Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History
By Bruce Cumings
Norton, 527 pages, $35
Writing a history of Korea in English is a difficult task, and U.S. scholars have not yet produced a definitive work on the subject. The field is still developing, and the few prominent historians who are capable of undertaking such a task focus their efforts on specific periods in Korean history. William Henthorn’s “A History of Korea” (The Free Press, 1971) was a cursory survey to the end of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) that did not meet the needs of the field. There have been more recent, collective efforts by historians in the U.S. and Korea (the forthcoming “Cambridge History of Korea” is also a collective effort), but the best available texts are still translated versions of Korean originals, such as Ki-baik Lee’s “A New History of Korea” (Harvard University Press, 1984) and Woo-keun Han’s “The History of Korea” (University of Hawaii Press, 1974).
The difficulty in writing a modern history of Korea is even greater. It is a complicated story, and one must possess formidable linguistic skills to be able to use Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Russian sources. Bruce Cumings has done this, and his “Korea’s Place in the Sun” is a welcome addition to the field and an important work in understanding modern Korea.
Cumings is John Evans professor of international history and politics at Northwestern University and director of the Center for International and Comparative Studies there. He is a political scientist by training and is the author of the definitive, two-volume study “The Origins of the Korean War” (Princeton, 1981 and 1990). He has published a number of other works related to Korean politics, and he is one of the leading scholars on modern Korea in the U.S. But Cumings would be the first to admit that this is not a conventional history text. Rather, it is an insightful and penetrating commentary on the tragic and tortured history of modern Korea.
Cumings traces Korean history to its origin, not simply to restate that history but to relate it to modern Korea. He describes relevant parts of that history to the fall of the Choson dynasty, when Korea became a colony of Japan. He discusses the subsequent Korean independence movement, with less emphasis on the anti-Japanese struggle of the Korean people and more on the impact of Japanese colonialism on Korea. He is at his best when presenting critical history of the period from shortly after the liberation from Japan in 1945 to the end of the Korean War, and he provides a rational and compelling account of South Korean industrialization and democratization. The weakest parts of the book are his descriptions of what has transpired in North Korea since the Korean War and his commentary on North Korean ideology. He also discusses Koreans in the U.S. and Korea’s place in the world.
Cumings has often been misunderstood by those who have supported authoritarian regimes in the South. Because of his views on the causes of the Korean War and his sharp, unrelenting criticism of undemocratic political practices and human-rights violations by military leaders in the South, he has been labeled a revisionist and a North Korean sympathizer. This book should clear the air. From the time he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in the 1960s, to the present, Cumings’ love, compassion and empathy for Korea and its people have been unquestionable. (His wife, Meredith Woo-Cumings, is a native Korean.) He says that the people “in both halves of Korea” are spirited, hard-working and moral, and that they deserve better than what they have received from their leaders. He also feels they deserve better than what they have received “from a United States that has been deeply involved in the lives of Koreans for half a century, but knows them not.”
Cumings’ book is an important study for anyone who wants to understand modern Korea.
