It is a well-known fact that human culture reacts to the environment very quickly and efficiently. With the help of analysis of artistic works of a certain period it is easy to conclude what feelings and tendencies prevailed in society at that time. When art of a separate country is considered, it is useful to trace economic and overall situation in it to draw certain conclusions about the environment reflection that is observed in the sphere of art. IF culture and art are considered in such extreme situations as wars, riots, occupations, etx., it is clear that art cannot be left outside such major changes in society. As these events and situations are tragic and affect all the possible spheres of people’s life, in the art every aspect of people’s feelings receive their reflection. I believe that by analysis of art works of this period of time one can draw conclusions about the strength and uniformity of people of this culture. It can be explained by the fact that it is extremely difficult to realize the creative potential in such situations.
In this paper the Korean culture in the period of war of 1950-1953 will be considered, and especially the way it influenced the human culture of that period of time and afterwards. In order to properly research the question, a brief overview of the Korean War will be presented, followed by analysis of the particular pieces of art work of the corresponding period of time. In this way a full picture will be formed about the Korean War influence on art.
The Korean War was an armed conflict that took place between 1950 and 1953, in which USSR, USA, China, South and North Korea were involved (Goncharov et al. 1994). After World War II, Korea was divided into northern and southern occupation zones: in the north there were Soviet troops and in the south – American. Officially, the Soviet Union was for a unified Korean state, but in reality the power in North Korea was transferred to the local communists. In the south United States supported local pro-American dictatorship of Syngman Rhee. On August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was proclaimed with the capital in Seoul. In response, on September 9, 1948, the Democratic People's Republic was founded with the capital in Pyongyang.
Despite the withdrawal of Soviet troops in the end of 1947, the U.S. army did not do the same, which led to the rise of guerrilla movements in South Korea (with the support of North Korea). After the defeat in China, the United States did not want a repetition of events in Korea and in June 1949, withdrew its troops from the South. The communists, by contrast, felt good and were going to repeat the Chinese version in Korea (Goncharov et al. 1994).
Usually there are four phases distinguished in the war:
The outbreak of war, attack of the Korean People's Army (KPA) to the river. Nakdong (June 25 - September 14, 1950).
Counterattack of the American and South Korean forces and their output in the northern areas of North Korea (15 September - 24 October 1950).
Entry into the war of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV). Retreat of the American and South Korean troops from the Democratic People's Republic. The fighting forces of the parties in the areas adjacent to the 38th parallel (25 October - 9 July 1951).
Battles in the course of negotiations for armistice (July 10, 1951 - July 27, 1953).
Large number of lives lost in the course of war, as well as considerable expenses made this war unpopular in the United States. In the presidential elections in the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower won, who in the pre-election campaign promised to accelerate end of the conflict. Negotiations were held in the course of the war for several times: on July 10, 1951, November 27, 1951, and April 26, 1953, but the peace after them was not permanent. At the end of July 27, 1953, under pressure from Eisenhower an agreement on the complete armistice was signed. It was preceded by 1076 rounds of negotiations that lasted for two years and 19 days. Armistice agreement, which never took shape of the peace treaty, provided for a four-kilometer demilitarized zone (DMZ) along the 38th parallel - the new frontier between the two countries was held in place on the front line as of July 27, 1953. Signing of the agreement was attended by representatives from the United States, China and North Korea. South Korea refused to send a representative, but on the July 27 agreement was signed without the participation of South Korea.
One of the spheres of art, where influence of war can be easily traced is painting. In the course of war, as well as several years before its actual start, when Japanese influence was very strong in the Korean culture, art in general was going through a difficult period, as Japanese invaders were trying to eliminate the Korean art by destroying and looting artistic works, closing art schools, torching paintings and forcing those artists that were left to paint Japanese motives. Still, despite such a difficult situation, Korean art survived till today and there are works from the period of war that show the strength of the Korean spirit.
