(De)colonializing postwar militarism and the Ecocritical documentary in South Korea and Japan: focused on documentary films on (Zainichi) Korean Hibakusha and Jeju Massacre/ Gangjeong base

Abstract

Through its representation in major films led by the United States Information Services during the postwar period, postwar militarism in Korea was positioned as a “classical modern militarism” that internalized the role of national and economic security. However, what is missing from this representation of “classical modern militarism” is the military violence that remains hidden behind it. The dropping of the atomic bombs by the U.S. in Japan is the most explicit example of military violence at the beginning of postwar militarism in East Asia. However, Korean hibakusha (A-bomb Victims) had no public recognition for a few decades, being excluded from the national bodies of both Japan and Korea. Thus, this paper attempts to visualize the ecological disaster of militarism, by analyzing two documentaries (To the Japs: South Korea A-bomb Survivors Speak out (Nunokawa Tetsuro, 1971), The Other Hiroshima: Korean A-bomb Victims Tell Their Story (Park Su-Nam, 1987), which reveal physical sufferings of Korean hibakusha who were not able to have medical treatments. The Jeju 4.3 massacre is also another example of explicit military violence which that has been tabooed in public for the decades. Moreover, there emerged recent environmental contamination issues caused by military bases on Jeju Gangjeong have begun to emerge. I examine documentary films such as Jeju Prayer (Im Heung-soon, 2012) and The Ghosts of Jeju (Regis Tremblay, 2013) that depict these issues. This paper attempts to reveal that violence by analyzing four documentaries, To the Japs, The Other Hiroshima, Jeju Prayer, and The Ghosts of Jeju, that address the physical and ecological disasters of militarism. These four films emphasize the relationship between victims’ polluted bodies and the development or contamination of land by postwar militarism. these films take “ecocriticism” under the form of ‘social documentary’ to explore ways of overcoming the legacy of militarism. Therefore, I trace how discourses of ecocriticism can draw out not only issues of industrial crisis, but can also critique of aspects of post war militarism. They offer a new ecological critique of postwar militarism and how grassroots movements working in solidarity with transnational film movements can act to protect at-risk bodies and environments from contamination by the postwar militarism.