1. Teaching about Modern Korea A question of Identity A question of Identity

2. A great site for lesson plans on all aspects of Korea  http://www.koreak12.org/ http://www.koreak12.org/

3. Categories  Identity separate from China and Japan (Japanese invasion’s)  How do you borrow many aspects of culture from a much larger neighbor and still retain your own identity?  How do you “fend off’ neighbors who want to control you without war?

4. Struggle for independence in 19 th century  Opening to West and to Japan  Queen Min and the balancing act  The Sino-Japanese War fought over Korea  The East Learning movement-revise national philosophy

5. Korea as Japanese colony  Lost Names  Comfort women  Korea as colony for the benefit of Japan  Korea as expression of the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”  Japanese migration to Korea

6. Korea in WWII and the division into North and South  Who can serve in the Japanese Army?  Comfort women—who and why?  Propaganda during the War  Defeat and its aftermath  Why division North and South  Refugees: Japanese and Korean

7. All Asia Perspective  World War II completed the end of Imperialism—are their positive effects to Japanese colonialism?  Role of revolutionary leaders during the Anti-Japanese War: Mao Zedong, Ho Chi- Minh, Kim Il Song  What their communism meant?  Why did they become anti-US?  Compare US in China: 1945-1949; US in Korea (1950-today); US in Vietnam (1954-1975)

8. The Korean War  War against Communism or Civil War?  What is it like to have war on your territory? Comparison of US Civil War and Korean  Korean perspectives: Then and Now  Korea is still in a state of war  Why many Koreans don’t like US military bases in Korea –anti military demonstrations

9. South Korea: Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy  Can a nation be a dictatorship and be a good US Ally?  How did the cold War shape US support of Syngman Rhee  How does a dictatorship transform into a democracy? The role of students, economic development, political pressure

10. North Korea: How can we understand it?  Why is it so poor?  Why has the leadership solidified? Look at Kim Il Sung as the people’s leader during the anti-Japanese struggle and his transformation into the Great Leader  What is Juche and why did it develop?  What do the North Korean’s Wan? Is isolation the correct policy? Did it work anywhere else? (look at post communist China and Vietnam)

11. Asserting Identity today  Pop Music and new importance of classical music  Dress  Food—a healthy diet and the meaning of Western food  Pride in past history (inventions, cultural symbols)  Economic progress-transforming from a “little Tiger” to a “big Tiger”  Education—what and for whom?