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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)
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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 Chi-Minh, 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?