Final Blog and Thoughts

This course offered for me a chance to see the Korean War from multiple perspectives. This enabled me to learn certain "truths" about the Korean War, and about how it has been portrayed ever since. One of these truths, is the real starting date of the Korean War. Look at the above image. "The War Began Here - June 25, 1950"  Not 1945, when America and Russia decided to split Korea in half. Not after America had installed a collaborationist government in South Korea. No, the war is on June 25, 1950, when North Korea supposedly invaded South Korea. Though even that historically is still up for debate.

It is things like this I didn't expect to learn when I signed up for this course. As I said today, learning that the South Korean government was potentially more brutal to it's civilian populace than the "evil" North Korean government never ceased to make me frown. That such news was never really talked about, because it was always better to demonize North Korea, then point out the flaws, apparently. Seeing that America would just turn a blind eye to a dictatorship it had created also disgusted me. This is not the actions of a nation that seeks liberty and freedom for all.

I for one wonder if I will see the reunification of Korea in my lifetime. Most of the civilian populace seem to want it, or at least the ability to travel freely between the two. The fact that it hasn't happened, some sixty years after the Korean War, makes me wonder if it will though. And if it does happen, will it be peaceful, or through war? The biggest question though is how much will America be involved? I for one hope that it isn't involved at all. Because American involvement is what divided Korea in the first place. How would Americans like it if some foreign power came in and split our nation in half? Drew a line and said you cannot pass this mark?

Overall I enjoyed the course because it exposed some ugly truths that no amount of hand waving will hide. I would like to thank my class mates for adding to a fun, and learning  environment. Special thanks to Professor Hong for making the course so entertaining, and I look forward to seeing most of you next quarter.