The Korean War in English History Textbooks

Abstract

This article aims at examining the representation of the Korean War in English history textbooks. In English history textbooks, the Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea during the Cold War. Still, the war s origin appears to be a combination of civil war and international war. The whole war process is described from the beginning and process of the Korean War to the post-war influence. However, in English textbooks, the Korean War was not focused on as one of the Cold War s historical events but instead focused on explaining the US containment policy to prevent the expansion of communism in the Soviet Union. In the Korean War , Korea is only the place where the war broke out, and it is hard to find interest in Korea. Therefore through the Korean War, it is possible to learn the policies and interests of the great powers of the Cold War era, but the more we learn about the Korean War, the less information we learn about the Korean War or Korea. In particular, the part that describes the Korean War situation at that time highlights how dirty and unsanitary Korea was, instead of describing the violence and the brutality of the war. This aspect can be seen as overlapping with the rhetoric of Westerners disparaging the East in the 19th century.