Opinion - The Korea Times

It was not the wars

By Mark PetersonI need to follow up from last week's article about Korea's penchant for stability in spite of wars and the social change that takes place, not as a result of the wars, but afterward unrelated to the war. I think it's true of the Japanese invasion of the 1590s and the Korean War of the 1950s.The point is I think we have evidence of tremendous resilience and creativity in Korea. We know about the recovery from the Korean War. We know that Korea developed rapidly from a country with virtually no infrastructure or industry and a per capita income of less than $100 per annum, to the economically powerful and individually wealthy country we know today.I think the same thing was in operation after the Japanese invasion of 1592. The loss of life is estimated to have been close to one-quarter of the population, maybe four million people. Destruction of property was nearly total. One can seldom find a building, even a Buddhist temple in a remote mountain, that was not burned by the Japanese. Land was laid waste. And following the Japanese invasion the Manchus invaded. That inva

Dec 20, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Changes after two wars

By Mark PetersonI suppose most who see the reference to two wars would assume I'm going to write about the Korean War and World War II, but no, ― put on your history hat ― I'm writing about the Japanese Invasion of 1592, and the Manchu Invasion of 1636.This has come to my attention from comments that have been left under videos on my YouTube channel where several subscribers have referenced the term “yangnan.” I'm embarrassed to disclose my poor vocabulary in Korean by admitting I didn't know the term and had to look it up. It means “the two wars” and refers to the Japanese and Manchu invasions. But it's the conclusion drawn in the use of the term that has stirred me to write today.The terms are used to refer to the changes in society post-war. And those who are generally aware of the great “Confucianization” that took place in roughly this time frame tend to assume and aver that the Confucian reforms and the swing to male dominance by accepting a Chinese style of Confucianism occurred as a result of the war. The previous sentence has a lot to &ldq

Dec 6, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Korean-Americans

By Mark PetersonMy attitude about Korean-Americans has changed over the years. When I first encountered Korea, living there, I met people who wanted to go to America “by hook or by crook.” And indeed, many were able to cobble together reasons to get a visa to visit America, and then they disappeared or overstayed their visas, but eventually ended up gaining American citizenship. I thought the whole enterprise was corrupt and I wanted to have nothing to do with it.I felt that a good Korean should be patriotic and loyal to Korea. I felt a desire to stay in Korea and do what I could, in my work in the field of education, to help Korea to develop. And indeed, I arranged through various opportunities to live in Korea for a total of 15 years. I was doing what I could do to help Korea to build and develop, and I did not appreciate those Koreans who “ran off” to America or other countries, and I really didn't like people who came to me to ask for me to help them get to America.I was absolute death on those who wanted to emigrate, legally or illegally ― especially for

Nov 8, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Deep 'han'

By Mark PetersonMy previous article, “End of han,” generated one of the largest responses of any of my articles. “Han” is something everyone knows something about. The responses fell into four categories: 1. the expression of “han” in psychiatry, 2. the origin of “han” was not ancient but rather was in the Japanese period, 3. that “han” is overplayed, exaggerated and even trite as an explanation of Koreanness, and indeed, 4. “han” is dead, or close to a well-deserved death.One of the first to respond was an old friend of mine, Dr. Choe, a psychiatrist. I was surprised at what he had to say ― that there is a serious malady in psychiatry called “hwabyeong” that is the personal internalization of “han” to the point of mental illness. If I understand him correctly, the “angst” and “frustration” and “depression” that afflict all Koreans because of the injustices Korea has suffered in the 20th century are internalized at a personal level. Maybe it's a reinforc

Oct 25, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

End of 'han'

By Mark PetersonOne of the hallmarks of Korean culture has been “han,” the supposedly untranslatable concept encompassing the feeling of resentment, angst, victimization, anger, frustration ― all rolled into one. The term often comes up in describing Korean culture and the essence of the Korean personality. “Han” is often mentioned with its untranslatable partner, “jeong” ― love, affection, rapport, camaraderie, friendship ― all rolled into one. I'm happy to report “jeong” is alive and well, in my opinion. But “han” might be on the way out.The idea had its genesis in my mind when I was watching the blockbuster drama, “Crash Landing on You.” My wife had seen the 16-part series first, and suggested ― scrap that, insisted ― that I watch it. We watched it together. She couldn't resist drawing me out to predict what was going to happen next. The drama had lots of twists and turns that made it interesting, but after all was said and done, she reminded me that Korea dramas always end in tragedy. Somebody dies. And we al

Oct 11, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Congratulations on COVID-19 handling

