Korean Resistance and Reunification Posters Against U.S Military Occupation

[Poster 1 Image description: A vector image of the Korean peninsula in a warm yellow against a cool blue background with a grainy rice paper texture, which gradients to a darker more saturated blue towards the center of the image in a circular shape. Behind the peninsula on the right is a thin white outline of an indigenous Korean plant, mugwort.  Korean text located on the bottom quadrant of the image reads “조선은 하나다!” smaller text in English underneath reads “joseon is one!”.]

[Poster 2 Image Description: An orange vector map of Jeju island is floating on top of a periwinkle background in the top half of the picture plane, in the top right and bottom left corner the color shifts into a slightly darker shade of blue. A saturated blue text in bold font underneath the island reads “전쟁기지, 공군기지는 즉각 제주 떠나라!” the translation in English is underneath reading “NO WAR BASE, NO AIRFORCE ON JEJU ISLAND!”] a thin orange oval is placed behind this text. In the bottom left corner a realistic illustration of two fern looking leaves (bija tree) tinted a similar shade of blue is placed, to the right are the tops of green barley leaves, tinted a saturated shade of blue]

The ongoing Korean war incited by the U.S military has plagued the Korean peninsula for over 70 years. Military occupation, sanctions, heavy policing, and violent enforcement of American exceptionalism have continuously endangered, displaced, murdered, incarcerated, and dispossessed Koreans.  This project is a pair of resistance posters/graphics which would be used to protest the U.S’s occupation and interference within Korean politics. Korea has a long history of radical organizing and dissent around U.S imperialism and Japanese colonization, these resistance posters fall in line with these histories. The desires, dreams, and needs towards a just demilitarization and reunification of the peninsula are consistently and violently erased, this project is not meant to be interpreted as an artwork which falls into the representational, but a call of solidarity and reckoning. This statement will lightly trace the histories and context of the work presented. Through an accessible format, this project can become a part of a work in progress zine which would map information around Korean history and ongoing anti-capitalist organizing work. 

Anti-Korean especially anti-DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) propaganda is suffused throughout the media, education systems, and collective imaginations of Americans, the West, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) This is a very intentional system of logic that has been mobilized to drop 600,000 tons of napalm over the peninsula and systematically murder Koreans who resist this logic. The taught dichotomy of the “Good” vs “Bad” Korea, the North vs South has been deliberately fearmongered to justify military occupation, subjugation, and tightening sanctions towards the DPRK. These sanctions starve Koreans of resources such as medical supplies, food, farming equipment, and water purifiers, they directly cause scarcity and death within the DPRK. The scarcity created by the United States is then blamed as a human rights violation and as an institutional failure of communism. Uprisings throughout the 19th century up till the present day have been crushed by U.S soldiers enforcing anti-communist war mongering, who to this day have multiple bases throughout the ROK. 

My first poster, “Joseon is One!” utilizes imagery from the Korean reunification flag with bright and warm inviting colors. Like many diasporic Koreans living in the U.S, my solidarity lies with the families and villagers separated and displaced by the drawing of the 34th parallel, a cruel methodology of separating a country that has been whole for thousands of years prior.  Through this work, I want to support and dream with Korean people of a peninsula that is not terrorized by U.S occupation, of the ability to travel to sacred landmarks freely, to reunite with lost family members.  There is a strong collective yearning for reunification, this work leans into this. The use of indigenous herbs and plants grown in Korea such as mugwort, green barley, and bija tree leaves were used within my imagery for both posters as they have a large significance on the natural ecosystem, Korean spirituality, and myth that have been threatened and materially erased through Japanese colonialism and U.S imperialism.

The US military presence within Jeju is disrupting the islander’s environment and economy. The airforce and naval base infrastructure being built on Jeju have been presented as safety measures that would benefit the economy by attracting more tourists when in reality those U.S bases are storing missiles, weapons, and troops to pressure China and enforce U.S hegemony. “Policymakers tend to view the naval base as a means of protecting national interests and enhancing maritime security. Meanwhile, anti-base activists seek emancipation from an illegitimate state project uprooting a peaceful community”. It is an ongoing neocolonial project which strips Koreans of agency over their land and home, the infrastructure is displacing gangjeong villagers and destroying the land which these indigenous islanders rely on. 

Resource list for further learning:

Nodutdol’s “ Sanctions of Empire Zine”:

https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/

Global Network’s Documentary “Jeju: Island of Resistance”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yoUlXphDdk

“Gangjeong Village Story” published by Save Jeju Now:

http://savejejunow.org/gangjeong-village-story-july-august-2020-issue/

Bibliography

 

Cho, Grace M. “Fleshing Out the Ghost.” In Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 2008. 

 

Yeo, Andrew I. "Realism, Critical Theory, and the Politics of Peace and Security: Lessons from Anti-Base Protests on Jeju Island." European Journal of International Security 3, no. 2 (06, 2018): 235-255.