2016: Peace Through Solidarity

VIETNAM - südkoreanisches Militär im Vietnamkrieg

Am 30. August 2016, von Sung-Hee CHOI

“Peace through solidarity”

- Korean artists reflect over Vietnam war atrocities

“I didn’t really know much about the Vietnam War,” explained Kim Woon-sung on the married couple’s reason for sculpting the pieta. “South Korea and Vietnam were countries that didn’t have any animosity or territorial issues. It was going to Vietnam on a Peace Trip that I learned how many civilian massacres had been perpetrated there by South Korean troops.”
Lists of victims massacred by South Korean forces had been inscribed on monuments of resentment and hatred in the Vietnamese villages Kim visited.
Quelle: The Hankyoreh:  http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/758866.html
Mit freundlicher Erlaubniis
Download hier als pdf

“Peace through solidarity” - Korean artists reflect over Vietnam war atrocities
Aug.29, 2016  KST





Artists travel to Japan as that government is calling for removal of comfort woman statue across from Seoul embassy

The setting was the second-floor conference room at the Bunkyo Ward Residents’ Center in Tokyo at 6:30 pm on Aug. 27. Artists Kim Seo-kyung, 51, and Kim Woon-sung, 52, who sculpted the comfort woman statue that current sits across from the Japanese embassy in Seoul, were holding a talk titled “The Vietnam Pieta and the Comfort Woman Statue: How Should We Confront Our Country’s Abuses?” The room was packed with around 150 residents, suggesting the Japanese community’s high level of interest in the statue. For a Jan. 2015 exhibition on “nonfreedom of expression” held in Tokyo, the Kims were accompanied during their talk by the statue, on display for the first time in Japan.

But the focal point on Aug. 27 was not on the statue, but on efforts by South Koreans to reckon with their own role in abuses through the so-called “Vietnam Pieta.”

“I didn’t really know much about the Vietnam War,” explained Kim Woon-sung on the married couple’s reason for sculpting the pieta. “South Korea and Vietnam were countries that didn’t have any animosity or territorial issues. It was going to Vietnam on a Peace Trip that I learned how many civilian massacres had been perpetrated there by South Korean troops.”

Lists of victims massacred by South Korean forces had been inscribed on monuments of resentment and hatred in the Vietnamese villages Kim visited.

“There were things like ‘baby, age zero’ written in Vietnamese [without names]. I felt tremendous sadness, and I was so ashamed,” he recalled. “We made the Vietnam pieta with the idea that we should offer some kind of apology and reflection.”

In April, the Kims joined the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation - launched to investigate South Korea’s responsibility in the Vietnam War - in unveiling the 150 cm-tall statue, which measures 70 cm on either side. The foundation and the couple plan to relocate the statue to Vietnam in the future.

Showing great interest in the Kims’ activities, Japanese attendees asked whether they had encountered any resistance from the South Korean public. This question led in turn to the topic of the comfort woman statue and the Japanese government‘s persistent calls for its removal.

“The Abe administration says the statue is doing harm to Japan. But we think they should consider what really hurts Japan’s image: concealing Japan‘s war crimes and demanding that a statue be erased, or sincerely apologizing for and reflecting on the past,” Kim Woon-sung said.

The couple went on to relate how pressure from Japan had resulted in the planned erection of a simple peace monument in front of the embassy developing into the current statue of a young girl - and how the calls for its removal have resulted in similar statues appearing all around South Korea and the rest of the world.

Many Japanese visitors applauded the couple’s talk.

“It seems like the efforts in South Korean minjung [people’s] art to confront responsibility in abuses against Vietnam also pose big questions for Japan and Japanese art, which have not confronted their own country’s abuses,” said Rikkyo University professor Akane Onozawa.

Freelance editor Yukado Okamoto, who planned the debate, said, “People in Japan label the comfort women campaign as ‘anti-Japan,’ but you can see how wrong that is when you look at South Korean society attempting to reckon with its role in past abuses.”

Kim Seo-kyung said, “I believe peace is born through solidarity.”




By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent






 

Vietnam: alle Beiträge