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Suppressed yet Stubborn Truths

Hun Joon Kim

in The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea

This chapter discusses how the period between 1954 and 1987 had come to represent the first phase of the movement to find truth and restore justice. After a series of coups and regime changes ... More

This chapter discusses how the period between 1954 and 1987 had come to represent the first phase of the movement to find truth and restore justice. After a series of coups and regime changes occurred, a brief moment of democratization came around in 1979—the Seoul Spring. However, another anti-Communist regime came to power, following the successful coup led by General Chun Doo-hwan. Throughout these years, the victims' calls for truth and justice had been systematically suppressed. At the same time, the general public accepted the government's official narrative, perceiving the Jeju 4.3 events as a Communist rebellion and the victims as Communists and their supporters. Nevertheless, it was impossible for the government to cover up all traces of the atrocities. Pursuing the ideals of truth and justice, university students, journalists, and writers were particularly significant in the early advocacy process.Less

The End of the Road?: The Post-Zainichi Generation

John Lie

in Diaspora without Homeland: Being Korean in Japan

Sixty years on since the Korean residences first settled in post-colonial Japan, the contemporary Japanese perspective eventually seems to be accounting for the Koreans in a different light. A short ... More

Sixty years on since the Korean residences first settled in post-colonial Japan, the contemporary Japanese perspective eventually seems to be accounting for the Koreans in a different light. A short appraisal of the present situation would infer that it would do considerable injustice to reality to insist on the relentless and recalcitrant nature of the Japanese dislike of Korea and Koreans. While the current indicators of social acceptance are derived from the substantial sway of Zainichi elements over the mainstream reel culture of Japan, the initial stages of Japanese exposure to Korean culture came by the way of interbreeding—the Japanese tourism boom to Korea in the 1960s was much characterized by sex-tourism—and via the culinary route. While the elders still consider the Korean nation as developing/poor, Japanese youths are more likely to evoke the manifest wealth of Seoul and the dynamic nature of Samsung.Less

Urban Poverty and the Environment: Social Capital and State-Community Synergy in Seoul and Bangkok

Mike Douglass, Orathai Ard-Am, and Ik Ki Kim

in Livable Cities?: Urban Struggles for Livelihood and Sustainability

This chapter contrasts the strategies used to improve environmental conditions in two low-income communities in two different urban contexts: the Wolgoksa-dong squatter community in Seoul, Korea, and ... More

This chapter contrasts the strategies used to improve environmental conditions in two low-income communities in two different urban contexts: the Wolgoksa-dong squatter community in Seoul, Korea, and the Wat Chonglom slum community in Bangkok, Thailand. In each case, the analysis moves from the level of the household and gender relations, through the level of community organization and leadership, to the linkages and conflicts that each community has to translocal organizations and the state. The comparisons suggest that the Wat Chonglom community was much better positioned than Wolgoksa-dong — and the vast majority of other slum communities in Bangkok — to expand its social capital and use it in the pursuit of livability. Both communities have shown, over the past decades, an admirable vitality and resilience in the face of highly adverse political and economic forces.Less

Retreat to Wonju: 2d Infantry Division, 1–6 January 1951

William T. Bowers (ed.)

in The Line: Combat in Korea, January-February 1951

As the U.S. I and IX Corps were sent to the south of the Han River as a result of the Chinese New Year's Offensive which led to the abandonment of Seoul, North Korean forces attacked the II and III ... More

As the U.S. I and IX Corps were sent to the south of the Han River as a result of the Chinese New Year's Offensive which led to the abandonment of Seoul, North Korean forces attacked the II and III Corps of the ROK. Since General Ridgway expressed his belief that giving way to the center would entail danger for the American forces in the west and for their logistical base at Pusan, the 2d Infantry division—which was still recovering from its previous losses in its North Korean encounter in November—proved to be the only available backup forces. The December 1950 Command Report of the 2d Infantry Division illustrated how these forces were able to regain strength, train replacements, and reinforce the ROK forces as well as protect the Eighth Army.Less

Sharing Consumption: The City as Platform

Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman

in Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities

Chapter 1 examines the contemporary revival of sharing as collaborative consumption in mediated and particularly commercial forms, with examples from food sharing in particular. It reports surveys of ... More

