I would like to explore Korea’s radio broadcasting as a primary source with my students, allowing them to identify its cultural and political value as it connected people within countries all over the world in the early-mid twentieth century. It would also be an opportunity to teach students how to recognize that when a country establishes national radio is one way to recognize “developed” countries and “developing” countries. Most importantly, to focus on Korea’s culture, history, and modernization, I would use excerpts of radio shows so that students could draw conclusions about Korea’s cultural practices, the peoples’ beliefs and values, regional differences, and international influences.

Although South Korea was militarily and financially supported by the U.S., having government roles such as a prime minister and limited presidential power would suggest other national influences. In particular, I feel like post-World War II Korea shaped their government using the Japanese as their example which perplexes me for two reasons. First, with Korea having been a Japanese colony starting in 1910, they experienced discrimination, a lack of civil rights, and economic depletion under the Japanese government for 40 years. Yet, Korea must have believed that the “positives” they experienced as a colony were related to Japan’s style of government in order for them to implement parts of it themselves. Second, with Japan’s government being modeled after western countries in the late 19th century and early 20th century, this means that Korea’s modern government implemented western traditions. However, we know that implementing these practices stirred a lot of debate and political strife in China and Japan, two other east Asian countries. Did Korea believe that their period as a Japanese colony had already mitigated any troubles they would have transitioning to a more western style of government? Or did Korea have reason to believe that their transition strategies would meet cultural expectations and not be met with resistance and revolutions like in China and Japan?

In these lectures, Dr. Jung-Kim notes that Queen Min, in the latter half of the 19th century, and the First Lady, Park Chung Hee's wife, were assassinated. The assassination of rulers’ wives was not mentioned with China’s or Japan’s histories. In fact, with the exception of the assassination of Sophie, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s wife, before World War I, I do not know of other instances in modern history where a leader’s wife has been killed. The targeting of a ruler’s wife or queen is a tactic that I have read of more frequently during the medieval and pre-modern eras. What were the opposition’s reasons for targeting women in Korea, how did this happen twice, and what, if anything, has prevented oppositional forces from continuing to assassinate spouses in attempts to control Korean leaders in the past 50 years?

Last class we discussed WWII from the perspective of the Japanese. Growing up in the US, this, naturally, was not the point of view I learned. In the 1930s and 40s we see the growing militarization of Japan. At this time, Japan is really trying to build up its war machine and they are trying to assimilate Koreans into the Japanese empire. Koreans began losing their Korean identities and even had to change their names to Japanese names! It is crazy that a Korean marathoner won the Gold medal in the 1936 Olympics, but he had to complete for Japan because Korea was not an independent country! Then, we know that in December of 1941 Japan starts war with the US after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

While I took a 20th Century Wars class in college, I don't remember diving into the military sexual slavery or military brothels. Up to 200,000 women were enslaved (mostly Korean, but also Chinese, Japanese, Philippines, Dutch) during the war. In 1937, there even was an official brothel policy placing brothels where soldiers were stationed. Many women were either abducted or taken under false pretenses thinking they'd be working in factories. Many documents about the brothels were destroyed by the Japanese government to keep things silenced. Koreans were even part of the silencing because it was seen as shame. During this time, rape was not a war crime or a crime against humanity. The 1980's is when awareness of these events came about. I was surprised hearing Dr. Jung-Kim’s first-hand account from being there the day of the agreement for a resolution with the survivors in 2015. Today, there are Comfort women statues and monuments around the world. I plan to drive to Glendale this week to see the one there, but I now plan to check out the statue in Southfield the next time I go back to visit my family in Michigan. In 2020, we are still fighting for women to have equal rights and while this topic may be too heavy for my 6^th graders to cover, my 8^th graders do study WWII. Seeing it from a different perspective could be beneficial. I would definitely condense the material for them, however!

In 1884, Western missionaries were US/Canadian and emphasized integration of hospitals and education, as opposed to religion, to show merits of western culture and religion. That was an interesting angle for westerners to take, a slight departure from the imperialism or colonialism we’re used to reading about. As a thought exercise with my students, I would like to present them with that choice, as if some foreign or alien technology were to come to the planet, would they rather choose advanced medicine or education/knowledge. That would be an interesting debate and discussing the merits of each and how that would affect our current society.

Comfort Women

The suffering of the Korean sex slaves is quite a topic to focus on because it is a situation that occurs during many wars but never spoken about. This can be a great topic to speak on in an English, History and even Art. The theme can focus on the effect words can have on the impact and reaction of the audiance, for example, changing the title of the woman into "comfort women" over sex slaves, it changes the severity of the situation and almost insunuates as though it was by choice. There are seminars that focus on this section of Korean Histroy to give light to the suffering "comfort women" went through during these dark times. Additionally, there is a book titled "Daugthers of the Dragon", that is based on a multitude of survivor stories. This book focus on all many different aspects of the time such as how certain women were detained with false pretense, the variety of "comfort women" within the Japanes camps, treamtemnt of the women in the campus and as survivors, the seperation of the Koreas, till present day Korea. I myself, am an art teacher but the historical context of the time can be taken into account along with excerpts of the book to create background knowledge that can be emulated into the art-making process and artwork.

The history of modern Korea is so tied to U.S. Imperialism and its expanding global influence. From the Treaty of Portsmouth (which Teddy Roosevelt received a Nobel Peace Prize for facilitating) that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and allowed Japan to retain its interests in Korea, and onto the post-WWII politics that contributed to the splitting of North and South Korea, the US has had a huge impact on Korea's development in the last century. The Treaty of Portsmouth is a great example of studying something that is lauded on one side without evaluating the residual impact on others involved. As someone who is Korean and studied both Korean and US History in college, I have always found it interesting to see compare and constrast the multiple perspectives concerning U.S. involvement in the East Asia region. Of course, even within Korea, there is a diverse set of perspectives concerning these issues.