Transcript Teaching about Modern Korea

Teaching about Modern
Korea
A question of Identity
A great site for lesson plans on all
aspects of Korea
 http://www.koreak12.org/
Categories
 Identity
separate from China and
Japan (Japanese invasion’s)
 How do you borrow many aspects of
culture from a much larger neighbor
and still retain your own identity?
 How do you “fend off’ neighbors who
want to control you without war?
Struggle for independence in 19th
century
 Opening
to West and to Japan
 Queen Min and the balancing act
 The Sino-Japanese War fought over
Korea
 The East Learning movement-revise
national philosophy
Korea as Japanese colony
 Lost
Names
 Comfort women
 Korea as colony for the benefit of
Japan
 Korea as expression of the “Greater
East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”
 Japanese migration to Korea
Korea in WWII and the division into
North and South
 Who
can serve in the Japanese
Army?
 Comfort women—who and why?
 Propaganda during the War
 Defeat and its aftermath
 Why division North and South
 Refugees: Japanese and Korean
All Asia Perspective
World War II completed the end of
Imperialism—are their positive effects to
Japanese colonialism?
 Role of revolutionary leaders during the
Anti-Japanese War: Mao Zedong, Ho ChiMinh, Kim Il Song
 What their communism meant?
 Why did they become anti-US?
 Compare US in China: 1945-1949; US in
Korea (1950-today); US in Vietnam
(1954-1975)

The Korean War


War against Communism or Civil War?
What is it like to have war on your
territory? Comparison of US Civil War and
Korean
 Korean perspectives: Then and Now
 Korea is still in a state of war
 Why many Koreans don’t like US military
bases in Korea –anti military
demonstrations
South Korea: Transition from
Dictatorship to Democracy
 Can
a nation be a dictatorship and be
a good US Ally?
 How did the cold War shape US
support of Syngman Rhee
 How does a dictatorship transform
into a democracy? The role of
students, economic development,
political pressure
North Korea: How can we
understand it?
Why is it so poor?
 Why has the leadership solidified? Look at
Kim Il Sung as the people’s leader during
the anti-Japanese struggle and his
transformation into the Great Leader
 What is Juche and why did it develop?
 What do the North Korean’s Wan? Is
isolation the correct policy? Did it work
anywhere else? (look at post communist
China and Vietnam)

Asserting Identity today
Pop Music and new importance of classical
music
 Dress
 Food—a healthy diet and the meaning of
Western food
 Pride in past history (inventions, cultural
symbols)
 Economic progress-transforming from a
“little Tiger” to a “big Tiger”
 Education—what and for whom?
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