Week 10: The Korean War

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Week 9, and anything you are reading for your Pressbooks Chapter project.

Remember to also add any tasks that are on your to-do list (not those scheduled for the whole class, but for you individually, e.g. sorting out a blog-related issue), and any open questions or issues you want to flag up for follow-up with me. These weekly reports are extremely useful for me to get an insight in how you’re working, what you make of the course and the materials, and how I can best support your learning and adjust the course.

TIP: for anything you’re not comfortable putting in a blog where others can read it, you can just drop me a message on discord OR post anonymously on the Padlet!

Time estimate: 2-3hrs prep + 75mins meeting

Everybody reads the following 2 chapters from our textbook, then pick one (1) of the two options:

• Reilly, Emmett, and Dean Chamberlin. “11. Pre- and post-war Korea.” In Korean History: A student-authored textbook, edited by T. D’Haeseleer. Muhlenberg College, 2022. https://open.muhlenberg.pub/koreanhistory/chapter/pre-post-war-korea/
• Cepeda, Ale. “10. The Civilian Perspective of the Korean War.” In Korean History: A student-authored textbook, edited by T. D’Haeseleer. Muhlenberg College, 2022. https://open.muhlenberg.pub/koreanhistory/chapter/korean-war-civilian/

Pick one of the two options:

Option 1: Americans as POWs in China

• “Chapter 4: Winning Captive Hearts”. In McKnight, Brian Dallas. We Fight for Peace: Twenty-Three American Soldiers, Prisoners of War, and “Turncoats” in the Korean War. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2014.
  • Ebook Trexler
  • During the Korean War, American soldiers were taken prisoner by the Chinese and Koreans alike. Here we see how they were treated by their (communist) Chinese captors. Psychological warfare of the kind the Chinese used was something these soldiers were not prepared for. Some succumbed, and then began to spread the Chinese communist ideas among their fellow POWs. The chapter explains how that was possible, but content warning: note that it also contains descriptions of physical torture, and various deprivations.
  • Question: Does this episode make the Korean War more complex or simpler than what you thought it was all about?

Option 2: South Korean writers processing the experience of the war:

• Hwang, Sunwŏn. “Cranes.”Translated by David McCann. Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture 1 (2007): 305-312. doi:10.1353/aza.0.0020
  • Trexler library link
  • Two friends find themselves on opposite sides during the war
• Yi, Pŏmsŏm. “Stray Bullet.” In Flowers of Fire: Twentieth-Century Korean Stories, edited by Peter H. Lee, 205-232. Rev.ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
  • PDF
  • After the war, a clerk in South Korea can’t make sense of life anymore – his family was originally from the north. The story has been made into an acclaimed movie.
• Read both short stories, they are arguably the most famous stories about the war/immediate post-war situation from Korean authors. Question: How can a historian use literary fiction?

Background/optional:

If you prefer a more detailed look at the issues of the Korea war:

• Seth, Michael. : Chapter 11: “Division and War, 1945-1953.” In A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present, third ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019.
  • ebook Trexler or your own copy
  • Keep pen and paper handy to note down the major names, dates and developments, in particular for the period before 1950. It is confusing but all the material you need is in the chapter.
• H. K. Shin, Remembering Korea 1950: A Boy Soldier’s Story. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2001.
  • The memoirs of a seventeen year old boy who joined the South Korean army at the start of the Korean War.
• Peters, Richard A, and Xiaobing Li. Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
  • Experiences of the Korean War from different points of view: North and South Korean, US and Chinese, men, and women.

Time estimate: 30-45mins (a generous estimate I think)

Below you find links to four blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. [Updated links coming on Tuesday.]

• Post 1:
• Post 2:
• Post 3:
• Post 4:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students, using Hypothes.is group HST259. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

TIP: It’s all random, and it’s all good, so if you return to this page after commenting, you will see four different posts. As long as your comments are on four different posts in total, you’re fine! OR you can right-click and ask your browser to open the link in a new tab/window.

Time estimate: 30mins prep, 75 mins for the meeting

Since we have the luxury of creating our own textbook, it may as well be the one we’ve always dreamed of! Please prepare by taking notes on the questions contained in this Google document: Editorial meeting 1: “Heavenly textbook” or “textbook from hell”?

We will use this to create editorial guidelines for our own textbook/your chapters

1. Look through this list in Google Docs to find the chapters you are assigned
2. Use the worksheet to guide you to useful feedback. Remember: give your peers the kind of feedback you’d like to receive. “How can I write the best possible chapter?” –> “How can I help my fellow student to write the best possible chapter, by reading like the intended reader.”

Provide feedback on the chapters you are assigned, using the worksheet. Help your fellow students to make their chapter one you want to read and receive good quality feedback in return.

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Wednesday’s class, and anything you read in addition, e.g. for your Pressbooks Chapter project.

Details to follow soon!