The Story of the Creation of Two States in the Korean Peninsula - Essay Example

?Why the Koreans Are Guilty for Not Giving a Unified Motherland to Their Children? Introduction The division between the North Korea and South Korea is not simply a matter of political geography. It is a division runs through millions of Koran people who are separated from each other by the Cold War of the twentieth century. According to Cumings, “[t]he thirty-eighth parallel not only cut through the center of Kaesong, the old home of the Koryo aristocracy and its capital, but ran along the southern slope of Mount Song’ak –perhaps right through the ancestral home of the Wangs, or through the royal residence that Wang Kon built on the same spot and called Manwoldae, or Full Moon Palace” (237). Needless to say, all these great cultural symbols are very much part of the common civilization of the Korean people. The Korean people are still haunted by the specter of the Korean War, which they found in the interests of their imperialist masters. There still exist chances for unification of the Korea as wished by many millions of Koreans through reconciliation and remorse. The Korean War and its After Waves The degradation of Korean monarchy and its subsequent destruction by Japanese imperialism lies at the root of the problems in the Korean peninsula. The Korean liberation from the clutches of Japanese imperialism was the first real opportunity to be one under the labels of singular national culture and unified national language. Importantly, both the Korean language and cultural national identity were being systematically destroyed under Japanese tutelage. According to Pihl, “many Koreans saw the 1945 Liberation as the first opportunity in their history to be truly Korean in their own land” (79). One of the primary aims of the national liberation of Korea was to establish a single body of Korean literature based on newly found self awareness. But, the beginning of the civil war again blocked the free development of the Korean literature and there emerged not a single body of literature but a South Korean literature and North Korean literature. The emergence of South Korea and North Korea as a result of the division of nation was not characterized by the founding of two new distinct nations as such. On the other hand, the newly formed two countries were equally the distorted versions of a single nation. It is war that constituted the two countries, not any progressive or productive developments. It is interesting to note that [i]n Korean, the 1945 liberation is called Kwangbok, “Glorious Recovery”, but it was neither glorious nor a recovery and, worse, it was capped by an internecine war of horrifically compressed violence that speared no corner of the country” (Pihl, 82). The national awareness which was a product of the national liberation in 1945 unfortunately did not last long as aspired by millions of Koreans. As the divisions between the two parts of the country widened, it reflected as emptiness in the national cultural as well. “The most ironic formative experience of the 20th century for Korean literature began with Liberation on August 15, 1945. Koreans regained a country that had been lost to Japanese imperialism, only to lose it again to Russian and American imperialism” notes the well-known Korean literary commentator Pihl (82). The Korean civil war had multiple reasons for come to existence. It was the direst result of the division of the country in the August 1945. It was America that played the prominent role in dividing the Korea and there established a colonial authority which was composed of comprador Koreans. After that, the former Soviet Union too played a crucial role in keeping the division between two Koreas intact as it was necessary for ‘building socialism’ regardless of the basic unity and integrity of the Korean civilization. Thirdly, the internal divisions among the Koreans also have its due share in the division of the country as perpetuated by the ruling elites. The dialectical irony is that, as elaborated by the well-known theorist Cumings, “a Korean War was inconceivable before the division of Korea in August 1945. But because of that division, it has been conceivable ever since-right down to the still-volatile present” (238). The Guerilla war from 1948 to 50 was an attempt by the leaderships both Korea to start a unification war, by getting rid of each other. The Chinese revolution in 1949 too has had a strong influence in the events within Korea. The Chinese communist victory helped the North Korea to consolidate its position vis-a-vis their southern counterparts. The Chinese revolution did not actually led to end up the imperialist messing in both South Korea and the North Korea as it was expected by many well-intentioned people of that time. On the contrary, it enhanced the Chinese intervention, especially in the North Korea. From 1950 onwards, Chinese interventionist policies in the North Korea are clearly discernible even for onlookers as they sent military reinforcement into North Korea to fight against the South Korea and the American imperialism. It is important to note that “China had an important influence in the North- mainly through tens of thousands Koreans who fought in the Chinese civil war, establishing a reciprocal call on Chinese assistance later” (238). It was characterized by the generalized perception of barrenness in national life. The growing conflict between the individual and the environment dominated the divided national psyche. Even the very traditions and customs of the country were denied by its own countrymen. It is in general the failure to establish democracy and hold elections at both the sides of the thirty eighth parallel which led to the Korean War which in turn made the thirty eighth parallel a permanent political boundary between North Korea and South Korea. At least, under the colonial occupation of Japan, the Korea remained a single nation. It is actually the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union which perpetuated the division of Korea. Korea thus became the first experimental war land for both The United States and the Soviet Union. Once the war begun, the United Nations, especially led by the United States joined the side of the South Korea. And, China and Soviet Union came for the assistance of North Korea. It is a myth that the Korean War was a civil war. It was actually an internationalized war which was fought in and for the Korean land. Korea became a testing ground of forces and their balance of power, expressed as the fight between the Capitalist bloc and the Communist bloc. Even the genocidal war could not resolve the national question Korea as it is in the conclusion of Cumings that “the true tragedy was not the war itself, for