Beyond the “memory wars”: Teaching the next generation of Korean and Japanese students

Abstract

Rooted in a bitter history and propelled by a motley sense of shame, resentment, and nationalism, memories of the colonial past remain fraught in South Korea and Japan. This article surveys the course “Beyond the ‘Memory Wars’: Reconciling the Past,” which was offered as part of a hybrid exchange program between Underwood International College at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, to assess the challenges and possibilities of teaching memory studies within a cross-cultural undergraduate classroom. While a mix of earnest curiosity, personal stakes, and healthy competition kept the students engaged, empathetic, and enthusiastic, they displayed a curious commitment to facts and truths. This was manifest in both their learning agility on-site and their mistrust of digital technology—even as they were thoroughly immersed in it. Perhaps owing to their generational milieu, students appeared to need more engagement with memory beyond institutionalized archives and systems of knowledge.