Volume 7 | Issue 29 | Number 4 | Article ID 3193 | Jul 20, 2009 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Remembering the Unfinished Conflict: Museums and the Contested Memory of the Korean War Tessa Morris-Suzuki Remembering the UnfinishedAs Sheila Miyoshi Jager asks, “how does one Conflict: Museums and thecommemorate a war that technically is still not over?” [2] In English language writings, the Contested Memory of the Korean Korean War is referred to, with almost War monotonous regularity, as “the Forgotten War”. This description, however, begs an important Tessa Morris-Suzuki question: forgotten by whom? Certainly not by the people of North Korea, where education, Forgotten by Whom? propaganda, TV dramas and repeated air-raid drills ensure that the conflict is experienced as On 27 May 2009, the government of the an ongoing reality. Nor, I would suggest, have Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, many South Koreans (particularly those of North Korea) provoked worldwide alarm and older generations) forgotten the Korean War. protest by announcing that it no longer The term “Forgotten War”, then, refers largely considered itself bound by the 1953 armistice to an American amnesia, although this amnesia ending the Korean War. Amongst the mass of is probably also shared by some of America’s western media reports deploring this major allies, including Australia, Britain and announcement, however, only a few noted the Japan. (The latter, of course, though not a fact that the armistice has never been signed combatant in the war, was deeply involved in by the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea), providing bases and material support for the because its then President Yi Seungman UN forces engaged in the conflict). Or perhaps, [Syngman Rhee] did not accept that the war as Bruce Cumings has suggested (quoting was over, and wanted to go on fighting. The French literary theorist Pierre Macherey), we armistice was therefore signed only by some of should see the silence less as amnesia than as the belligerents, and, since negotiations on the “structured absence”. [3] Korean Peninsula in the UN framework proved abortive and the US and North Korea have not The Return of the Past pursued bilateral peace negotiations, there has never been a peace treaty. [1] More than half a Even in America, however, frequent recent century after the ceasefire, Korea remains references to “the Forgotten War” suggest that uneasily divided along the 38th Parallel, one of flashes of irrepressible presence are starting to the world’s most dangerous militarybreak through the structured absence. You flashpoints. Of all the conflicts over history and have to remember something in order to be memory which trouble the Northeast Asian able to describe it as “forgotten”, and indeed region, this is surely the one most directly Philip West and Suh Ji-Moon’s collection of linked to contemporary politics: for rival essays Remembering the ‘Forgotten War’ is understandings of the unfinished war lie at the just one of a growing number of works which, heart of continuing political tensions on the over the course of the past decade or so, have Korean Peninsula. examined the production of US amnesia about 1 7 | 29 | 4 APJ | JF the Korean conflict. [4] Recent English-wreath. Images of the planned museum posted language studies have looked at the war in on its website show a flowing design of Korean literature, in photography and in exhibition spaces featuring large photographic Seoul’s War Memorial of Korea, its presence in panels and life-size reconstructions of villages Korean movies and its general absence from and dugouts. (See this link) Hollywood box-office hits. [5] Ha Jin’s award- winning novel War Trash has also offered a The museum’s prospectus and its archive of vivid if contentious evocation of the events of photographs focuses firmly on the US the war, directed at a US audience but written experience of the war, in which, we are told from a Chinese perspective. [6] “54,246 soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice” (a figure which leaves a strange haze of silence In US popular culture itself, there have also around the estimated 3-4 million Korean signs of the emergence of an uneasy contest of soldiers and civilians, several hundred war memories. 2008 saw the release of a movie thousand Chinese “volunteers”, more than which I believe to be the first Hollywood 3,000 soldiers from other countries of the blockbuster to acknowledge the dark side of United Nations Command and 120 Soviet pilots the actions of US troops in the Korean War: who were also killed in the war). The images Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Eastwood’s which illustrate the museum website, however, central character, Walt Kowalski (played by the do include one striking picture of Korean director himself), is a Korean War veteran civilian suffering – a picture also featured in haunted by the cruelties of the war, and China’s Memorial of the War to Resist US particularly by the face of a young enemy Aggression and Aid Korea (discussed in more soldier whom he killed as the soldier attempted detail later in this paper). This is a photograph, to surrender. The resurfacing of Kowalski’s taken during the Incheon Landing, of a lone repressed memories comes a decade after small girl sitting weeping outside what appears revelations by a team of US journalists about to be a bombed factory. On the US museum’s the massacre of Korean civilians at Nogun-Ri, website the photograph is accompanied by the and follows the circulation and debate on the words, “during the war, the American armed Internet of the BBC’s haunting 2002forces saved thousands of Korean lives.” [9] In documentary “Kill ‘em All: The American the book I purchased at the Chinese memorial, Military in Korea”. [7] the same photograph is captioned. “American ruffians of aggression brought extremely On the other hand, and perhaps partly in serious catastrophe. An unfortunate girl in reaction to these troubling ghosts from the flames of war crying loudly on the street”. [10] past, 2009 marked the opening (“thanks to a I wonder what became of the little girl, and, if generous gift from Turtle Wax Inc.”) of the she is still alive, how her memories of war initial stage of the first, only and stillwould relate to these divided pronouncements incomplete national Korean War museum in the on the meaning of her grief. United States. Created by a group of war veterans and their supporters, the Korean War National Museum in Springfield, Illinois, sets out to present an unabashedly triumphal vision of the war – “the forgotten victory” – as “the first time that the advance of communism was halted”. [8] The theme of victory is highlighted by the museum’s logo, defiantly focused on a bright red letter V surrounded by a laurel 2 7 | 29 | 4 APJ | JF displays? In order to understand the role that the museum plays in creating contending memories of war, we need also to know something about the place of each museum in public memory. Who visits the museum? Does it present an unquestioned national narrative of the past, or are its displays open to multiple interpretations or challenged by alternative discourses? [11] Here I have chosen to take a snapshot in time. Although I make some comments about the history of the museums themselves, I focus mainly on examining the images of the Korean War displayed at the time of writing (2009). I am particularly interested in understanding how each museum’s representation of the war influences perceptions of the contemporary crisis on the Korean Peninsula. For this reason, I shall consider how each addresses certain key questions about the origins and consequences Child amid the ruins of the Korean War of the conflict. What was the background to the In this essay I want to approach the question of outbreak of the Korean War? How did the war contested memories of the Korean War by start? Who were its heroes, villains and considering how the conflict is represented in victims? How did the war end? What was its the museums of several key participant nations aftermath and what are its implications for the on the western side of the Pacific: in the War present? To answer these questions involves Memorial of Korea in Seoul; the Victorious looking at the factual narratives presented Fatherland Liberation War Museum inthrough written information, photos, artifacts, Pyongyang; the Memorial of the War to Resist video displays etc. But it is also important to US Aggression and Aid Korea in Dandong, consider the media through which the story is China; and the section of the Australian War told. How do Korean War museums use design Memorial devoted to the Korean War. The and technology to evoke the experience of the names of the museums themselves speak war, particularly for those who have no direct volumes about the contrasting ways in which memory of its events? the war is remembered. In the final section of the paper, I shall bring Museum displays can be examined from many together some reflections on the museums to perspectives: which historical facts areassess the links between their representations presented and which are omitted? What of the past and contested understandings of the narrative of the past does the museum tell? present. Here I want to draw again on How do its design, layout and use of media Cumings’ notion of “structured absence”. An engage the attention and emotions of visitors? exploration of these museums offers glimpses How do visitors experience past events as they of the way in which remembering and walk through the museum’s halls? What forgetting are intertwined.