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In contrast to the many books that use military, diplomatic, and historic language in analyzing the Korean War, this book takes a cultural approach that emphasizes the human dimension of the war, an approach that especially features Korean voices. There are chapters on Korean art on the war, translations into English of Korean poetry by Korean soldiers, and American soldier poetry on the war. There is a photographic essay on the war by combat journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Max Desfor. Another chapter includes and analyzes songs on the Korean War - Korean, American, and Chinese - that illuminate the many complex memories of the war. There is a discussion of Korean films on the war and a chapter on Korean War POWs and their contested memories. More than any other nonfiction book on the war, this one shows us the human face of tragedy for Americans, Chinese, and most especially Koreans. June 2000 was the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War; this moving volume is intended as a commemoration of it.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Some Reflections on the Korean War, Steven I. Levine; Chapter 2 Whether Enemy or Brother: Patriotism in Conflict with Brotherhood in the Korean War Poems by Korean Poets, Suh Ji-moon; Chapter 3 Above All, the Waste: American Soldier-Poets and the Korean War, William D. Ehrhart; Chapter 4 The Korean War and the Visual Arts, Roe Jae-ryung; Chapter 5 The Korean War Through the Camera of an American War Correspondent, Max Desfor; Chapter 6 The Korean War in the Lives and Thoughts of Several Major Korean Writers, Suh Ji-moon; Chapter 7 Reluctant Crusaders: Korean War Films and the Lost Audience, Lary May; Chapter 8 The Korean War in Korean Films, Suh Ji-moon; Chapter 9 Interior Stories of the Chinese POWs in the Korean War, Philip West, Li Zhihua; Chapter 10 In Search of Essences: Labeling the Korean War, William Stueck; Chapter 11 Imagining a Different Korea: What If ..., Chae-jin Lee, Donald Oberdorfer, Byong-chu Koh, William Stueck, Philip West;
About the author
Donald Gregg, Philip West, Suh Ji-moon
Summary
An analysis of the Korean War, taking a cultural approach that emphasizes the human dimension of the war. There are chapters on Korean art in the war, translations into English of poetry by Korean soldiers, a study of songs on the war, discussion of war films, and more.
