[Symposium] Ideological-Psychological Warfare and Affect in Cold War Asia through Moving Images

Event Time

• Saturday, March 27, 2021, 13:00-18:20

Overview

NARA II holds a large body of photographs and moving images produced by both military and civilian photographers and cameramen on the themes of division, the Cold War, and war in Korea, North Korea, and Asia.

In the photographic record, U.S. military still photographers appear alongside photographers from major photojournalism magazines, and their works survive in large numbers across U.S. Army Signal Corps and USIS record groups. These images capture not only military subjects and wartime scenes but also everyday life and Cold War societies across Korea and Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. The film holdings likewise include many anti-communist developmental and psychological-warfare productions made by U.S. film companies and military cameramen. NARA II also preserves photographs and films shot in North Korea and the Soviet sphere between liberation and the outbreak of the Korean War, many of them seized by U.S. forces during the occupation of North Korea. Some materials include documentaries and feature films produced in North Korea after liberation.

This symposium investigates the related documentary records as well, in order to examine the production and management of these visual sources through the lens of ideological-psychological warfare and affect under division and the Cold War.

Program

• Opening remarks: Baek Won-dam (Director, Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University)
• Congratulatory remarks: Shin Jong-dae (President, Korean Society for Cold War Studies)
• Introduction: The activities and archive of the Institute for Peace and Worlding Studies

Session 1

• Moderator: Jo Kyung-hee (Sungkonghoe University)
• Presentation: Kang Seong-hyeon (Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University), “How Should Korean War Footage Be Studied?”
• Presentation: Kim Il-hwan (Graduate Program in Sociology, Seoul National University), “Returning Enemy Prisoners, Homecoming Heroes: Prisoner Exchanges and Their Hidden Sides through U.S. Footage”
• Presentation: Im Jae-geun (Peace-Unification Education and Culture Center), “Blind Spots and Affect in the Destruction of Bridges and Railways: Focusing on Korean War Footage from Daejeon”
• Discussants: Heo Eun (Korea University), Jo Jun-hyeong (Korean Film Archive)

Session 2

• Moderator: Oh Young-sook (Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University)
• Presentation: Kim Min-hwan (College of Peace and Liberal Studies, Hanshin University), “Controlled Movement and the Recalibration of Borders: Bridge Footage from the Imjin River and Its Surroundings”
• Presentation: Jeong Young-sin (Department of Sociology, Catholic University of Korea), “Reconstructing the Postwar Subject in U.S. Aid Films: Focusing on Aid-to-Korea Films in The Big Picture Series”
• Presentation: Jeon Gap-saeng (Institute for East Asian Studies / Institute for Peace and Worlding Studies, Sungkonghoe University), “The U.S. Military’s Capture of North Korean Footage and the Production of Psychological-Warfare Films: Focusing on The Big Lie and The Big Picture”
• Discussants: Kim Seong-gyeong (University of North Korean Studies), Kim Won (The Academy of Korean Studies)

• Hosted by: Institute for Peace and Worlding Studies, Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University
• Supported by: National Research Foundation of Korea