revise essay

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Tiffany Zhou 

Dr. Christina Houten 

EXPOS-UA 4

Nov. 23rd, 2020 

The Trauma of History

In 1910, the Korean peninsula fell under Japanese colonial rule. For ordinary local

people, being oppressed everywhere has become commonplace. Chee metaphorically argues

about the history under the colonized influence to a Korean family in the article, “My Family’s

Shrouded History Is Also a National One for Korea”. On the surface, the life in Korea under

Japanese annexation, which seems to be orderly, however, by listening to his grandfather’s

stories he comes to understand living under occupation was unacceptable, oppressive, and

painful. The Japanese government imposed the colonial rule on Korea, restricted the

development of Korean national capitalism, plundered Korea’s resources, Japanese was

designated as the national language and prohibited the teaching of Korean, enslaved students,

and put forward the idea of “Japan and Korea as one body” and tried to assimilate the Koreans

(Chee). In all situations, people’s memories of foreign occupation have potential effects and can

provoke people’s passion. In the relationship between the colonial and colonized countries, the

shadow of history often appears. Throughout the history of colonialism, did people’s wounds

from historical trauma eventually heal? Many things prove that the influence of the colonial past

had significant harm on the personality and dignity of the original residents. 

In the following 35 years, the Japanese government plundered all the resources of Korea.

As Chee's grandfather's narrative that he still dreamed in Japanese (Chee), Japanese became the

official language and brainwashed local students at school, which gives an example of the impact

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of colonialism on language. Most of them can speak Korean with their parents and relatives only

at home. During the occupation through his analysis of grandfather’s narrative about the life that

living under the lie of the integration of Japan and Korea, the people of that generation lived in

the lie of the integration of Japan and Korea, and colonialism on language is just one legacy of

the Japanese occupation (Chee). Seen from the outside, Japan and Korea jointly revitalized East

Asia. In terms of education policy, in order to colonize Korea forever, Japan has set the

educational goal to train Korean students into subjects loyal to the empire, and emphasizes

general education and industrial education, so that made the history of so-called modernization

of Korea by Japan. Even though grandfather's "first language" was forced to become Japanese

and gave him Japanese thinking, he always knew that his roots were in Korea. In colonized

history, it has prompted the demise of some indigenous languages and the emergence of hybrid

languages, so grandfather complained that his father went to the United States and didn't teach

Chee in Korean, because he was afraid that the new generation of Koreans would forget their

roots (Chee). 

In the article by Chee, he uses the book "Figuring Korean Futures” as an example that

outlines re-education effort and gives an in-depth description of the post-colonial era, which

echoes the 1985 trip to see Chee’s grandfather. These points made readers have a more profound

impression of Yi Sun-sin and the dragon head ship, the present Chee received by grandfather.

The ship has the same or at least similar common memories for Korean at that time, and these

shared memories constitute the memory of grandfather. Chee describes it as a dark center of

grandfather's memory, made him hesitant to ask more, this anecdote was used between Chee and

grandfather that gives readers direct visual imagination (Chee). Moreover, in the copy of

grandfather’s memoir, he described grandfather’s premonitions of this occupation’s end(Chee). It

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can be seen that they can still look forward to even if there is uncertainty about the future of

Korea. 

Besides, one of the critical ways that Chee crafts his argument about how his family's

history aligns with Korea's history during the occupation is by incorporating primary documents

and artifacts, including the model of the ship and photographs of the periods. Susan Sontag, a

critic of photography, offers a useful framework for thinking about how to read and contextualize

visual objects. In "Looking at War," she pointed out the purpose of explicit war photography that

is objective evidence of historical events. She used a similar technique that references the

photograph “War Against War!” in her article. She summarized this album with more than 180

photos, allowing readers to intuitively feel from the beginning to the end of the war, from

children everywhere to military cemeteries (Sontag). This fascinating writing technique makes

readers think deeply about why no one believes that action can be abolished. 

However, the authenticity of the photo also potentially depends on the person who took

the camera. The photography taken by the camera are objective, but because people take them,

they are also subjective, which provide objective facts and subjective personal viewpoint

synchronously through cameras (Sontag). They show many places and events; otherwise, the

viewer would not see them for a lifetime. Photographs allow us to have non-stop access to

anywhere we could even have non-experienced. To make photos more effective, viewers need to

associate emotions with photos. In Chee's writing, Grandpa recorded the scenes of the year in his

memoirs and passed both the document and the empathy of history to Chee through his memoirs.

And then, Chee uses multiple photographs of the occupation period, which both grandpa and

Chee are using photography as a tool that connects emotions with history. Chee did not portray

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too much emotion in his article, but also the history he described are self-evident and enough to

transit the emotion to the audience that the cruel behavior of Japanese during the occupation.