By Mark PetersonKorea has done a marvelous job in handling the coronavirus. There has been a recent spike, but like previous spikes, they have controlled it well, with just under 400 deaths at this point. My state of Utah, in the United States, has over 400. Korea's population is around 50 million; Utah's is under 3 million ― about 1/16 the size of Korea. If Utah had Korea's record, we would have had 25 deaths. The United States is about six times bigger than Korea. If the United States had Korea's record, rather than losing 200,000 people, at this point, we would have only lost 2,400. The United States' handling of the virus is almost 100 times worse than Korea's.Why has Korea been so good, and the United States so bad?On the Korean side, Korea was better prepared because of its experience with SARS and MERS. They had precautions set up already including detection at the airport and quarantine. Friends of mine who have gone to Korea in recent months have had to quarantine for two weeks to be sure they were safe. A two-week quarantine is better than a 40-day quarantine ― the original

Sep 27, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Jokbo adventure

By Mark PetersonI was recently contacted by a young man, a third-generation Korean American who had some questions about research on his own Korean jokbo ― family genealogy. I was pleased to receive the email and happy to answer his questions. But more importantly, I was thoroughly taken with his ability to figure out how to read a genealogy.His name is Braden Oh, and he was contacting me from his home in Southern California. He is attending a small, elite engineering college in Massachusetts; the school competes with MIT where, in fact, his father and uncle graduated, both in Astronomical Engineering. Braden is an exceptionally bright young man.Many young people in Korea are not able to read their own family jokbo because the document is written in Chinese characters. Years ago, even in the 1960s and 70s when I first went to Korea, most educated people could read Chinese characters. Newspapers were filled with Chinese and it was the medium for communication. Most street signs were in Chinese. But the times have changed and Chinese is no longer taught in the schools and most young Ko

Sep 13, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Japanese influence on Korea

By Mark PetersonJapan's influence on Korea is still visible in some ways. And invisible in other ways. The Japanese colonial occupation of Korea was a failure in all regards, politically, morally, ethically. But the evil results of the occupation remain in many ways.The obvious affects include the diplomatic mistrust of Japan and resentment of Japanese actions during the occupation (1910-45) and after the liberation of Korea as well. Sore points between Korea and Japan flare up every now and then, most often over the “comfort women” ― accepting responsibility and providing compensation ― and contention over the Dokdo islets, Korean territory, and the use of the term the “Sea of Japan” that Korea argues to be the “East Sea.”But there are other issues, some of them centered on historical interpretations. For example, there is more than ample evidence that the royal family of Japan, the Yamato clan, may well have come from the Korean Peninsula. It is clear there was Korean migration from the peninsula to the Japanese islands ― as was there migration f

Aug 30, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Traditional Korean 'seoja' discrimination

By Mark PetersonTwo things have set my mind recently to writing about traditional social class and discrimination between classes. The first was a video I was asked to make for the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles ― it was a video, actually four videos, about Pak Ji-won and his lesser-known disciple, Pak Je-ga. More on that below. The second occurred when I binge-watched “Crash Landing on You” in the last few weeks ― it was the “throw-away fact” (incidental mentioning) that the main female protagonist, Seri, was born “illegitimately.” This brings up the topic traditionally termed “seoja” ― a child born between a “yangban” aristocratic father and a commoner or slave mother. The reason filming videos about Pak Ji-won and Pak Je-ga brings up the subject is that Pak Je-ga was a seoja. He was one of the successful seoja because he lived at a time when the king and the court allowed a limited number of seoja to take and pass exams. For most of the 1390-1910 Joseon Kingdom, a seoja could not take the exams, and therefore could no

Aug 16, 2020By Mark Peterson

Traditional Korean 'seoja' discrimination

Mark Peterson

'Correct' history

By Mark PetersonI usually object to the saying that certain words or phrases are untranslatable. I like to think that if one is clever enough, every word and phrase can be translated well. But I have to admit that some translations simply don't work.Such is the case for the slogan I saw on a Korean government website ― “correct history.” The translation doesn't appear to be a problem, but it really is. And the problem is cultural. Many Koreans have no problem with the term. When I've mentioned it to my Korean friends, there is no negative response, but rather an understanding that, yes, there is “incorrect history” and yes, there is “correct history.” Such is not the case at all for Americans. If you say “We need to have correct history,” to an American, inevitably, you get an uncomfortable response, a response of “should I say what I'm thinking” because an American inevitably thinks, “'correct' according to whom?” Americans want to make that judgment; they want to decide whether it is “correct” or no

Aug 2, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Read more

It was not the wars

Changes after two wars

Korean-Americans

Deep 'han'

End of 'han'

Congratulations on COVID-19 handling

Jokbo adventure

Japanese influence on Korea

Traditional Korean 'seoja' discrimination

'Correct' history

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