[KS] Juche Thought

[McCann, David]

I'd suggest that any check on the appeal that the juche idea had should be much broader than attention just to Japan.  Many 3d World locations found it compelling.

One perhaps overly simple point to explain the appeal is that the DPRK economy was stronger than the South through the 1960's and into the 1970's.  Measurable difference.

Ideas may be thin gruel, but per capita income and other such measures are not.  And the windy-seeming formulation of 'philosophical nonsense produced purely for export' could cover a great many national ideological formulations.  Juche had the useful portability of being just one word.  Sound-bite length; eminently textable, had there been text messaging in the '70's.

David McCann


On May 28, 2012, at 1:52 AM, Robert S Boynton wrote:

I've been an enthusiastic consumer of this listserv for the past two years, and although I
have found it extremely helpful and informative, I've never posted before. I'm finishing writing
a book about North Korea's abduction project in the 1970s and 1980s, and am having trouble
writing a chapter having to do with the Yodogo hijackers, juche study groups and juche thought.

My problem is that I can't find a way to explain the allure that juche has for some people, especially
young Japanese in the 1970s. I'm sure that leftist enthusiasm for the North Korean experiment played a role,
but it couldn't have been that entirely. The juche ideas I've encountered have seemed like pretty thin gruel, and
I was hoping someone could direct me to literature or individuals who could hep me understand why some
people have felt compelled to change their lives and become followers of juche.

I'm familiar with BR Meyers argument that juche is little more than philosophical nonsense produced purely
for export. Perhaps it is, but I'd like to understand why some have found it worth importing. Thank you. I welcome any
responses either via the listserv, or to my email, which is bellow.
--
Robert S. Boynton
Director of Literary Reportage Concentration
Associate Professor
Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
New York University
20 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003
robert.boynton at nyu.edu<mailto:robert.boynton at nyu.edu>
212-998-7594

TOKYO CELL NUMBER: 080-3413-2370


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