a civil conflict purely among Koreans might have resolved the extraordinarily tensions generated by colonialism, national division and foreign intervention. The tragedy was that the war solved nothing: only the status quo ante was restored, only an armistice held the peace” (298). It is because of the production of non-result even by war, the tensions still remain in the Korean peninsula. The Split in the South Korean Psyche In South Korea, millions of people remain separated from their relatives in the other side of the border. Even the South Korean literature is constantly haunted by the specter of the division of country which resulted in millions of deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The experiences of national partition spread across the Korean literature as a unifying thread. Such experiences have led to a kind a national estrangement in South Korea, especially in 1950s and 60s. It is really helpful to look at the Korean literature to see the split within and its devastating consequences. The famous short story written by Yoon Heung-gil “The Rainy Spell” provides us with human miseries the Korean people gone through in the period of Korean War. Heung-gil portrays the agony of a homogenous people massacring each other in the name of ideologies and geopolitics. But, it was not without ramifications. The Korean War left a permanent scare in the very psyche of the Korean civilization and the people which is still not cured even after more than 60 years. Through the wonderful portrayal of two grandmothers who happened to be at the opposing war camps and their eventual reconciliation, Heung-gil shows that there is no permanent animosity between the two Koreas and among the Korean people (154-203). The concluding remarks by the grandmothers at the end of the story by Heung-gil is much revealing, after holding their hands for a while unable to speak, the Paternal grandmother says “I wonder if it went on its way all right”. “Don’t worry. It must have found a comfortable place by now, and is keeping a protective eye on this house” (203). Yes, certainly, the people of the country are keeping on the house, although the house is divided and all the things will have to go on its way all right. Cho Chongnae’s beautiful short story“Land of Exile”, deals with the tensions between the individual Koreans who are washed out in the steady historical injustices but, still looking for a hay to climb on. Here, people in Korea are seen as not the makers of their own history and destiny but the unfortunate victims of history shaped by others, especially, the outside imperialist forces. For Chongnae, the unification of the country is a matter of reconciliation between different ideologies which caused the division. It is a fallacy to think that by overcoming one ideology, another can prevail. In that case, new divisions will only come to existence. In that process, one has to overcome the collective estrangement of the Korean people from their own history and land. Chongnae has delineated the estrangement in the best possible words while writing these lines “[h]ome was a land where nothing whatsoever was left for him, a land with not a single face to welcome him. If there were something there it would be just an ugly past. For what reason could his heart, in spite of it all, be drawn to that place at the very risk of life” (231). It is of course a matter of fact that the Koreans live in their country although they are organically linked to it as it exists only as fragments. What is necessary is to reclaim the organic link with the land by Koreans themselves. Kim Min-suk’s story “Scarlet Fingernails” attempts to analyze the Korean psyche by closely watching the complex but contradictory attitudes of family that defected communism. A quote from the story reveals the hidden aspiration of the ordinary people “it’s high time they unified the country. Why did they have to split a good piece of land in two and drive nails into people’s hearts? Damned isms; why is it against the law if a man wants to go home to see his mom? Is it such an awful crime that he has to live in that place till the day he dies? No one’s ever going to know what a poor, pitiful man your dad is…” (111-12). Importantly, all Koreans are contemned to be bad parents to their children as they are trapped in their own history and not giving the motherland as a whole to their children which they ought to get as a birth right. What Korea needed is not only the physical unification of the nation but also the overcoming of the split within every Korean created by the devastating war and the division of the country. Conclusion The story of the creation of two states in the Korean peninsula is also a continuing story of untold miseries and agonies of a one and same people. The Korean people are historically denied of their unity as a nation and the cultural identity of a single people. Although, much of the geopolitical tensions which characterized the twenty first century have vanished into thin air by now, the tensions produced by the Cold War forces in the Korean peninsula remain intact. Korea is haunted by not only its own past but also the bloody past of twentieth century politics. Without active demilitarization of the very region, the unity of Korea cannot be achieved. The democratic forces in Korea have always tried to overcome the estrangement caused by the Korean War. The 1968 student rebellion was such a political assertion to overcome the collective national estrangement. It too did not succeed in bringing about substantial changes. Still, the hope prevails and the people strive to overcome the historical injustices perpetrated over them. The historical wrongs done to the Korean people would be corrected by the history itself. Korea does not need another war to regenerate itself. The international community too must strive for solving the Korean issue without humiliating both sides. Not only Korea, the world too cannot afford another war. Works Cited Cho, Chongnane. “Land of Exile”, in Marshal R. Pihl (Ed. & Trans.), Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction. New York: M. E Sharpe, (1993). pp. 200-43. Print. Cumings, Bruce. Korea’s Place in the Sun. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2005. Print. Henung-gil, “The Rainy Spell”, in Suh ji Moon (Ed. & Trans.), The rainy Spell and other Korean Stories. New York: M. E Sharpe, (1998), pp. 153-203. Print. Min-suk, Kim. “Scarlet Fingernails”, in Bruce & Ju-chan Fulton (Ed. & Trans.), Wayfarer: New Fiction by Korean Women. Seattle: Women in Translation, (1997), pp. 79- 114. Print Pihl, Marshall. R. “Contemporary Literature in a Divided land”, in Donald Clark (Ed.), Korea Briefing. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, (1991). pp. 79-97. Print. Read More