Chapter 1 examines the contemporary revival of sharing as collaborative consumption in mediated and particularly commercial forms, with examples from food sharing in particular. It reports surveys of sharing behaviors, highlighting the role of the Millennial demographic in the growth of the sharing economy. It examines the technical, environmental, economic and cultural drivers of the sharing revival, especially the transfer of norms from sharing on the internet to the real world. It explores the economic logics and disruption of sharing, outlines how incumbent businesses are responding to the sharing paradigm and begins to examine the risks and benefits of an intrusion of commercial sharing into the social realm.Less

The Advance East: 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, 24–25 March 1951

William T. Bowers

in Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

Commanders believed that the only hope for UN success was a rapid move east by the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to hit the rear of the Chinese in front of the 3d Division. However, the ... More

Commanders believed that the only hope for UN success was a rapid move east by the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to hit the rear of the Chinese in front of the 3d Division. However, the 187th Airborne with its attached Task Force Growdon was in the midst of resupply activities, and would be hard pressed to move fast enough to catch the enemy before they pulled back. Capt. Charles E. Weddle of the 187th Airborne RCT's S-3 section describes the receipt of the order. Capt. John Wahl provides details of the airborne regiment's movement plan. About the time that the move to the east started, the resupply vehicles of Task Force Growdon and the “land tail” of the 187th Airborne RCT began to arrive. On 25 March, Task Force Kobbe returned to Munsan-ni with the 999th Field Artillery battery. There the battalion was refueled by the trains that had arrived from Seoul. The remaining elements of Task Force Growdon moved to Seoul, where the task force was dissolved. It also discusses the actions near Parun-ni. The fire, resupply and medical supports are then addressed.Less

Can Commodities be Sacred?: Material Religion in Seoul and Hanoi

Laurel Kendall

in Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter examines material religion in Seoul and Hanoi by focusing on the production and circulation of sacred goods and services in the two Asian cities. In particular, it considers how notions ... More

This chapter examines material religion in Seoul and Hanoi by focusing on the production and circulation of sacred goods and services in the two Asian cities. In particular, it considers how notions of sacredness, magic, and efficacy are expressed and experienced in these settings through two similar but not identical domains of popular religious practice: those of spirit mediums in Hanoi and of shamans in Seoul. After a brief overview of place, the chapter considers how spirit mediums and shamans are situated within urban space and how these popular religious practices foster the production and consumption of different kinds of religious goods and services. It then explores how changes in production and distribution have been experienced and interpreted in Seoul and Hanoi by looking at the provision of services at ritual sites and the production and consumption of sacred images. It shows how the city becomes a hub of popular religious activity that is aided and abetted by brisk markets in ritual goods, and the ways in which these markets are marked by the commodification of goods and services.Less

Four Asian Tigers

Geok Chin Ivy Tan, John Chi-Kin Lee, Tzuchau Chang, and Chankook Kim

Alex Russ and Marianne E. Krasny (eds)

in Urban Environmental Education Review

This chapter describes innovative approaches, both within schools and across multiple sectors, to urban environmental education in the highly urbanized environments of Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, ... More

This chapter describes innovative approaches, both within schools and across multiple sectors, to urban environmental education in the highly urbanized environments of Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea—the so-called “Four Asian Tigers”—pursued aggressive industrialization to boost economic growth, resulting in rapid urbanization. Today their cities are faced with acute urban problems. As each of these highly urbanized cities faces the complex challenges that come with development, they turned to urban environmental education to foster environmental awareness and environmentally responsible behaviors. The chapter examines the strategies adopted by Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul, such as integrating environmental education into the school curriculum, inquiry-based field trips, technology, partnerships, and urban environmental centers.Less

Living with Status Ambiguity: Guardsmen, Merchants, and Illegitimate Children

Eugene Y. Park

in A Family of No Prominence: The Descendants of Pak T?khwa and the Birth of Modern Korea

A much greater body of extant documents allows chapter 2 to tell an increasingly complex story of the Paks during the eighteenth century. Contrary to common assumptions that the specialist chungin ... More

A much greater body of extant documents allows chapter 2 to tell an increasingly complex story of the Paks during the eighteenth century. Contrary to common assumptions that the specialist chungin status category crystallized in the seventeenth century, the chapter shows that the family's male members tended to be lower-level military officers and merchants who found marriage partners not only among others like themselves but also from merchant families and even families descended from illegitimate-sons (sŏŏl) of the aristocracy. Relocating from Chiksan, Ch’ungch’ŏng province to Seoul, the Paks accumulated wealth thanks to an increasingly liberalized economy featuring booming commerce around the capital. At the same time, the Paks acquired royal estate managerships (tojang) in nearby Kyŏnggi province as well as securing profitable ramie-producing fields further south in Ch’ungch’ŏng.Less

