, the American public continues to be
> denied full
> disclosure and an accurate accounting of our government?s actions.
>
> Georgy Katsiaficas
> Visiting Professor and Senior Fulbright Scholar
> Department of Sociology
> Chonnam National University
> Buk-ku Yongbongdong 300
> 500-757 GWANGJU
> South Korea
>
>
>
>
> ------- Original Message -------
>> From : koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws[mailto:koreanstudies-
>> request at koreaweb.ws]
> Sent : 5/19/2008 2:58:47 PM
> To : koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Cc :
> Subject : RE: Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 59, Issue 22
>
> Send Koreanstudies mailing list submissions to
> koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://koreaweb.ws/mailman/listinfo/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws"
> target="_new">
> http://koreaweb.ws/mailman/listinfo/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws >
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> koreanstudies-owner at koreaweb.ws
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Koreanstudies digest..."
>
>
> <<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Korean War atrocities (George Katsiaficas)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 03:25:53 +0900
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> The full text of Charles Hanley?s new article is much longer (and more
> disturbing) than the one on Yahoo to which Bruce Cumings linked.
> Check it
> at:
> http://ap.google.com/article/
> ALeqM5h2rT2wzhviymfyfyRdmdKw6tciagD90O9DJ80
>
> I have been in the macabre cave to which the article refers and to
> several
> other massacre sites, including the one in Taejon in this photo:
>
> :
>
> The original uncropped version of this moving photo in Taejon
> (which I was
> shown by the son of one of these executed prisoners in 2002)
> clearly depicts
> a uniformed American standing in the foreground overseeing the
> executions. I
> am surprised that the uncropped version was not mentioned--nor was
> direct US
> involvement in this particular massacre. Apparently, more than half a
> century after this tragedy, the American public continues to be
> denied full
> disclosure and an accurate accounting of our government?s actions.
>
> Georgy Katsiaficas
> Visiting Professor and Senior Fulbright Scholar
> Department of Sociology
> Chonnam National University
> Buk-ku Yongbongdong 300
> 500-757 GWANGJU
> South Korea
>
> Cell phone +82-10-6798-5852
> Home phone +82-62-530-0549
> Fax +82-62-530-2649
> www.eroseffect.com
>
>
>> From: Bruce Cumings <rufus88 at uchicago.edu>
>> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Date: Sun, 18 May 2008 19:51:41 -0400
>> To: <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Subject: [KS] Korean War atrocities
>>
>> Below is a very good report by Charles Hanley of Associate Press, who
>> was one of the AP reporters who brought the Nogun-ri massacre to
>> American attentions in 1999. In addition to his discussion of
>> American suppression of information about the Taejon massacre, note
>> that in his official history of the war, South to the Naktong, North
>> to the Yalu, with full access to secret documentation, Roy Appleman
>> blamed the Taejon massacre entirely on the North Koreans.
>>
>> Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden
>> By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
>> May 18, 2008
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080518/ap_on_re_as/
>> korea_mass_executions_covered_up
>>
>>
>> SEOUL, South Korea - One journalist's bid to report mass murder in
>> South Korea in 1950 was blocked by his British publisher. Another
>> correspondent was denounced as a possibly treasonous fabricator when
>> he did report it. In South Korea, down the generations, fear silenced
>> those who knew.
>>
>> Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South
>> Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal
>> process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or
>> wrongly identified as sympathizers. Today a government Truth and
>> Reconciliation Commission is working to dig up the facts, and the
>> remains of victims.
>>
>> How could such a bloodbath have been hidden from history?
>>
>> Among the Koreans who witnessed, took part in or lost family members
>> to the mass killings, the events were hardly hidden, but they became
>> a "public secret," barely whispered about through four decades of
>> right-wing dictatorship here.
>>
>> "The family couldn't talk about it, or we'd be stigmatized as
>> leftists," said Kim Chong-hyun, 70, leader of an organization of
>> families seeking redress for their loved ones' deaths in 1950.
>>
>> Kim, whose father was shot and buried in a mass grave outside the
>> central city of Daejeon, noted that in 1960-61, a one-year democratic
>> interlude in South Korea, family groups began investigating wartime
>> atrocities. But a military coup closed that window, and "the leaders
>> of those organizations were arrested and punished."
>>
>> Then, "from 1961 to 1988, nobody could challenge the regime, to try
>> again to reveal these hidden truths," said Park Myung-lim of Seoul's
>> Yonsei University, a leading Korean War historian. As a doctoral
>> student in the late 1980s, when South Korea was moving toward
>> democracy, Park was among the few scholars to begin researching the
>> mass killings. He was regularly harassed by the police.
>>
>> Scattered reports of the killings did emerge in 1950 ? and some
>> did not.
>>
>> British journalist James Cameron wrote about mass prisoner shootings
>> in the South Korean port city of Busan ? then spelled Pusan ? for
>> London's Picture Post magazine in the fall of 1950, but publisher
>> Edward Hulton ordered the story removed at the last minute.
