UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Untelling the Tales of Empire : : Intimate Epistemologies of the Korean War Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4049n200 Author Kim, Joo Ok Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Untelling the Tales of Empire: Intimate Epistemologies of the Korean War A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Joo Ok Kim Committee in charge: Professor Shelley Streeby, Chair Professor Lisa Lowe, Co-Chair Professor Dennis Childs Professor Jin-kyung Lee Professor Curtis Marez 2013 Copyright © Joo Ok Kim, 2013 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Joo Ok Kim is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Co-Chair ________________________________________________________________________ Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2013 iii DEDICATION For my 할머니, 정 명단, whose life spans decades and continents, For 김 용민, a revolutionary of the heart and spirit, and For my father and my mother. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………………iii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………..iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………v List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….vi Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………………........vii Vita……………………………………………………………………………………......xi Abstract of the dissertation………………………………………………………………xii Chapter One Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter Two “Although complete knowledge of them will never be mine”: Contesting Histories of the Korean War………………………………………………………………………………22 Chapter Three “It’s a brown place Korea is”: the Asian-Latino Pacific and the Korean War…………..67 Chapter Four “Americans, your own flesh and blood”: Kinships of the Korean War………………..122 Chapter Five Sleuth Cities: East L.A., Seoul, and Military Mysteries in Martin Limón’s Slicky Boys and The Wandering Ghost……………………………………………………………...166 Epilogue “Korea. You can’t imagine it because you weren’t there”…………………………….213 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………221 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map in Rolando Hinojosa’s Estampas del valle y otras obras .……………...93 Figure 2: René Castro’s illustration accompanying Rolando Hinojosa’s poem “Friendly Fire” in Korean Love Songs…………………………………………………………….109 Figure 3: Reprint of letter from the War Orphan Sponsorship Program in The New Era………………………………………………………………………………………122 Figure 4: Reprint of Bok Nam Om’s profile in The New Era…………………………139 Figure 5: Letter from Y.H. Kim addressed to Sgt. Cleveran………………………......198 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is a manifestation of the encouragement and love of so many people. I am grateful to my committee for their guidance, grace, and deep intellect. I thank Shelley Streeby for her brilliant work and unwavering support, and for showing all of us how we can be compassionate teachers and critical scholars. Her generosity extends beyond the boundaries of these pages, and continues to sustain my work. I thank Lisa Lowe for her illuminating intellectual vision and depth of engagement—her caring words stay with me, reflecting the strength of her kindness. Dennis Childs has shaped my academic and activist engagements with profound meaning, and always inspires me. Thank you for your support, from the very beginning. Jin-kyung Lee’s commitment and faith in my project was critical throughout this process. Thank you for all of your bighearted encouragement. Curtis Marez revitalized how I think about culture, and graciously extended his time and fierce energy. Thank you for modeling for us how it’s done, and always with such style. The support of other members of the intellectual community was crucial in my time at UCSD, and I would like to thank them here: Rosemary George, Jorge Mariscal, Luis Martin-Cabrera, Rosaura Sánchez, Meg Wesling, Lisa Yoneyama, Patrick Anderson, and Danny Widener all generously shared their time and knowledge. Dawn Blessman, Thom Hill, Kristin Carnohan, Patrick Mallon, Sue Hawkinson, and Pam Wright deserve special thanks for keeping me employed and making sure I didn’t slip away. Funding support from various organizations ensured the time I needed to complete my dissertation: a graduate student fellowship from the Center for Global California Studies at UCSD got things moving; dissertation fellowships from UCSD’s Literature department vii and the Ford Foundation kept things going. Without this support, it would have taken much longer to complete my dissertation. The insightful questions and comments from colleagues at the Association of Asian American Studies annual meeting and the Conference of Ford Fellows, where I presented early versions of this work, were critical for clarifying my project. I thank Tim Rives and Jake Ersland at the National Archives, and Paul and Gregory Edwards at the Center for the Study of the Korean War for permission to use archival materials. Stephen Miller and José Pablo Villalobos at Texas A&M University and Ashley Hess at Arte Público Press very kindly provided access to an important new collection on Rolando Hinojosa’s work. I can only be where I am because of the support of those at the University of Kansas and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Giselle Anatol and Marta Caminero-Santangelo were amazing mentors. The Dean’s Scholars Program, and in particular Karen Ohnesorge, provided important insights about graduate school, insights I would not have had access to as a working-class undergraduate student. Helen Jun, Madhu Dubey, and Mark Chiang were in many ways my first teachers, and I thank them for their encouragement and wonderful care. The following names all name the measure and strength of friendship. Angie Chau was the first person I met in San Diego, and to this day remains one of the best. Kimberly Chung continues to brighten my days, and makes sure there’s laughter in my life. Every time I feel discouraged about the turns in the world, I remember that such a person as Kyung Hee Ha exists, and I feel true hope. Amanda Solomon is a fabulous friend, mentor and writing partner. And to Gabriela Cázares, who always reminds me of why we do what we do, in the most wonderful ways, abrazos. How lonely this journey viii would have been without the smart, loving, and exhilarating presence of Tania Jabour, Ben Balthaser, Yumi Pak, John Rieder, Jason Farr, Jodi Eisenberg, Violeta Sánchez, Caralyn Bialo, Juliana Choi, Zeynep Bulut, Esin Duzel, Joyce Kim, Morelia Rivas, Adam Lewis, Josen Diaz, Chien-ting Lin, Anita Huizar Hernandez, Megan Turner, Niall Twohig, Rosi Escamilla, Ash Kini, Lauren Heintz, Laura Reizman, Thea Quiray Tagle, Davorn Sisavath, Ma Vang, Lisa Ho, Nick Mitchell, Felipe Quetzalcoatl Quintanilla, Maurice Rafael Magaña, Susy Chavez, Aneeka Henderson, and so many others. The brilliant Chris Perreira deserves more recognition than I can give here for his thoughtful engagement with my work, and for his kind, invigorating love. The life we’ve built together bursts with sweetness. Outside of graduate school, family and friends made sure I inhabited worlds replete with the urgency of realness. My cousins Susie, Diana, Anne, Jenny, Joe, Unji, oppa, and Sue sure do know how to work and play like nobody’s business, and in that we’re more alike than not. And what would I do without the witty, wonderful John Tran? I still marvel at the fact that time bends and reshapes itself when we’re together, through all those nights and days of cards, movies, feasting, and after the youngest ones finally caught up, sharing drinks. A special thanks to my family in Kansas, including my paternal grandfather, my aunt and uncle, and Grandmaster Lee. I must also thank my family in Korea, China, Chile, Venezuela, and all throughout the United States—Georgia, Illinois, California. I think often of the forces that compel such movements. As I write this, my maternal grandmother is returning to South America. I wish her a good journey, and I hope we can laugh together again soon. ix This last is for my parents, who have been my truest champions. My father, 김광윤, shaped this project before it ever took solid dimensions. He taught me early on to value all forms of labor, to consider the hands and tendons, the time and care that produce our world. I asked him once, when I was young, a question wrung through cold war logics. He responded very simply that people share space, and to live together people must help one another. I hold his words close. My mother, 남일조, spirited me away to Korea for long stretches of time throughout my childhood, which resulted in big gaps in my formal education but in its place gave me another: the education of precipitous mountains, of red earth, of learning how to live when the only running water is the nearby creek. I would not trade this education for another; I never cared for dividing fractions anyway. They both live lives of fierce integrity and I love them so. I always pride of you too. Chapter 5, in part, has been submitted for publication in the Journal of Asian American Studies. x VITA 2003 Bachelor of Arts University of Kansas 2006 Master