The Korean War, Korean Americans and the Art of Remembering

Rarely are personal life stories, art, film, spoken word, and history combined in public exhibition. Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” (SPP) is an exception. It weaves these elements into a multi-media, interactive experience that lifts the silence shrouding the Korean War, a pivotal event in Korean, United States, and KoreanAmerican history. A public space of memory, the exhibit explores the human experience of the Korean conflict and its hidden but enduring personal and family legacies, and underscores the urgency to end over a half century of national division. For everyone, it evokes reflection about the United States’ role in the war, empathy for survivors, and recognition of our common interest in acting for peace. SPP embodies memories I col lected from 3 generations of Korean Americans as part of a unique oral history project. SPP's conception, design, and implementation are products of an interdisciplinary collective of artists, a filmmaker, a historian, and myself, a psychologist. It is comprised of installation art, interactive art, film, archival photographs, historical markers, and oral history excerpts. SPP is currently on tour most recently showing in Seoul, Korea (link (http://www.stillpresentpasts.org)) and Seattle, WA. This article summarizes the aims of the exhibit, the process of creating it, and its reception as a unique experiment in restoring collective memory of the Korean War and reclaiming public voice. Rarely are personal life stories, art, film, spoken word, and history combined in public exhibition. Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” weaves these elements into a multi-media, interactive experience that lifts the silence shrouding the Korean War, a pivotal event in Korean, United States, and Korean American history. A space to transform private memory into public dialogue, the exhibit explores the human experience of the Korean conflict and its hidden but enduring personal and family legacies, and underscores the urgency to end over a half century of national division. For everyone in this contested global era, it evokes memories of other wars, reflection about the United States’ role in the Korean conflict, empathy for survivors, and recognition of our common interest in acting for peace. The Korean War (6/25/50-7/27/53) was devastating for Korea and the Korean people. It pitted the United States, South Korea, and 16 other countries against North Korea and China in what the United Nations called a “police action”. A mere three years of fighting resulted in the deaths of 3 million Korean civilians (one tenth of the population), the large proportion in the north, more than a million combat deaths and casualties, the decimation of Korea’s natural and social infrastructure, and national division separating 10 million Koreans from family members, a division that continues to this day.