War Baby
June 25th. This year that marks 71 years since the “start” of the Korean War. A war that is still ongoing. Before the endless wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, there was Korea. There is Korea.
What do you know about the Korean War? About North Korea? Hell, about South Korea? Do you know that for decades South Korea was ruled by tyrannical, authoritarian despots and military dictators? That these dictators ruled with iron fists that crushed dissent, all under the knowing approval of the United States? That the South Korea you know as a democracy has only existed since 1988?
You may know that the DMZ is the most heavily fortified border in the world. Did you know it was established in less than hour? Two military officers were tasked with figuring out where to divide Korea, a unified nation for thousands of years. It took about forty-five minutes for these Americans to slash that border across a people, separating families to this day.
I’m sure you’ve heard the popular factoid about the Korean War that it’s not “technically” over, and yes this is true. The war paused in 1953 when an armistice was signed. You know who signed it? Representatives from North Korea (sure), China (okay, I guess?), and the United States (say what?). The signatories represented a body created by the U.N. to end the war. China has since withdrawn, leaving North Korea and the United States as technically the only actors who can negotiate an actual end to the war. South Korea has no voice, no power, in ending the war.
Think about that for second. The U.S. is never going to willingly end this war. Not when North Korea is a perpetual boogeyman and Sinophobia fuels a new Cold War with China. Not when there are thousands of soldiers stationed on the peninsula and ever-expanding bases continuing to colonize an occupied country.
I write this as U.S. Independence Day approaches. Friends are excited to be going down the shore and, not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to beers and barbecue. But I also think about how very little attention there was to this other anniversary. An anniversary not of independence but subjugation. Did you know Korea was a colony under Imperial Japan? The Japanese committed genocide, capturing Korean women and girls to work as sex slaves, forbidding the use of Korean and requiring all Koreans register Japanese names with the government, and repressing dissent. When World War 2 ended all Korea wanted was its sovereignty back. Instead, the United States stepped in and here we are seventy-one years later.
Which is why I’m here. Very literally. I was a teenager when it clicked that “war baby” applied to me. It shapes you, knowing that war and imperialism are part of your story like this. It’s why I’m here, now, telling you all this. At parties my favorite thing to do is rant about what the United States has done in Korea. Because I want you to know. I need you to know. Because it’s our duty living in the imperial core to do everything we can to dismantle this empire. As part of the Korean diaspora, everything I do is to end the war.
There’s an amazing movie about the Korean resistance to Japan where a group of Korean freedom fighters are planning to assassinate a Japanese official. At one point, one of them is asked, “Do you think you’ll end the war by killing this official?” They respond something along the lines of, “No, but the Japanese will know we’re still here.” My aunts are older than the Korean War. My mother has known nothing but a divided nation. We’re all still here. And now you know.