>>
>> Earlier, correspondent Alan Winnington reported on the shooting of
>> thousands of prisoners at Daejeon in the British communist newspaper
>> The Daily Worker, only to have his reporting denounced by the U.S.
>> Embassy in London as an "atrocity fabrication." The British Cabinet
>> then briefly considered laying treason charges against Winnington,
>> historian Jon Halliday has written.
>>
>> Associated Press correspondent O.H.P. King reported on the shooting
>> of 60 political prisoners in Suwon, south of Seoul, and wrote in a
>> later memoir he was "shocked that American officers were unconcerned"
>> by questions he raised about due process for the detainees.
>>
>> Some U.S. officers ? and U.S. diplomats ? were among others who
>> reported on the killings. But their classified reports were kept
>> secret for decades.
>>
>
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> End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 59, Issue 22
> *********************************************
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 12:19:56 +1000
> From: "Leonid Petrov" <petrov at coombs.anu.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Korean War atrocities
> To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Message-ID:
> <eb465ad40805211919r783338c9t985af57ab3cbba15 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> I would like to support Michael Knudsen's appeal for a balanced and
> impartial stance when dealing with sensitive topics (and most topics
> related to Korean history are sensitive), particularly the Korean War.
>
> See a fairly balanced and impartial approach to the 1950 Teajon/Daejon
> massacre as given in chapter 2, 'The War that Was,' in Gavan
> McCormack's "Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of
> Nuclear Catastrophe", New York, Nation Books 2004.
>
> This part is available on-line:
> http://leonidpetrov.wordpress.com/conflicts/
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Leonid Petrov
> --
>
>
>> Friends,
>> I may not have the background or the education that many on this
>> list have but I would like to ask all of you to show caution in
>> your investigation of war time atrocities. What has particularly
>> caught my eye is the fact that Georgy Katsiaficas lives in Kwang
>> Ju and works for Chun Nam University. As we all know, Kwang Ju and
>> Chun Nam University are historically a hot bed for Korean
>> political activity and has seen it's fare share of demonstrations
>> (protests). I agree that this should be investigated. But, as one
>> who has lived and worked in Korea and in Kwang Ju in particular I
>> fear that if this investigation is not done in a sensitive manner,
>> emotions will run high and people could get hurt.
>
>> Respectfully,
> Michael Knudsen
> Salt Lake City, Utah
> utwingnut at gimail.af.mil
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 12:05:26 +0900
> From: George Katsiaficas <katsiaficasg at wit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Korean War atrocities
> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>,
> "petrov at coombs.anu.edu.au" <petrov at coombs.anu.edu.au>
> Message-ID: <C45B1206.1415F%katsiaficasg at wit.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Dear all,
>
> Thanks to Leonid Petrov for reporting the eyewitness French priest's
> testimony that American officers watched as the 1,700 prisoners
> near the
> church in Taejon were executed. Has anyone else also seen the photo
> in which
> the American officer was depicted before it was cropped to exclude
> the US
> officer?
>
> --
> Visiting Professor and Senior Fulbright Scholar
> Department of Sociology
> Chonnam National University
> Buk-ku Yongbongdong 300
> 500-757 GWANGJU
> South Korea
>
> Cell phone +82-10-6798-5852
> Home phone +82-62-530-0549
> Fax +82-62-530-2649
>
>
>> From: Leonid Petrov <petrov at coombs.anu.edu.au>
>> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 12:19:56 +1000
>> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Subject: Re: [KS] Korean War atrocities
>>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> I would like to support Michael Knudsen's appeal for a balanced and
>> impartial stance when dealing with sensitive topics (and most topics
>> related to Korean history are sensitive), particularly the Korean
>> War.
>>
>> See a fairly balanced and impartial approach to the 1950 Teajon/
>> Daejon
>> massacre as given in chapter 2, 'The War that Was,' in Gavan
>> McCormack's "Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of
>> Nuclear Catastrophe", New York, Nation Books 2004.
>>
>> This part is available on-line:
>> http://leonidpetrov.wordpress.com/conflicts/
>>
>> Yours sincerely,
>>
>> Leonid Petrov
>> --
>>
>>
>>> Friends,
>>> I may not have the background or the education that many on this
>>> list have
>>> but I would like to ask all of you to show caution in your
>>> investigation of
>>> war time atrocities. What has particularly caught my eye is the
>>> fact that
>>> Georgy Katsiaficas lives in Kwang Ju and works for Chun Nam
>>> University. As we
>>> all know, Kwang Ju and Chun Nam University are historically a hot
>>> bed for
>>> Korean political activity and has seen it's fare share of
>>> demonstrations
>>> (protests). I agree that this should be investigated. But, as one
>>> who has
>>> lived and worked in Korea and in Kwang Ju in particular I fear
>>> that if this
>>> investigation is not done in a sensitive manner, emotions will
>>> run high and
>>> people could get hurt.
>>
>>> Respectfully,
>> Michael Knudsen
>> Salt Lake City, Utah
>> utwingnut at gimail.af.mil
>>
>
>
>
>
> End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 59, Issue 25
> *********************************************
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