 | |
| Author | Su-kyoung Hwang |
|---|---|
| Publisher | University of Pennsylvania Press |
Publication date | 2016 |
| Pages | 250 |
| ISBN | 9780812293111 |
Korea's Grievous War is a non-fiction book about the Korean War by Su-kyoung Hwang. It was published in 2016 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Su-kyoung Hwang is an historian specialising in Korean studies. As of 2024, she is a senior lecturer of Korean studies at The University of Sydney. [1]
Korea's Grievous War' discusses the civilian casualties of the Korean War. In focuses on civilians killed by anti-communist forces, especially those killed by American-forces or American-backed forces. Hwang argues that those killed by anti-communist forces, such as the civilians killed during the Jeju uprising and Bodo League massacre, became "ungrievable" [2] in modern South Korea, and that the general public, like the government, prefers to mourn civilians and soldiers killed by the communist forces. In particular, the book deals with the yŏnjwaje system, where the descendants and family members of communists and Korean civilians killed during the Korean War were treated as perpetrators and pro-communist during the 1960s and 1970s, when South Korea was under the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee.
Charles J. Hanley, a journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in uncovering the No Gun Ri massacre, praised Korea's Grievious War, especially compared to other books about the subject such as The Coldest Winter. His review mostly focuses on Hwang's research, which was made difficult the lack of records, by archivists resistant to showing her negative information about the actions of the United States government, and by survivors of massacres who were unwilling to relive their trauma. He notes her interviews with survivors and her documentation of United States involvement or acknowledgement in several massacres, the bombing of refugee columns, and the bombing of a South Korean refugee encampment by the United States Navy. [3] Allan R. Millett, historian and former colonel of the Marine Corps Reserve, was much more critical. He questioned Hwang's methodology in counting the number of victims, the way the book does not discuss atrocities committed by the North Koreans, and her use of the survivor's testimony to describe the events. He also argues that, even if the civilian deaths were as high as Hwang stated, stating that they were actually caused by "malnutrition, starvation, hypothermia, accidents, and epidemic diseases". He then goes on to say that Hwang does not provide enough credit to US military forces for documenting, and eventually pressuring the South Korean government to stop, the massacres. [4]
Reviewers such as Richard Trembath, in Asian Studies Review, also praised her research. Nan Kim, in a Journal of Korean Studies review, spoke positively about Hwang's research and analysis of the conflict. Trembath and Kim were both critical of the fifth chapter initially, but came to different conclusions about it. [5] [6] According to Trembath, when first reading the chapter, found that the claims it made about the United States' role in influencing the modern North Korean government were "overstated" and "did not sit comfortably with the rest of the book". However, after reading the United States' use of napalm, and the survivor's testimony about its effect, he re-evaluated his opinion. [5] Kim did not, and described the fourth and fifth chapters as weaker than the rest of the book. Kim is also critical of Hwang's choice, however, to accept the traditional explanation that North Korea invading South Korea was the main catalyst for the Korean War, and implies that she fell victim to the "Cold War bias" that Hwang was so wary of during the rest of the book. In particular, Kim highlights both the "post-colonial struggle" which existed between Syngman Rhee and Kim Il Sung after the dissolution of the Empire of Japan, and the United States' support for Japan as a force against the newly-communist People's Republic of China as contributing factors, Kim argues that Hwang's lack of commentary on those issues provides a "narrow characterization", but nonetheless describes Korea's Grievous War as "an impressive and valuable book" and praises her treatment of war trauma. [6] Mark Caprio, in The Journal of Asian Studies , however, described it as a "important supplementary text" for studies on genocide, and, unlike Kim, spoke positively about the way Hwang connected the Korean War to the end of World War II. Instead, he was critical of the book's editing and the way it, in his view, negatively impacted the narrative. [7]
Kyung Moon Hwang, in The American Historical Review , took a different approach. While he described the book as a "sterling example of historical anthropology" and notes the effor which Su-kyoung Hwang put into researching it, he counters that with his claim that her findings have been public knowledge in amongst the South Korean public and academic circles for some period of time. However, he praises her interviews with the survivors of massacres and their descendants, describing them as "strikingly new". [8]
The Korean War was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States. Fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice, with no treaty signed.
