This study explores the possibility of Korean War cinema serving as a medium in creation and spreading of new Korean War cultural memory and proposes three theoretical and philosophical approaches. Major findings and suggestions of this research are as follows. First, this study discusses three approaches on how cinema can be involved in the process of cultural memory formation and proposes, as discussed by Alleida Assmann, Astrid Erll, Alison Landsberg and others that cinema can be used in creation of unification discourse within the popular media. Second, this study categorizes recent Korean War movies produced in South Korea as belonging to a new wave of Korean War cinema, which portrays war as a national tragedy, focusing on the damage caused by ideology and outside forces, rather than portraying it only as a North Korean aggression and blaming communists for the tragic destiny of the Korean nation. The study suggests that these movies can be used in creating a new paradigm in remembrance of the Korean War. In conclusion, this study proposes to use recent South Korean war movies as educational material in order to create a South Korean identity based on compassion and solidarity, rather than rigid antagonism and hatred.

Imperial Japan’s “comfort women” system was one of the major atrocities against humanity during the Asia-Pacific war (1931-1945), yet denial of this war crime remains steadfast in Japan today. This paper introduces and discusses the personal accounts of Korean and Chinese “comfort women” which hitherto were unavailable to English readers. It demonstrates, through the testimonies of the survivors and eyewitnesses, the close correlation between the proliferation of the military comfort stations and the progression of Japan’s aggressive war. The lived experiences of the “comfort women” reveal undeniably that the “comfort women” system was created for the war and made possible by the war. The survivors’ narratives highlight that in today’s world when sexual violence continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflicts that prevents societies from achieving sustainable peace, the comfort women’s memories constitute a legacy of global significance.

Korean women’s recounts of war experience manifest realities of a war that permeated through their everyday lives. They are important materials that reveal trauma from the war. What kind of traumas can be found in those recounts of war experience and what can be done to alleviate those traumas? In order to find answers to these questions, this article discusses the case of a woman called Gim Seong-Yeon, who was forced to live in difficult conditions as a refugee during the war. In her war experience tale, there is a repetition of how she was separated from her family, how she was mistreated and how she had no one to depend on for protection. The war left Seong-Yeon with a trauma in the form of fear and distrust. But Seong-Yeon also narrated folktales aside from her recounts of her war experience. Unlike her war experience testimonies, her folktales are mainly about reassurance and trust. Therefore, this article seeks to compare Seong-Yeon’s recount of her war experience and her folktales, to reveal the fact that when a person suffers from trauma in the form of fear and distrust as an aftermath of the Korean war, as in the case of Seong-Yeon, stories about reassurance and trust, even if they are far from reality, can help in overcoming that trauma.

1905년 독도의 불법적 영토편입을 시작으로 일본의 대한제국의 영토주권에 대한 전면적 침탈은 1904년 시작된 러일전쟁과 직접적 관련성을 갖는다. 이 글은 우선 국제법적으로 러일전쟁의 발발과정에서 대한제국의 제물포사건이 갖는 의미, 전쟁개시 시점 그리고 국제법상 일본의 전쟁선포행위가 합법적인지에 대해 검토하였다. 러일전쟁의 개시 시점에 대하여는 일본 해군이 중국 뤼순 항구에 정박 중인 러시아함대에 대한 무력공격을 도발한 1904년 2월 8일이라고 보는 것이 일반적이다. 이 글에서는 러일전쟁의 발발과정 특히 대한제국의 영해인 제물포 앞바다 사건에 대한 검토를 통해 일본이 러일전쟁의 개전 일자를 일본 해군이 전쟁수행을 위해 사세보항구를 출항한 2월 6일으로 주장하는 이유가 일본이 전시국제법을 위반하여 러일전쟁을 시작하였음을 은폐하려는 의도임을 밝히고 있다. 두 번째, 이 글은 일본이 아시아의 유일한 문명국으로 인정받게 된 근거와 러일전쟁과정에서 영국과 미국이 유럽국가인 러시아가 아닌 일본을 적극적으로 지지하도록 하기 위해 일본 지식인들과 관료들의 유럽과 미국에서 어떠한 활동을 하였는지를 살펴보았다. 러일전쟁을 통해서 일본이 국제사회에 강대국으로 등장했다는 인식과 다르게 일본은 러일 전쟁이전에 유럽의 소수국가와 미국이 중심이 된 제국주의국가들의 국제클럽(international club)에 의하여 아시아에서 유일한 소위 문명국(civilized state)으로 인정되어 있었으며, 러일전쟁은 러시아와 일본이 대한제국과 만주의 패권을 놓고 벌인 소위 문명국 간의 전쟁이었다. 세 번째, 러일전쟁의 발생 이전에 국제법상 중립(neutrality)을 선언한 대한제국의 영토 주권이 어떠한 이론적 배경에서 일본에 의하여 무시되고 침해당하였으며 미국과 영국 등 당시 국제사회를 주도하던 국가들은 왜 이를 묵인하였는지 그리고 러일전쟁 당시 한일 간에 체결되어 있던 조약들은 어떻게 양 국가 간의 관계를 규정하고 있었는지를 분석해 보았다. 이와 함께 일본의 대한제국 흡수행위의 근거가 된 소위 국제클럽 구성 국가들의 낙후지역(backward territory)이론의 문제점에 대하여도 살펴보았다.