Long Live the Korean Empire: Hopes, Fulfillment, and Frustrations

Eugene Y. Park

in A Family of No Prominence: The Descendants of Pak T?khwa and the Birth of Modern Korea

This chapter brings the Paks closer to the forefront of documented history as they thrived in the period of the Korean Empire (1897–1910). None achieved the kind of prominence needed to win ... More

This chapter brings the Paks closer to the forefront of documented history as they thrived in the period of the Korean Empire (1897–1910). None achieved the kind of prominence needed to win widespread recognition in the historiography of the era. Nonetheless, the Paks’ evident adoption of Western ideas and practices as Korea struggled to strengthen itself as a modern nation-state allows insights into the lives and aspirations of Korea's rank-and-file chungin as a whole, complementing previous studies which focused on famous characters. Unlike the individual cases of chungin who continued to prosper even after Korea's colonization by Japan, the Paks’ newly found opportunities in politics, business, and cultural circles began dissipating with Japanese ascendancy, from the Russo-Japanese War and through the subsequent Japanese control of Korea as a protectorate.Less

The endogenous dynamics of urban renewal and gentrification in Seoul

Seong-Kyu Ha

in Global gentrifications: Uneven development and displacement

This chapter discusses the endogenous dynamics of urban renewal in Seoul, South Korea, and terms it ‘renewal-induced gentrification’. Seoul has been witnessing one of the world’s most aggressive ... More

This chapter discusses the endogenous dynamics of urban renewal in Seoul, South Korea, and terms it ‘renewal-induced gentrification’. Seoul has been witnessing one of the world’s most aggressive residential renewal programmes, which have focused on maximizing landlord profits rather than on improving the housing welfare of low-income residents who have been displaced from their neighbourhoods.Less

Case Study: Seoul

Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman

in Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities

The case study highlights the socio-cultural origins of sharing models in Seoul, providing some context on the Korean communitarian cultural concept of jeong. It highlights the leading role of city ... More

The case study highlights the socio-cultural origins of sharing models in Seoul, providing some context on the Korean communitarian cultural concept of jeong. It highlights the leading role of city authorities in stimulating sharing enterprises and behaviour with examples of initiatives supported and developed. It identifies how Seoul has brought human aspects to the fore in its expression of the smart city concept, rather than the technology. It notes also the historical emergence of co-production in Seoul, and its role in helping consolidate democratic governance; and outlines contemporary activity to promote co-governance, transparency and public participation.Less

Urban Megachurches and Contentious Religious Politics in Seoul

Ju Hui Judy Han

in Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter examines the contentious religious politics of urban megachurches in Seoul, South Korea. It begins with an overview of the urban political ecology of religion in Seoul in the context of ... More

This chapter examines the contentious religious politics of urban megachurches in Seoul, South Korea. It begins with an overview of the urban political ecology of religion in Seoul in the context of the city's complex multireligious geographies. Focusing on the case of SaRang Community Church, it then highlights the uneven urban geography of conflicting aspirations for growth and belonging. Two key moments relating to the SaRang Community Church are considered: the 2007 labor dispute involving a church leader who was also a corporate business leader, and the 2013 grand opening of the church's new building as well as the controversies surrounding its expansion and construction. This chapter examines the successes of megachurch growth as well as the tensions and political conflicts within and across the public sphere.Less

Peri-Urban Dreams

Janet Poole

in When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea

This chapter explores the continuous peri-urbanization of Korea, specifically Seoul, and how the Korean writers expressed this new phenomenon. Stories set in this new peri-urban space, where old and ... More

This chapter explores the continuous peri-urbanization of Korea, specifically Seoul, and how the Korean writers expressed this new phenomenon. Stories set in this new peri-urban space, where old and new converge in a particularly intense form, reveal it to be a product of the encounter between capital and the colonial state, where state-led urban planning, the global economic crisis, and precolonial memory combine to shape the lives of Korea's growing bourgeois class. The forms of narrative that emerged from this confluence of factors were relentlessly inward turning, focusing on the protagonist's consciousness and the minutiae of his domestic life. The chapter looks into the work of writer Pak T'aewŏn, who wrote a cycle of three medium length stories subtitled “Self-Portrait,” which charts a series of mishaps afflicting a family who have recently moved to a dream home on the outskirts of the city.Less