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II is a bestselling 1997 non-fiction book written by Iris Chang about the 1937–1938 Nanjing Massacre—the mass murder and mass rape of Chinese civilians committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It describes the events leading up to the Nanjing Massacre, provides a graphic detail of the war crimes and atrocities committed by Japanese troops, and lambasts the Japanese government for its refusal to rectify the atrocities. It also criticizes the Japanese people for their ignorance about the massacre. It is one of the first major English-language books to introduce the Nanjing Massacre to Western and Eastern readers alike, and has been translated into several languages. The book significantly renewed public interest in Japanese wartime conduct in China, Korea, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The Gwangju Uprising, known in Korean as May 18, were student-led demonstrations that took place in Gwangju, South Korea, in May 1980. The uprising was in response to the coup d'état of May Seventeenth that installed Chun Doo-hwan as military dictator and the implementation of martial law. Following his ascent to power, Chun arrested opposition leaders, closed all universities, banned political activities, and suppressed the press. The uprising was violently suppressed by the South Korean military with the approval and logistical support of the United States under Carter administration, which feared the uprising might spread to other cities and tempt North Korea to interfere. The uprising is also known as the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, the Gwangju Democratization Struggle, the May 18 Democratic Uprising or the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea.
The Jeju uprising, known in South Korea as the Jeju April 3 incident, was an uprising on Jeju Island from April 1948 to May 1949. A year prior to its start, residents of Jeju had begun protesting elections scheduled by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) to be held in the United States-occupied half of Korea, which they believed would entrench the division of the country. A general strike was later organised by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948. The WPSK launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking police and Northwest Youth League members stationed on Jeju who had been mobilized to suppress the protests by force. The First Republic of Korea under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising from August 1948, declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against rebel forces in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. Many rebel veterans and suspected sympathizers were later killed upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, and the existence of the Jeju uprising was officially censored and repressed in South Korea for several decades.
Estimates of casualties of the Vietnam War vary widely. Estimates can include both civilian and military deaths in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
The Workers' Party of South Korea (Korean: 남조선로동당) was a communist party in South Korea from 1946 to 1949. It is also sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Namro Party". It was founded on 23 November 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of South Korea, New People's Party of Korea and a faction of the People's Party of Korea. It was led by Ho Hon.
The Bodo League massacre was a massacre and a war crime against communists and alleged communist-sympathizers that occurred in the summer of 1950 during the Korean War. Estimates of the death toll vary. Historians and experts on the Korean War estimate that between 60,000 and 200,000 people were killed.
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War is a non-fiction book by the author David Halberstam. It was published posthumously in 2007, after his sudden death in a traffic collision at the age of 73.
Anti-communist mass killings are the politically motivated mass killings of communists, alleged communists, or their alleged supporters which were committed by anti-communists and political organizations or governments which opposed communism. The communist movement has faced opposition since it was founded and the opposition to it has often been organized and violent. Many anti-communist mass killing campaigns waged during the Cold War were supported and backed by the United States and its Western Bloc allies. Some U.S.-supported mass killings, including the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 and the killings by the Guatemalan military during the Guatemalan Civil War, are considered acts of genocide.
The Sinchon Massacre was a massacre of civilians between 17 October and 7 December 1950, in or near the town of Sinchon. North Korean sources claim the massacre was committed by the U.S. military and that 30,000–35,383 people were killed in Sinchon. South Korean sources dispute the death toll and accuse right-wing security police and communists of the killings. The event took place during the second phase of the Korean War and the retreat of the North Korean government from Hwanghae Province.
The Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre was a massacre of unarmed civilians in the villages of Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất, Điện Bàn District of Quảng Nam Province in South Vietnam reported to have been conducted by the 2nd Marine Brigade of the Republic of Korea Marines (ROKMC) during the Vietnam War on 12 February 1968.
The Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities is a museum dedicated to the Sinchon Massacre, a massacre of North Korean civilians during the Korean War which the North Korean government claims was carried out by South Korean and US troops. The museum is located in Sinchon County of North Korea. In July 2015, the museum was rebuilt and moved to a new location in the country.
The Bình An / Tây Vinh massacre was a series of massacres alleged to have been conducted by the Capital Division of the South Korean Army between February 12, 1966 and March 17, 1966 of 1,200 unarmed civilians in the Go Dai village and other areas in the rural commune of Bình An/ Tây Vinh area, Tây Sơn District of Bình Định Province in South Vietnam.
The Bình mai Massacre was a massacre allegedly perpetrated by South Korean forces on 9 October 1966 of 29-168 civilians in Bình Tai village of Bình Định Province in South Vietnam.
The Bình Hòa Massacre, was a massacre purportedly conducted by South Korean forces between December 3 and December 6, 1966, of 430 unarmed civilians in Bình Hòa village, Quảng Ngãi Province in South Vietnam. In 2000, however, it was reported that a monument within the village, gave the dates of the massacre as October 22, 24, and 26, 1966 and said that 403 people were killed by the South Koreans.
A Little Pond is a 2009 South Korean feature film written and directed by Yi Sang-woo depicting the massacre of South Korean refugees by American soldiers at No Gun Ri in late July 1950, early in the Korean War. The ensemble cast, who donated their services, includes some of South Korea's leading actors.
The No Gun Ri massacre was a mass killing of South Korean refugees by U.S. military air and ground fire near the village of Nogeun-ri (노근리) in central South Korea between July 26 and 29, 1950, early in the Korean War. In 2005, a South Korean government inquest certified the names of 163 dead or missing and 55 wounded, and added that many other victims' names were not reported. The No Gun Ri Peace Foundation estimates 250–300 were killed, mostly women and children.
The South Korean government, under the regime of Park Chung Hee, took an active role in the Vietnam War. South Korea's decision to join resulted from various underlying causes, including the development of US-South Korea relations, political exigencies, and the promise of economic aid from the United States. Under the wartime alliance, the South Korean economy flourished, receiving tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans, subsidies, technology transfers, and preferential economic treatment. From September 1964 to March 1973, South Korea sent some 350,000 troops to South Vietnam. The South Korean Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force all participated as an ally of the United States. The number of troops from South Korea was much greater than those from Australia and New Zealand, and second only to the U.S. military force for foreign troops located in South Vietnam. The military commander was Lieutenant General Chae Myung-shin of the South Korean army. Participation of Korean forces in the war included both non-combatant and combatant roles.
Ilminism, frequently translated as the One-People Principle, One-People Doctrine, or Unidemism, was the political ideology of South Korea under its first President, Syngman Rhee. The Ilminist principle has been likened by contemporary scholars to the Nazi ideal of the Herrenvolk and was part of an effort to consolidate a united and obedient citizenry around Rhee's strong central leadership through appeals to ultranationalism and ethnic supremacy. In general, "Ilminists" often refers to pro-Syngman Rhee (groups).
Rape, among other acts of wartime sexual violence, was frequently committed against female Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War. It was an aspect of the various human rights abuses perpetrated by the United States and South Korea, as well as by local Vietnamese combatants. According to American political scientist Elisabeth Jean Wood, the sexual violation of women by American military personnel was tolerated by their commanders. American professor Gina Marie Weaver stated that not only were documented crimes against Vietnamese women by American soldiers ignored during the international legal discourse that occurred immediately after the conflict, but modern feminists and other anti-war rape campaigners, as well as historians, have continued to dismiss them.