The same as Chee's grandfather, in the reality of insult, violence, injustice,

discrimination, oppression, exploitation and exclusion, people long for and dream about peace

and the future world order. This is the mind of the colonized people who regard the civilization

of rationalism as the universal standard of mankind. After Japan surrendered, Seoul displayed

flags of occupying forces. A sign reads “Liberation of Korean Culture!” (Chee). This illustration

makes readers feel the excitement of the colonized people after liberation. As the Sontag talks

about in her article, the photograph has a deeper bite compare to just memory (Sontag).

Similarly, Chee used a lot of illustrations in his writings, such as Korean students in a Japanese

language class, Koreans waving the U.S. and Korean flags. The application of these photos not

only deepens readers' understanding, but also makes readers more convinced of the authenticity

of colonial history. From these historical photos, audiences can easily resonate, and made them

feel the colonial’s desire for freedom and recognition of national identity. Under the narrative of

nationalism, because Koreans call themselves "Korean", based on their national standpoint, they

are bound to be full of hatred and hostility during the Japanese occupation. Korea’s ethnic culture

has remained the same from ancient times to Yi Sun-shin, it has a strong sense of ethnic honor.

This allows Korea to have its own history and will not allow others like Japan to violate its

sovereignty.

Moreover, the trauma of history is experienced trauma together over time and across

generations with the same identity (Heart). While studying the historical facts themselves, people

began to reflect on the political, social and cultural impacts of this tragedy and atrocities. It not

only continued to torture the survivors of the aftermath physically and mentally, but also affected

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the daily life of ordinary citizens in present day. The article “Letter to My Son” by Ta-Nehisi

Coates’s in relation to grandpa and Chee, I see how an attention to reflects the cultures of all

races in the world have not communicated, merged and confronted freely on an equal basis in a

long time. Coates uses an anecdote to propose critical inquiry at the beginning of his letter. A

remote studio host asked him about “the subject of my body though she did not mention it

specifically” [Coates]. The stories that Chee and Coates are respectively telling About their

trauma about the history of slavery and colonialism is the way to assert control over body. Chee’s

grandfather one way of healing the wounds about forgetting them, one step towards healing

would be to have controller autonomy over the body, which might be a way of having control

over the story.

However, historical wounds are difficult to heal. In the traumatic memory of the Korean

people, the occupation of Japanese and national emotions in real life are intertwined and

coexisting; although the cruel slavery was abolished after the Civil War, it left unhealable

wounds on African American slaves and their descendants. Coates is not only a reappearance of

the trauma suffered by black families but also a condensed history of African Americans. African

Americans are two self-truths, Americans and blacks, and these two souls strive to merge in

conflict with each other. “This realization was important... it made me understand what the loss

of all our black bodies really meant. No one of us were ‘black people.’ We were individuals, a

one of one, and when we died there was nothing (Coates)”. Coates gives the idea that they want

to seek self-identification, they have to face up to this dual identity, review and identify with the

century of black history at the same time. The tremendous spiritual trauma prevents them from

identifying with history and constructing the future, and denying history are denying the integrity

of their own identity. If only entangled the oppressiveness to blacks between the social and

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economic heritage of the exploitation of others. This kind of treating race as a natural reality

normalizes atrocity and oppression just like how the Japanese treat Korean in the primary essay.

Just like how Coates tells his son, Chee's grandfather was using the same way to teach Chee

never to forget their history, that the new generation will need to integrate into the present society

while remembering they're history.

Storytelling is one of the most effective ways for people to convey important truths to

others and it is often natural phenomena that left a deep impression on people at the time, or

events that have a significant impact on their survival and development. This is also the primary

way of communication between two people. In a world full of chaos and disorder, stories are

given meaning, context and understanding. Because of this, stories can stay in people's hearts for

a longer time than facts or data. Chee dexterously uses this method of storytelling with realistic

photos to effectively convey to readers the historical events he tells. From Chee's article, it can

be seen that old scars cannot heal even in the past few decades.

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Reference

Brave Heart & DeBruyn, 1998; Crawford, 2013; Evans-Campbell, 2008; Gone, 2013

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “Letter to My Son.” The Atlantic, 4 July 2015, www.theatlantic.com/politics/

archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/. Accessed 1 Feb.

2018.

Chee, Alexander. “My Family's Shrouded History Is Also a National One for Korea.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 27 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/

magazine/korea-japanese-occupation-surrender-ww2.html?

_ga=2.9220725.1178950033.1606057915-1968437798.1601289008.