Afterlives

Janet Poole

in When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea

This epilogue briefly discusses how the works examined in this text inflected the authors' lives in postcolonial Korea. It first turns to Ch'oe Chaesŏ, who had remained in Seoul and continued to work ... More

This epilogue briefly discusses how the works examined in this text inflected the authors' lives in postcolonial Korea. It first turns to Ch'oe Chaesŏ, who had remained in Seoul and continued to work as a critic and professor until his death in 1964. The chapter then describes the lives of three writers who moved to North Korea—Sŏ Insik, Yi T'aejun, and Pak T'aewŏn. The three of them continued their literary work there, with Sŏ joining the Chosŏn munhak tongmaeng (Literary Federation of Korea), and Yi T'aejun becoming a cultural ambassador to the Soviet Union. Pak T'aewŏn had a difficult start at first, as he was exiled to a cooperative farm for five years, but was eventually allowed write again. He became one of the most prolific of the writers, completing among other works a three-volume historical novel titled Kabo nongmin chŏnjaeng (The Kabo Peasant War).Less

Constructing Keijō: The Uneven Spaces of a Colonial Capital

Todd A. Henry

in Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945

This chapter argues that the colonial planners’ attempts to impose grids and rotaries to facilitate the circulation of goods and people only succeeded in reshaping a small portion of the city's ... More

This chapter argues that the colonial planners’ attempts to impose grids and rotaries to facilitate the circulation of goods and people only succeeded in reshaping a small portion of the city's preexisting arterial structure. Even these street improvements required heavy-handed policies of land confiscation, which undercut efforts to create a community of civic-minded residents. The chapter also demonstrates how the 1920s city-planning movement functioned as a form of “cultural rule” that widened the scope of urban reforms, introducing updated methods (land readjustment and a betterment levy) and objects of attention (Korean neighborhoods). Meanwhile, financial limitations and ongoing resistance meant that Keijō developed in highly uneven ways, as the modern logics of circulation and sanitation only penetrated the city's thoroughfares.Less

. After Empire's Demise: The Postcolonial Remaking of Seoul's Public Spaces

Todd A. Henry

in Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945

The epilogue traces the lengthy and ongoing process of Seoul's decolonization. This process began shortly after liberation, when Koreans forced Japanese officials to destroy Namsan's Shintō shrines, ... More

The epilogue traces the lengthy and ongoing process of Seoul's decolonization. This process began shortly after liberation, when Koreans forced Japanese officials to destroy Namsan's Shintō shrines, which were subsequently replaced with anticolonial monuments of the new nation. Exactly fifty years later, the postcolonial state finally succeeded in razing the Government-General building, another powerful reminder of Japanese colonialism. In its place now stands a semirestored version of Kyŏngbok Palace. Much like Namsan's memorial to the martyr, An Chung-gŭn, the palace aims to remind domestic and international visitors of the imagined glory of Korea's precolonial past. It particularly highlights Chosŏn, the period immediately before colonial officials embarked on their own exploitative program to remake the royal capital into a showcase of Japanese modernity.Less

The Politics of Desecularization: Christian Churches and North Korean Migrants in Seoul

Jin-Heon Jung

in Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter examines the politics of desecularization by focusing on the experience of Christian churches and North Korean migrants in Seoul. In particular, it demonstrates how Seoul has undergone ... More

This chapter examines the politics of desecularization by focusing on the experience of Christian churches and North Korean migrants in Seoul. In particular, it demonstrates how Seoul has undergone desecularization in response to a changing geopolitical climate by providing both historical accounts of Korean Christianity and ethnographic vignettes of North Korean migrants' conversion to Christianity. It also considers a particular form of Christianity as it serves to promote, if not delimit, a modality of ideal liberal citizenship. Finally, it explores how religious revival, invention, and intervention have been intertwined in the processes of modernization and urbanization in Seoul, along with the changing implications of the transformative capacity of Christianity (that is, conversion) for self and society. It suggests that the conversion of North Korean migrants to Christianity is a reflection of the so-called “compressed modernity” of South Korea's rapid socioeconomic transformation.Less