광복 후 일본정부의 독도 침략은 1953년에 시작되었다. 5월에 시마네현(島根縣) 수산시험선 ‘시마네마루(島根丸)’가 독도에서 한국 어민들의 어로를 확인하자 일본정부는 ‘다케시마(독도) 단속’를 결정하였다. 6월 일본 순시선의 무장한 임검반이 독도에 상륙해 일본의 영토표주를 세우는 한편, 어로 중인 한국 어민들을 심문하고 퇴거를 명하였다. 이즈음 일본 정부는 독도 탈환의 구체적인 방도를 세웠다. 첫째 방도는 순시선을 자주 독도에 파견해 한국 어민의 어업을 막는 것이며, 그 후 1년 동안에 26번이나 순시선을 침입시켰다. 한국 측은 이런 활동에 분노해 어느 때는 울릉경찰서 순라반이 순시선을 총격하고 일본의 영토표주를 철거한 일도 있었다. 그러나 일본은 영토표주가 수차례 철거되어도 그때마다 새 영토표주를 곧 세웠다. 결국 영토표주를 기준으로 생각하면 1954년 5월 중순까지 독도는 80% 일본에 침탈당하였다. 독도 탈환의 둘째 방도는 독도와의 관계를 공고히 하기 위해 일본 어민들의 두절된 어업을 부활시키는 것이며, 1954년 5월에 실시되었다. 이 어업의 성과는 적으며, 일본 어민들은 독도는 가치가 낮은 섬임을 알고 다시는 독도에서 어업을 하지 않았다. 자연히 독도 탈환의 둘째 방도는 사라졌다. 또한 탈환의 첫째 방도도 5월부터 한국 해양경찰대가 독도에 드나들기 시작했기 때문에 실시가 어렵게 되었다. 또한 8월부터 한국은 관민 공동으로 독도를 본격적으로 경비하고 순시선을 총격 혹은 포격하였다. 이 때문에 일본은 독도 탈환 방도를 포기해 외교적으로 해결하기로 방침을 바꾸었다. 1960년대에 들어서 순시선의 침입은 줄고 특별한 사건이 없는 한 매년 1번 정도로 됐다. 그러나 1977년에 일본이 ‘영해 12해리법’을 시행하자 순시선이 독도 지근거리에서 일본의 독도 영유권을 주장하였다. 그러나 한국의 반격을 받아 퇴거하지 않을 수 없었다. 다음해에 한국도 ‘영해 12해리법’을 시행하자 일본 순시선은 특별한 변화가 없는 한 독도 해역으로 침입할 것을 삼가게 되었다.

This thesis analyses the most popular Korean Protestant magazines “The Youth” and “The Christian News” during the colonial era, in order to examine the Korean Protestant understanding of war and peace of the time. This war, utilizing modern scientific knowledge for military weapons, was an unprecedented disaster that forced Korean Protestants to realize and acknowledge the importance of ‘war’. As Protestantism sought the cause of war in state-ism, scientism, and capitalistic competition, it started to critically view the limitations, contradictions, and necessity for reformation of modern Western civilization, which used to be a role-model. On the other hand, there was critical revision towards historical practices of Christianity, and also search for the ideal Christian response towards war. In general, the human crisis-war-and Christianity was understood as conflicting concepts and Christianity needed to maintain a non-belligerent stance. The philosophies of Tolstoy and Ghandi’s non-violent social disobedience were also introduced. It is debatable how much their philosophies were understood, but it holds true that there was an introduction to the Korean Protestantism at the time of the philosophical thought that rejected the capitalistic liberalism ideals, that sought the future ideal society in villagecommunities represented by small farmers, and that practiced this through non-violence social disobedience. But such philosophical thought and search towards peace decreases with the Manchurian Incident in 1931. Eras of Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific war was dominated by arguments of Holy Wars based on definitions of self as absolute right and the enemies as absolute evil. Such Holy War theories become vastly spread throughout Korean Protestantism during the Korean War and the Vietnam War, generalized as the Korean Protestant response towards war. Today, the Korean peninsula where North and South Korea are hostile towards each other, is a power cake of the world and the possibility of war increases with North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons. In order to realize the Christian ideals of ‘respect towards life’ and ‘realization of peace’ under such circumstances, there must be critical analysis about the peaceful traditions of colonial times and also the arguments of ‘righteous war’ in order to define what allows wars to be righteous. For Christianity to mediate conflicts of interest and politics, there needs to be much more meditation on what Christianity can do to actively build peace. Moreover, there is a critical need to continuously find and review peaceful movements within church history, such as the ‘The World Day of Prayer for Women Incident’ conducted by women of a nameless church during the Pacific wars, at a time in which the Holy War theory was dominant.

The constitution of the Republic of Korea clearly states the separation of church and state. While pure religious action should be separated from politics, Koreans with religion have some duties and rights based on the fact that religious people also are members of the Korean nation and society. This article aims to describe an aspect of the relationship between politics and religions with a special attention to Christianity. First of all, Christianity of Catholic and Protestant played a great role in the building of the Republic of Korea. After the World War Ⅱ, other religions in Korea did not support liberal democracy. Also they had a very ambiguous attitude toward democracy. Some of them accepted even communism. In the ideological chaos, Christianity clearly counted as one of the important anticommunistic groups. At this point, Christianity should be considered as one of great contributors to the nation buildings of the South Korea. This close relationship of Christianity and anticommunism has been maintained from the World War Ⅱ to the present day. However, several presidents of Korea became dictators in the name of anticommunism so that many liberal Christians have protested against authoritarian government as well as anticommunism which became a hated word in Korean liberal society. Many struggles between governments and liberal Christians had been appeared in other areas such as industrial problems, rural society, as well as environment. Recently, many Buddhists has been strongly involved in such agendas of liberal Christianity. During transition from industrialization to democratization in South Korea, this nation has tried to find out a national identity and the Korean government have supported traditional religions such as Buddhism under the title of support of traditional and national culture. This support from government has been appeared in the area of culture, tourism and education. At this point, traditional and national religions of the South Korea have received a lot of financial aid from government.