One of the famous artists working in the period of the Korean War was Kim Seong-hwan, widely known under pen name Gobau. Today he is 79 and is well-known for creating the longest-running comic strip in the country. His penname that is translated as Strong Rock dates back to the beginning of the Korean War, when in 1950 he, as 18-year-old man, was hiding from North Koreans. He became well-known for a unique way of war events recording. He was using delicate Oriental watercolors and pens, which would later become his recognizable trademark. After liberation of Seoul in 1950, he became a war artist of the Ministry of Defense, but his first works as a civilian are the most interesting for today’s analysis (Salmon 2009).
Figure 1. Gobau’s painting “The Holocaust Begins”. (Salmon 2009)
In Figure 1 one of the first paintings is shown, which the artist drew on the first day after the war started. In it two men are watching artillery bursts far from them. When commenting on this picture, Gobau said that when the war started people were informed that North Koreans had invaded, but the authorities assured people that the situation was under control and that South Koreans pushed them back. It was the reason why people didn’t flee, which led to much more deaths than could have been if not for such misleading information. I believe that this picture perfectly reflects this situation and is filled with silent grief. In it we see the start of a terrible war that brought about so many deaths. But men are calm, thinking that war will not reach them.
Figure 2. Gobau’s painting “Hide the guns!” (Salmon 2009)
Another painting of the artist (see Figure 2) shows civilians that collect rifles of the South Korean army to bury them when the North Korean army approaches. In the picture it is easy to notice that the soldiers are pale, as they understand that rifles cannot save them from tanks that are approaching. The artist depicted the people’s feelings very accurately.
In the third painting (see Figure 3) Gobau depicted the North Korean soldiers as he saw them along with their equipment. The South Korean army didn’t have such equipment, which put them in weaker position. In the center of the picture two men are depicted with evident symptoms of the battle shock – their staring eyes show it in the best way.
Figure 3. Gobau’s painting “The Men from the North”. (Salmon 2009)
There are many other paintings by Gobau that are worth analyzing to understand the situation and feelings that people had in that period of time. His works are especially interesting because of the fact that he was a civilian and he watched everything from the inside. On the whole, war influenced artists greatly, which is evident in the works of the other artists as well. Still, in order to show a full picture of the war influence on the culture, it is necessary to analyze the way it affected another type of art – literature.
In most Korean novels written in the 1950s, the topics were the Korean War itself, or some actions that take place against the background of the war. In the generation of Korean writers who survived the war, such names can be called as Ahn Soo-kil, Hwang Sun-won, Kim Dong-ni, Park Kyung-ni, Chang Yong-hak, So Ki-won and others. But if writers like Ahn Soo-kil, Hwang Sun-won and Kim Dong-ni, can be called the first generation of Korean writers who began their literary activity after liberation, the second generation of writers who began their work in the 1950s, can be called post-war. This separation of the post-war writers is probably necessary, because the Korean War was a true disaster for the country, which forever changed the face of the Korean families and the overall structure of the Korean society.
Postwar generation of writers took part in the war. They fought with the enemies and saw the death of fellow soldiers, looking into the face of death many times, coming out from this confrontation victoriously (Stone 1969). This war experience is directly reflected in the works of writers of postwar period. Through the words of the heroes of their novels, writers denounced the brutality of war, describing the struggle for survival and spiritual discomfort of those who managed to stay alive in the war. In their works, people, stunned by the realization of their own mortality and the randomness of fate, waged a desperate struggle in search of spiritual support. They were armed with anti-communist ideology, but had no opportunity to reflect on the nature of this ideological system, on which society was oriented. It did not occur to them to even think about the meaning of the war they waged. These people had no clue as to what society should be like, in which they would later live. They were just victims of history and cruel reality. From this point of view, for the post-war writers novel was not only a means of reproduction of the reality that they themselves experienced, but also a way to condemn the absurdity of this reality and expose randomness of human destiny.
For this reason, the post-war novels can be divided into categories depending on the kind of reality occurring during the war they describe (Cumings 1997). The first category includes novels, which tell us about the situation when, after the adoption of communism in North Korea as a state ideology, the former landowners were declared the "root of evil," they were deprived of their land that was given on free-of-charge basis to the working class and peasants. During this process, there was exacerbation of confrontation between landlords and poor tenants, as a result of which murders and other kinds of violence often occurred.
