Cheonan: Independence Hall of Korea

I went to the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan today. It's a huge museum that stands as a reminder of why the relationship of Korea and Japan is so complex. On one hand, it tries to let people remember the atrocities committed by Japan to the Korean people during their occupation of Korea. Other the other hand, it's a very heavily one-sided nationalistic look at history.

I'm trying to be sensitive about what I saw, the seriousness of what was done to the Korean people, but also demanding in the fact that I need more of a context for this information and would have liked it to be presented in a different way. This post contains opinions about the sensitive nature of the Japanese and Korean relationship from an outsider's perspective and is not intended to inflame or belittle the issues in any way:

Imagine every single hot button issue between two countries put into a museum, then on display for all the country to remember whenever anyone brings up a problem between the two foes. Then ship school children in from across the country and show them the graphic images on display. Some of the images in the exhibit were extremely graphic and given the way Japan is discussed would make a lasting impression as to how you should feel about Japan when you leave, which is undoubtedly the goal.

I'm not sure how I feel about this particular place at the moment. From what I've seen today, you can't sympathize with Japan at all but that's because of the way the museum presented it's evidence. The museum goes out of it's way to demonize Japan in every single thing on display. I know that Japan did horrible things to Asian countries and has remained unapologetic for the most part about their imperial past. Since this is supposed to be an "independence" museum, it's limited in scope to only things concerning Korea and how they survived Japanese oppression. You can't explain why something this serious happened from only one point of view and understand everything fully. This makes me think that the materials, however damning towards the Japanese, were incomplete.

While I was wondering what were the factors in Japan that caused a campaign of ruthlessness in Asia, there was no debate about any thing that influenced any country other than Korea internally. No motivations for Japan's aggressiveness was given beyond a desire to eradicate all things Korean. This might be the perspective that Koreans take since they are the culture that was forced to survive such hardships, but wanted to know how such brutality was justified in the eyes of the Japanese.

The way history was presented in this particular museum it's was as if Korea existed in a bubble advancing and unifying against various external and internal struggles, yet the reason why those struggles existed in the region weren't talked about at all. The struggle for the Korean people to keep their identity while being subjugated by outside forces is extremely interesting. I wish more of the exhibits were in English so that I could get more of a background in the underground schools and ways that Korean culture and history was kept alive while facing eradication by the Japanese. Even the external factors that led to Korea's independence weren't talked about much.

The historical perspective was very one sided, internally focused, and is thus incomplete. It could be viewed as history from a fish bowl. The extremely violent acts of Japan against Korean citizens during the occupation should be remembered, but if people want to understand what was happening, I think a more global outlook should be used to demonstrate how this happened in many countries in Asia as well. As an "Anti-Japanese" museum the focus of this museum is too narrow. As a "Pro-Korean independence" museum, it does very well to paint everything in the best light possible for the Korean people that struggled against a culture that wanted dominance. That's not surprising, but it doesn't sit well for me.

My mind draws some parallels, however remote, between Native Americans and the European settlers that came to America. There was an active campaign to destroy and remove a culture from my country. I know about this because of my history books, and I'm not of Native American descent. Why is it that I know about what happened to a culture my nation worked hard to destroy? While I might not be getting the entire story, I do know more about what happened because I can look at the event from two sides.

While history is invariably written by the "winners" of a particular struggle as justification for prior actions in some sense, I remember we did get some perspectives from opposing points of view when discussing this issue. Hearing what European settlers thought, and what Native Americans thought about the same issues gave a way of explaining history as it played out. The great tragedy of the Native American people and their loss of the resources and lands they held dear was a powerful reminder for me.

There are two sides to every historical event, and you can't understand what happened without understanding all of the motivations of people involved. I wish that I could have gotten a better view into understanding the complex Japanese and Korean relationship from this museum. This would have made it more complete and historically more compelling and would have created an method for dialog about the past that would be far more useful.

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