WEEK 7 – COUNTERMEMORIES OF THE KOREAN WAR
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Last updated 9:32 PM on 3/16/23
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7 Terms
1
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Countermemories of the Korean War
* Official narratives vs. counter memories
* “Forgetting and remembering”, the “inheritance of traumatic memories”
* “What we have been made to forget” and “what we have never been allowed to remember”
* Countermemories as a way “to inform histories and current practices of domination” (53) in which “the United States is a neocolonial power rather than a peacekeeper bestowing the gift of democracy” (51)
* *hidden histories, generalized unconscious, psychic effects, atemporal and nonlinear*
\
The US script shows the Korean War as one of the US’ best achievements in that it:
\- Liberated Korea
\- Fought the communist North in the name of freedom and democracy
\- Rebuilt a devastated country and its econ
* “Forgetting and remembering”, the “inheritance of traumatic memories”
* “What we have been made to forget” and “what we have never been allowed to remember”
* Countermemories as a way “to inform histories and current practices of domination” (53) in which “the United States is a neocolonial power rather than a peacekeeper bestowing the gift of democracy” (51)
* *hidden histories, generalized unconscious, psychic effects, atemporal and nonlinear*
\
The US script shows the Korean War as one of the US’ best achievements in that it:
\- Liberated Korea
\- Fought the communist North in the name of freedom and democracy
\- Rebuilt a devastated country and its econ
2
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Movie
*“Memory of Forgotten War” (Deann Borshay Liem and Ramsay Liem 2013)*
3
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***What War Traumas does* %%*Grace Cho*%% *highlight?***
* Similarities between the Vietnam war and the Korean war in its violence and killings of innocent civilians.
* The myth of the American military as a hero and the American Dream (also seen in Pachinko)
* Military violence + crimes: Strafing + napalm + scorched-earth policy
* Women’s experience: **militarized prostitution** + lots of rapes → also Highlighted by %%Katherine Moon%%.
* The myth of the American military as a hero and the American Dream (also seen in Pachinko)
* Military violence + crimes: Strafing + napalm + scorched-earth policy
* Women’s experience: **militarized prostitution** + lots of rapes → also Highlighted by %%Katherine Moon%%.
4
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**Militarized Prostitution** + %%Katherine Moon%%’s writing on it
First, “comfort stations” were constructed as military brothels by the Japanese.
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Established gov-regulated compulsory STD examinations (Purification Campaign).
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Katherine Moon:
Power dynamics between nations were projected on women’s bodies: “the women of the weaker state represent, through their prostituted bodies, the dominated and controlled position of the weaker state.”
\
Also **racial** tensions in the *camptowns*.
\
These women brought in foreign currency (mainly the USD) to Korea → they were the backbone of the lower class toward “economic miracle”
\
Established gov-regulated compulsory STD examinations (Purification Campaign).
\
Katherine Moon:
Power dynamics between nations were projected on women’s bodies: “the women of the weaker state represent, through their prostituted bodies, the dominated and controlled position of the weaker state.”
\
Also **racial** tensions in the *camptowns*.
\
These women brought in foreign currency (mainly the USD) to Korea → they were the backbone of the lower class toward “economic miracle”
5
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Camptowns - def and the two stages
= *Small villages that depend entirely on the U.S. military economy developed around the U.S. bases*.
\
1950s-60s: less regulated sexual work, women were “freer” but there was an intense STD outbreak + reports of abuse/rape.
\
1970-80s: Purification Campaign
* STD examinations
* better sanitary conditions
* resolving racial conflicts
=> Under Nixon Doctrine to withdraw 1/3 of troop by the end of 1971
\
1950s-60s: less regulated sexual work, women were “freer” but there was an intense STD outbreak + reports of abuse/rape.
\
1970-80s: Purification Campaign
* STD examinations
* better sanitary conditions
* resolving racial conflicts
=> Under Nixon Doctrine to withdraw 1/3 of troop by the end of 1971
6
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Camptown Protests
1971
\
* Racial, political, economic, social and sexual tensions
* Public demonstrations by white and black soldiers
* Protests of alleged GI murders of Korean women
* Institution of law and order in camptown communities, submitted to systematic scrutiny and control by US military and local authorities
* “contact identification” systems were like dog-tags for women
\
* Racial, political, economic, social and sexual tensions
* Public demonstrations by white and black soldiers
* Protests of alleged GI murders of Korean women
* Institution of law and order in camptown communities, submitted to systematic scrutiny and control by US military and local authorities
* “contact identification” systems were like dog-tags for women
7
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Kang Sŏk-kyŏng, “Days and Dreams”
Talks about the life of a sex-worker:
* the STD testing and locking up women who had STDs in quarantine
* the violence of some men that sometimes even led to murder
* the jobs of women and their debt to “madams” which were often impossible to repay
* the desire for the “American dream”
* Prostitutes being neither respected by the Koreans nor by the Americans
* The women “forced” into becoming sex workers
\
then DIASPORA
* the STD testing and locking up women who had STDs in quarantine
* the violence of some men that sometimes even led to murder
* the jobs of women and their debt to “madams” which were often impossible to repay
* the desire for the “American dream”
* Prostitutes being neither respected by the Koreans nor by the Americans
* The women “forced” into becoming sex workers
\
then DIASPORA
