Fwd: "Legacies of the Korean War Archive" Symposium: Saturday, October 17th, 2015
K.F.
Namhee Lee, UCLA; Ramsay Liem, Boston College; Deann Borshay Liem, Mu Films; JT Takagi, Third World Newsreel
Center for Korean Studies (CKS), Cal Humanities, UC Humanities Research Institute, Korea Policy Institute, Channing & Popai Liem Educational Foundation, Asia Society Northern California
Whereas most wars are commemorated on the anniversaries of their official end-dates, the Korean War, which has yet to be resolved by a peace process, has outlasted the lives of many who witnessed its brutality firsthand. Paradoxically enshrined in the United States as a “forgotten war,” as American veterans point out, the Korean War has spawned other legacies of forgetting, including the obscuring of survivor memory. Supported by grants from Cal Humanities and the UC Humanities Research Institute, the “Legacies of the Korean War” oral history initiative situates the testimonies of Korean American war survivors as crucial to both the historical record and community reflection, thereby challenging the narrow national security lens via which the war is often narrated and understood. Not just a geopolitical reality but, in human-centered terms, a tragedy, the war’s irresolution has been borne out in the lives of aging Koreans in the diaspora, many of whom witnessed the devastation of their hometowns, fled as battle-lines morphed north and south, were separated from their families, were orphaned, were pressed into military service, and have longed for reunion with family members in North Korea. If central to the history of Korean emigration to the United States—GI brides, chain-migration of families, adoptees—the unresolved Korean War also reverberates as the structural basis for the ongoing, tragic phenomenon of isan gajok, or separated families. By prioritizing multigenerational survivor testimonies, supplemented by scholarly insight, this event signals the launch of the “Legacies of the Korean War” website. Featuring remarks by oral-history participants and contributors, scholarly presentations on war memory, and screenings of testimonial shorts, this event, by inaugurating an online, community-based, diasporic archive, aims to enable long overdue reckoning with the past and present of the Korean War, a war yet to be concluded with a peace agreement.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
I. Welcoming remarks
II. “Survivor Memory and Korean War History,” Namhee Lee (UCLA)
III. “Korean American Oral History Projects,” panel featuring Ramsay Liem (Boston College) and Missing Pieces team (K.W. Lee Center)
IV. Screening of Legacies of the Korean War web stories and launch of the website, facilitated by Deann Borshay Liem and JT Takagi
V. “Remembering the ‘Forgotten War’: Korean War Survivors and Their Descendants,” panel featuring Reverend Duk Joong Won, Insook Won, Dohee Lee, and Eun-Joung Lee
VI. Closing remarks
Event MC: Christine Hong (UC Santa Cruz)