The second category includes novels, in which the writers refer to such a complex problem as the loss of human dignity in a cruel and merciless struggle for existence, when, in order to survive the war, people had to use all means, often displaying their brutal, inhuman entity.
In the novels of the third category, we see young people who lost in the course of war their families and beloved ones, suffering because of psychological injuries they received on the battlefield and being in a state of mental confusion. These people lost their value system, which was to serve them as life guide, which is why they sometimes make wrong decisions from the standpoint of moral choice, and sometimes commit immoral acts. Still, deep down their souls they are experiencing constant pain from non-healing wounds of war (Stone 1969).
The fifth category includes novels, in which children are involved. They lost their parents and relatives, they can be called little victims of war, taken up and carried away by a wave of adult refugees who wander along the streets of foreign cities. Not to die of hunger, they sometimes allow themselves to be drawn into a dirty, dark world of adults, but no matter what they continue to grow and learn how to overcome adversity of fate.
In the novels of the sixth category, we see images of women. The heroines of these works donate their own honor and human dignity for the sake of beloved ones missing in the war, or for impoverished families. Through these images writers make us rediscover the great power of love. Novels of the seventh category are dedicated to the topic of refugees. Leaving home with their families, they fled to the south, where they live as outcasts, suffering from endless anguish, because they know that will never be able to return home. Thus, they suffer from severe physical challenges, trying to settle down in a strange land (Stueck 1997).
Thus, we see that the writers of the postwar generation, who personally experienced the tragedy of war, not only described in their writings unrest of the wounded souls, but also asked many questions. In particular, they tried to figure out what value human life has in such extreme conditions as war; what does it mean to live like human beings in the war; whether in war such concepts as law, virtue, ethics of human relations have any value; who will be responsible for such a nonsense, when for unknown reasons people lose loved ones or have to kill a person just because they were told that he is an enemy.
Not only literature and visual art were influenced by the war. In the period of liberty that lasted between 1945 and 1950 Korean cinema fully reflected and used this liberty, which became the major theme of the films in this period. In the time of the Korean War itself, film production slowed considerably and only 5-6 films were produced every year between 1950 and 1953.
In the field of architecture there also were major changes. In the course of war many buildings were destroyed. In Seoul command was changing between North and South Koreans five times, and battles leveled much of the city. In the north there was a tendency of prevailing brutalist architecture, which can be explained by the Soviet influence in this part of the country. Architects studied in Moscow, bringing socialist worker styles into the country. In the South American architecture prevailed, which is also a direct influence of the war (Stueck 1997).
It is necessary to state that the Korean War influenced not only the Korean art and culture, but also the world art as well. There is a well-known picture of Pablo Picasso called “Massacre in Korea” (See Figure 4), which saw the world in 1951and depicts the events of the Sinchon Massacre of 1950. The painting was considered as anti-American and was forbidden till the 1990s (Cumings 1997).
The Korean War received a weak reflection in video games, especially in comparison with a relatively popular topic of the Vietnam War. In a number of turn-based strategies, real-time strategies and flight simulators (The Operational Art of War II, Cold War Conflicts: Days in the Field 1950-1973, Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat) there are scenarios and campaigns on the war. There are several games entirely devoted to this war: M*A*S*H (1982), MacArthur’s War: Battles for Korea (1988), Conflict: Korea the First Year 1950—1951 (1992), Sabre Ace: Conflict Over Korea (1997), Mig Alley (1999), Squad Battles: Korean War (2003), Korea: Forgotten Conflict (2003), Theatre of War 3: Korea (2010).
Figure 4. Pablo Picasso’s painting “Massacre in Korea”.
Works Cited
Cumings, B. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. Print.
Goncharov, S.N., Lewis, J.W., Litai, X., and Lawlor, M.A. “Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War.” History: Reviews of New Books 23.1 (1994): 39-40. Print.
Salmon, A. “A Cartoonist at War: “Gobau’s” Korea, 1950.” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Japan Focus, 13 Jul. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
Stone, I.F. The hidden history of the Korean War. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969. Print.
Stueck, W. The Korean War: an international history. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. Print.
