Public Memory of the Korean War: A View from Daejeon

Dr. Jaegeun Im (Director of the Education and Research Department, Center for Peace and Unification Education & Culture)

Lecture

Daejeon is a city that was developed into a hub of railway transportation during the Japanese colonial period. Although Korea gained independence from Japan, it was soon divided, and the Korean War broke out. During the war, Daejeon became the first temporary capital of the Republic of Korea. While the city was not a major battlefield, it suffered devastating damage—so much so that its urban center was left in ruins. The battle was so chaotic and the human toll so severe that even the commander of the defending U.S. 24th Infantry Division, Major General William F. Dean, went missing during the retreat and was later captured by North Korean forces.
After the war, Daejeon rebuilt its destroyed urban core and grew into a major metropolitan city with a population of over 1.5 million. However, it is not easy to find traces of the war in Daejeon today. This is not because the wounds of war have been properly healed, but rather because there has been a lack of awareness about the importance of preserving such historical traces. The few memorials that do exist often focus solely on battles and soldiers. While casualties in war may be inevitable, the massacre of civilians is an atrocity. Such acts, especially when perpetrated by a state against its own citizens, constitute a crime against humanity, representing the ultimate violation of their constitutional and human rights. In Daejeon, such atrocities were committed not only by so-called the ‘enemy forces’ but also through large-scale massacres of civilians perpetrated by South Korea's own military and police.

It is time to move beyond war memories centered on battles and soldiers, and to also share the long-overlooked memories of civilian life and death during the war. Moreover, instead of simply erasing the traces of war, we urgently need public memory that uses those remnants to heal the wounds of war and foster a collective longing for peace. With this in mind, I would like to share the history of and recent examples from the ongoing effort to forge a public memory of the Korean War, now being undertaken-albeit belatedly-in the city of Daejeon.

About the lecture

Dr. Jaegeun Im is the Director of the Education and Research Department at the Center for Peace and Unification Education & Culture. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in North Korean Studies from the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, where his research focused on the preservation of war memories and civilian massacres during the Korean War, particularly in the Daejeon area. He earned his B.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Dr. Im serves as a lecturer at Gongju National University, teaching courses such as “Understanding North Korea” and “Peace and Issues on the Korean Peninsula.” He also chairs the Executive Committee of the Committee for Truth and Memory at Golryeonggol, Daejeon, where he is actively involved in historical truth-seeking and peace-building initiatives.