Youth for Nation: Culture and Protest in Cold War South Korea (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)

This in-depth exploration of culture, media, and protest follows South Korea's transition from the Korean War to the start of the political struggles and socioeconomic transformations of the Park Chung Hee era. Although the post-Korean War years are commonly remembered as a time of crisis and disarray, Charles Kim contends that they also created a formative and productive juncture in which South Koreans reworked pre-1945 constructions of national identity to meet the political and cultural needs of postcolonial nation-building. He explores how state ideologues and mainstream intellectuals expanded their efforts by elevating the nation's youth as the core protagonist of a newly independent Korea. By designating students and young men and women as the hope and exemplars of the new nation-state, the discursive stage was set for the remarkable outburst of the April Revolution in 1960. Kim's interpretation of this seminal event underscores student participants' recasting of anticolonial resistance memories into South Korea's postcolonial politics. This pivotal innovation enabled protestors to circumvent the state's official anticommunism and, in doing so, brought about the formation of a culture of protest that lay at the heart of the country's democracy movement from the 1960s to the 1980s. The positioning of women as subordinates in the nation-building enterprise is also shown to be a direct translation of postwar and Cold War exigencies into the sphere of culture; this cultural conservatism went on to shape the terrain of gender relations in subsequent decades. A meticulously researched cultural history, Youth for Nation illuminates the historical significance of the postwar period through a rigorous analysis of magazines, films, textbooks, archival documents, and personal testimonies. In addition to scholars and students of twentieth-century Korea, the book will be welcomed by those interested in Cold War cultures, social movements, and democratization in East Asia. In 1960, South Korean students staged a major series of demonstrations against their government’s abuses of power. Known as the April 19^th^ Revolution, the movement culminated in the resignation of authoritarian president Syngman Rhee. This book explores media and ideological texts of the post-Korean War years to advance a cultural explanation of that seminal event. It focuses on gendered discourse and ideology that positioned youths as the hope, exemplars, and representatives of the postcolonial nation. Intellectuals and ideologues urged youths to contribute to nation building by enacting patriotic virtues in the everyday. Students also learned about anticolonial resistance as a way to cultivate their nation-centered probity for the postcolonial era. With its emphasis on upstanding youth action, patriotic education of the 1950s ironically prepared students to engage in antigovernment protest on behalf of the nation in April 19^th^. Not long after that landmark event, however, Park Chung Hee’s coup of May 16, 1961 effected a quick return to authoritarian rule. The Park regime refigured the emphasis on everyday patriotism in order to mobilize men and women for its controversial program of rapid and uneven economic development. Conversely, memories of April 19^th^ formed the basis of South Korea’s student-driven democratization (1964-1987). Cover 1 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Abbreviations 12 Introduction 16 Chapter One: Narrating the Postwar Crisis 37 Chapter Two: Wholesome Modernization 58 Chapter Three: The Student Vanguard 90 Chapter Four: Permissible Criticism 124 Chapter Five: 4.19 as Authorized Protest 152 Chapter Six: Miracles Every Day? 191 Epilogue 220 Notes 230 Selected Bibliography 266 Index 270 A 270 B 270 C 270 D 271 E 272 F 272 G 272 H 272 I 273 J 273 K 273 L 274 M 274 N 274 O 275 P 275 R 276 S 276 T 277 U 278 V 278 W 278 Y 278 Narrating The Postwar Crisis -- Wholesome Modernization -- The Student Vanguard -- Permissible Criticism -- April 19th As Authorized Protest -- Miracles Every Day? Charles R. Kim. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web.