By Lee Tae-hoon
The Seoul Museum of History (SMH) will hold an exhibition starting this Friday to shed light on the history of Koreans who have settled in Japan under the title of “100 years of Koreans living in Japan.”
The exhibition, jointly sponsored by SMH, the Northeast Asian History Foundation and the History Museum of Japanese Koreans, is aimed at enhancing awareness of the Korean Japanese who continue to interact with Korean society and developing a correct understanding of their situation and history.
“The exhibition aims to add the history of the Korean Japanese to the overall tapestry of Korea’s early modern history, and also shed some light on what kind of impact Korea-Japan relations have on Korean Japanese society,” an SMH official said.
This exhibition will examine a wide array of topics, including the historical background of how the Korean Japanese came to settle in Japan.
It will also show how they were able to overcome difficult conditions and discrimination and carve out their own path in Japanese society.
A noteworthy feature of the upcoming exhibition is the Nishiki-e (polychrome woodblock prints) exhibit.
It will be the first time for these prints, collected over the past 40 years by Kang Deok-sang, director of the History Museum of Japanese Koreans, to be displayed to the public in Korea.
The museum says the Nishiki-e played a critical role in fostering Japan’s skewed perception of Korea and the formation of its imperialist view of history, noting that one could call it the starting point of Japan’s historical distortions.
Visitors will be able to learn what caused Koreans settle in Japan; how the Korean Japanese differ from other overseas Koreans; and what kind of discrimination they had to face and overcome within Japanese society.
On the side line of the exhibition, a symposium will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, under the theme of the “Life and dream of Japanese Koreans in a troubled time.”
Eight movies about Japanese Koreans will also be screened from Aug. 11 through 17.
The exhibition will continue until Sept. 30.