August 15 is a very important holiday and historic day for Koreans known as 광복절 (Gwangbokjeol, literally meaning “the day the light returned”). This holiday celebrates the day that the Republic of Korea was established after South Korea was liberated from its occupation from the Japanese colonial rule. Today, we hang Korean flags outside buildings…
70 years ago today, on June 25, 1950, our destiny as Korean Americans began to take form. On that day, the so-called Forgotten War for the soul of Korea commenced when communists from the North flooded the South in their bid to unify under Kim Il Sung’s rule. My first consciousness of its impact was…
This article is in response to Woody Paik’s original op-ed piece called What The US Can Learn About Education from Korea’s Wartime Example. Reading Woody Paik’s article took me to my old days of exactly 70 years ago, which otherwise might be dumped forever from my memory warehouse deep in my brain. The black and white…
“Unbeknownst to Kim himself, he accomplished the considerable feat of making Korean genre painting widely known around the world,” When the ports of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) opened to the rest of the world in the late 19th century, travelers, diplomats, missionaries and merchants flooded in, all curious to find out more about the life…
Today, June 6th is Memorial Day in Korea. A few days ago I learned that Black soldiers served an important role in the Korean War. At the time, racial segregation was a problem in the US Army so much so that entire regiments were segregated. The 24th Infantry Regiment was such a regiment primarily composed…
A look back at the violent protests that is now seen as the first shot in the mass movement that swept aside a quarter-century of dictatorship to create one of the world’s most impressive democracies. On May 18, South Koreans paused to mark the 40th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, one of the…
Asian Americans will premiere episodes 1 and 2 on PBS at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, while episodes 3-5 will air Tuesday beginning at 8 p.m ET. Click here to watch replays on the PBS website. USA TODAY – A century of racist attacks detailed in the new PBS documentary series “Asian Americans” might have felt…
With so few buildings left standing during the Korean War, exasperated teachers asked my grandfather where they should hold class. He told them to teach outside. “Hold classes on riverbeds, on mountainsides — anywhere,” he said. Without books, he instructed teachers to “teach from life.” And so they did. In 1950, the Korean conflict escalated into an international war.…