Korea

Sung Hyun Kang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Cultural Studies & Institute for East Asian Studies, SungKongHoe University (Seoul).

Sung Hyun Kang, Assistant Professor at SungKongHoe University
“Transnational Archives: Cold War, Postcolonialism, and Korean Studies”
Friday, February 23rd, 3-5pm in CEAS 319
Interpreter: Sandra Park (PhD Student, History)
Sponsored with the East Asia Transregional Histories Workshop and the Committee on Korean Studies

Please join us Friday (2/23) as we host Professor Sung Hyun Kang. Professor Kang will discuss two papers: an article draft on the topic of Korean ‘comfort women’ photography, as well as a reflection on his experiences engaging in archival research for the article. This workshop will be of significance to both to those who are interested in questions of photography, moving images, and comfort women; and also in the practical concerns of conducting archival research regarding images, both still and in motion.

Professor Kang’s article draft focuses on the still and motion pictures of Japanese military ‘comfort women’ captured by army photographers attached to the U.S. Army 164th Signal Photo Corps in China, Burma, and India during World War II. With attention to related documents and testimonies of “comfort women”, Kang analyzes the viewpoint of the photographers, as well as the intent and nature of the army photographers’ activities. Moreover, this paper uncovers the stories of individual Korean ‘comfort women’ who appear as the subjects in these still and motion pictures.

The papers are available directly below, or at this link. If you have not received the password, or have questions about accessibility, please feel free to contact Helina Mazza-Hilway (mazzah@uchicago.edu) or Susan Su (susansu@uchicago.edu).

This event is sponsored by the Committee on Korean Studies at the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies with support from a Title VI National Resource Center Grant from the United States Department of Education.

US Army Chaplain George Burrey shaking hands with ROK Army Chaplain, 1953

Sandra Park (PhD Student, History)
“Crusading for the Twentieth Century: Christianity, Chaplaincy and Militarism in Cold War South Korea, 1945-1973”
Friday, January 26th, 3-5pm in CEAS 319
Discussant: Jun-Hee Lee (PhD Candidate, History)
Co-sponsored with the East Asia Transregional Histories Workshop

Please join us Friday (1/26) from 3-5pm, as we host Sandra Park. She will present a draft of her dissertation proposal, which she summarizes as follows:

My anticipated dissertation, “Crusading for the Twentieth Century: Christianity, Chaplaincy and Militarism in Cold War South Korea, 1945-1973,” elucidates the origins of Christianity’s increasing social and political influence from the Korean War (1950-1953) through 1973, when the Billy Graham Seoul Crusade attracted over three million people (the largest gathering in global Church history). Two decades before the Seoul Crusade, Graham visited American GIs and Korean Christians during the Korean War in 1952. At the time, wŏllam (those who went south) Korean Christian leaders like Han Kyung-Chik (who interpreted for Graham) and Hwang Ŭn-gyun articulated the conflict with communism in North Korea in eschatological language, invoking the imagery of medieval European crusades. My proposal engages the trope of “crusades” articulated during the Korean Cold War as reflective of the ways in which Christianity and militarism were folded into each other. At this stage, I expect to trace three currents that were formative to the relationship between Christianity and militarized politics in Cold War South Korea: the discursive, transpacific politics of Billy Graham and Han Kyung-Chik (1945-1950), the institutional history of the Republic of Korea (ROK) military chaplaincy from its inception in 1951, and the hegemonic culture of militarism and dissent.

The paper is available directly below, or at this link. If you have not received the password, or have questions about accessibility, please feel free to contact Helina Mazza-Hilway (mazzah@uchicago.edu) or Susan Su (susansu@uchicago.edu).