Review 3
Timothy J. O’Brien
History 6393
February 22, 2005
Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History
By Bruce Cumings
W.W. Norton & Company, 1997
Bruce Cumings book is a comprehensive synthesis of Korean history from the
nation’s origins in folklore through the early 1990’s crisis in United States and North
Korea relations. The volume is intended for the general reader and is a good introductory
text for readers seeking knowledge about the Land of the Morning Calm.
Although Cumings didn’t conduct any archival research, his insight and
knowledge of the topic and historiography of Asian studies are evident. His qualifications
to write on the subject include his important contribution to the field as the author of two
highly regarded volumes on the origins of the Korean War.
The author recognizes in the preface that Korean readers will see his nationality
as a liability. The fact that he is American may be more of an asset than a liability
because it’s likely that he can write more dispassionately on Korean history than a
Korean could.
Cumings doesn’t have a thesis per se rather he sets out to explain and examine
Korea as a separate and unique nation apart from its entanglements and influences both
from and on China and Japan. He realizes that most Americans knowledge of Korea is
limited to the Korean War and that North Korea is a totalitarian state verging on
economic collapse. The volume is a successful effort to inform students and the general
reader that Korea has a history that is worth studying on its own merits.
The first two chapters skim quickly over the origins of the Korean nation and ends
in 1904, six years short of the Japanese colonization of Korea. At times this section may
seem dense for those without any prior knowledge of Chinese or Japanese history.
Chapter three is an account of the 1905-1945 time period that set the stage for the
American’s role in the division of Korea and the Korean War. It is important to realize, as
author notes, that very little documentation is available concerning this time frame
because North and South Korea and Japan haven’t opened their prewar archives.
Cumings writes on America’s complicity in the Japanese colonization of Korea at
the beginning of the chapter. Partial responsibility for the crimes perpetrated by the
Japanese upon the Korean populace during their 1910-45 reign can squarely be laid at
Washington and London’s door. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt brokered a peace
treaty wherein Russia recognized Japan’s “rights” to Korea in a conference at Portsmouth,
New Hampshire. Documents exchanged between Roosevelt and the Japanese pertaining
to the Taft-Katsura agreement reveal that Japan wouldn’t object to the U.S. rights in the
Philippines in exchange for the United States hands off policy concerning Japan’s seizure
of Korea. Britain and the U.S. let Japanese imperialism go unchecked as long as it
concentrated on Korea and Manchuria.
Cumings
architectonic
characterizes
colonialism
in
the Japanese
which
the
colonialization
planner
and
as
an
administrator
“organized,
was
the
model...intervening in the economy, creating markets, spawning new industries, [and]
suppressing dissent.” The Japanese developed railroads, built ports and constructed
modern factories in Korea. While discussing the effects of Japanese colonialism Cumings
asks that if we find that Japan introduced modern facilities to Korea, do we call it
modernization or colonialization? The answer depends on who you ask and provides an
insight into how Koreans view the colonialism period. A Korean would answer it was
colonization while a Japanese national would say they brought modernization. This time
period is crucial to understanding the Korean psyche because even today young Koreans
express a hatred towards Japan for their historical relationship. Furthermore, only
recently have Japanese comics, movies and other forms of culture been allowed to be
legally imported and sold in Korea.
Another important and still relevant issue raised in chapter three concerns the
“comfort women.” Comfort women were Koreans that were forced into sexual slavery to
service Japanese troops during World War II. Only recently has this issue been addressed
by the Korean and Japanese governments. Cumings writes that the Korean government
left this issue untouched for several decades because they didn’t want to reveal Korean
men’s role in this horrific chapter of their history.
Chapter four is entitled “The Passions” and covers 1945-1948. Students of
American foreign policy, imperialism and hegemony should pay close attention to this
chapter. A few days before Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender and
Korea’s liberation from its rule, Korea was unilaterally divided by the Americans. A
member of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, John McCloy, ordered that
colonels Dean Rusk and Charles H. Bonesteel come up with a way to divide Korea. They
were given about a half an hour to come up with a plan. Time was short as the Soviets
had just entered the Pacific theater and the atomic bombs had just been dropped. The
colonels picked the thirty-eight parallel as the line of demarcation. When General
Douglas MacArthur gave his order for the Japanese to surrender on August 15, 1945
(now celebrated as Liberation day in South Korea) he included this division of the
peninsula which the Russians accepted.
After a chapter on the Korean War Cumings examines the industrialization of
Korea in the chapter entitled “Korean Sun Rising: Industrialization, 1953-96.” In a
fascinating and oft times slang ridden discussion Cumings explains how the South
Korean government financed private corporations, known as chaebols, to lead the country
into becoming one of the so called Asian economic tigers.
Because the book was published in 1997, right at the onset of the Asian financial
crisis, Cumings couldn’t contextualize the historical reasons for the downfall of Korea’s
crony capitalism. The drawbacks of the methods Koreans used in their rapid
industrialization became evident upon Korea’s economic collapse and subsequent sixty
billion dollar International Monetary Fund bailout. An even more important development
that occurred in Korea history after the publication of Cumings’ tome is the country’s
quick turnaround from their economic crisis and the overhaul of their economic system.
Other important Korean events such as North Korea’s recent admission that it had
developed nuclear weapons will have to be addressed in later editions. Several mentions
of the American military base in Seoul also make the text dated because that base has
since been relocated outside the capital city. Another important issue decided since
publication were the fates of former South Korean military dictators Roh Tae Woo and
Chun Doo Hwan who faced the death penalty in their trials for corruption. The success or
failure of former president Kim Dae Jung’s sunshine policy toward North Korea is also a
topic that must be addressed in an updated edition especially in light of the current U.S. North Korean diplomatic crisis.
A chapter on America’s Koreans is interesting but should have been cut. The
book is almost five hundred pages and would serve better as an essential college text with
some editing.
Cumings book is a valuable resource to consult to understand the Hermit
Kingdom. The book succeeds because of Cumings superior scholarship and informal
writing style. Most importantly it conveys to the American reader why they should care
about events on the Korean peninsula.