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영어

The purpose of my research is to examine the mechanism in which official/ national "History" was invented in South and North Korean during the period from the liberation of 1945 to the 1950s. Such "History" was often invented by controlling peoples' historical memories and revising historical descriptions. On August 15, 1945, radio broadcast informed Korean and Japanese people of the end of World War II. While Japanese recognized the end of war as a defeat, Korean perceived it as the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. Since then, Koreans have been holding the annual mass events in commemoration of the liberation on August 15 both in North and South. Such mass events illuminate the Korean recognition of WWII, Japanese colonialism and international relations. This paper examines the mass events on August 15 by focusing on the following three aspects. First, my paper will clarify how the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. defined the meaning of August 15 in Korea by intervening in the mass events initiated by Koreans. The Soviet army governed the Northern Korea from August 1945 and the U.S. army occupied the Southern Korea from September 1945. Both occupation rules continued until the establishment of two separate governments in the peninsula in 1948, and greatly influenced the historical memory production in North and South. Second, it will show the changing process of North Korean historical description of August 15. It will discuss how historical memories were controlled and how the official/national history was produced in North Korea. Third, my paper will examine how the painful memories have been constructed in the commemorative memories on August 15 and how the painful memories have been concealed since the establishment of South Korean government in 1948. I will argue that the collective memories have been produced through the oblivion of other memories. My study will demonstrate how our historical memories are controlled, and how official "History" is invented. It will hopefully provide a common base for dialogue in order to overcome the conflicts on historical issues in East Asia.