Divided Country Disposable People Description

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Divided Country, Disposable People > Detailed Description

Santa Cruz Film Foundation is currently producing a documentary, Divided Country, Disposable People,which reveals the little known but significant history of the U.S. decision to divide Korea following Japan's defeat in World War II. Korea had been ruled under the iron fist of Japan effectively from 1905 until their defeat in August 1945. Immediately upon Japan's surrender Koreans jubilantly celebrated and began preparing for a national sovereign government that was formed on September 6, 1945. Tragically, unbeknown to the Korean people (who had been culturally unified for 5,000 years), the U.S. government had decided even before Japan's surrender, as part of its victor's prerogative, to divide Korea at the 38th parallel. This decision was made with the quiet assent of Joseph Stalin, then premier of the U.S.S.R. U.S. troops began arriving on September 8. The manner and methods of the intervention that followed this decision, actually preceding the officially declared "Cold War" by several years, foreshadowed the cruel nature of U.S. policy that was to follow, the hegemonic aspects of which continue to pose grave implications for the entire world to the present day.

Because the vast majority of Koreans were adamant about maintaining independence from outside powers, their passionate struggle could only be contained by a brutal, systematic campaign of repression. The United States brought into Korea Syngman Rhee, a puppet ruler, and then outlawed the new Korean government along with virtually all organized political activities not in explicit support of Rhee. Over a four-year period, hundreds of thousands were murdered and imprisoned, leading to a civil war which in turn led to the tragic Korean War that erupted in 1950 -- the war we have all been told was caused by the "evil" communist North Koreans. Five million Koreans and Chinese were killed during that war. How all this unfolded, and why it remains one of the true crimes of the Twentieth Century, cursing a homogenous people to be divided for the first time in their entire history, is the subject of the documentary, Divided Country, Disposable People.

Ten million Korean families remain divided to this day by their inability to cross the 38th parallel. The division is enforced by 37,000 U.S. military troops stationed at more than eight dozen installations around South Korea, while a militarized wall and fence traverse the 155 miles across the peninsula near the 38th parallel. Earlier this year George W. Bush identified a new "axis of evil" that includes North Korea, and further threatened that such axis would be targeted for pre-emptive strikes that could include nuclear weapons. Korea and her citizens continue to serve as a whipping post for U.S. policy posturing and rationale for higher Pentagon budgets.

Brian Willson, the program's executive producer, has made eight trips to Korea, including two to North Korea, interviewing hundreds of people, cumulatively traveling several thousand ground miles and visiting various parts of the peninsula in the process of gathering information to tell this story. On the last two trips filmmaker/director-partner Mickey Grant has accompanied Brian to each of South and North Korea as well as two additional trips to both of those countries. Mickey is the producer of the award-winning documentary, Cu Chi Tunnels, a story of the Vietnam War from the Viet Cong perspective.

Numerous people have been filmed, telling their personal stories about repression and testifying to the numerous crimes committed against them from the air and on the ground. Archival footage and scenes of Korean life have also been collected, along with documentation of the issues that continue to nag most Koreans due to the continued division of their country.

Also filmed is the unprecedented Korean War Crimes Tribunal held in New York on June 23, 2001, where many Koreans testified as to what happened to them and their relatives in the late 1940s and during the Korean War. Historical and political experts have been interviewed for the film across the globe, and include Ramsey Clark (former Attorney General Johnson administration), Dr. Bruce Cumings (University of Chicago), Yoomi Jeong (Korean Truth Commission), and Dr. Kiyul Chung (former Secretary General, Korean Truth Commission), Dr. Han Park (University of Georgia), George Katsiaficas (Wentworth Institute of Technology), and Brian Willson. Yoomi Jeong, Kiyul Chung, George Katsiaficas, and countless others have also contributed many hours as historical advisors.

We were given unprecedented filming ability in North Korea that is generally closed off to foreign film crews. We interviewed over 30 victims of these crimes in North Korea, and approximately that many in South Korea, totaling over 100 hours of footage. By integrating archival newsreels announcing the news from the "front" to the American theater audience of the 1950's, we are able to again get a glimpse of how horrific the support of the war was in relationship to the war crimes. Interviews with several American historians and peace activists are utilized throughout the program to help add context regarding the American government's goals and the relationship to war crimes.

Archival footage has been obtained from public domain, in black and white, which is very moving. Juxtaposing archival footage to recreate the victims' stories adds great dramatic impact. Cutting this material back to back with American veterans' views of the war that reflects their naiveté (or even disdain) when viewed next to the victim's story adds even more impact and truth to our theme of war crimes.

In the end Divided Country, Disposable People will debunk the widely held myths that Koreans in 1945 were unfit for self rule, requiring the intervention of the U.S., that the United Nations entered the Korean War in order to save a democratic state in the South and that North Korea today continues to be an "evil" threat to peace on the Korean peninsula. Moreover, it is hoped that the documentary will help the American people start the painful process of coming to terms with war crimes committed by the U.S. military during the Korean War.

Clearly it has been easier for Americans to discuss the Holocaust, as Germany, not the U.S. was culpable for that crime against humanity. But the Korean War was primarily a war conducted under the leadership of the U.S., against an unarmed Korean civilian population precluding the napalming and carpet bombing of Vietnam a decade later. Few people were talking about war crimes during the Cold War. But the Cold War is over, the Korean people have not forgotten, and it is time for us look at the Korean War through their eyes, acknowledge our wrongdoing where warranted, and take measures to ensure that never again will there be a Korean War.

While much of the story for this film takes place in Korea, this is an important American story. The Korean War was one that was conducted under the leadership of the U.S. government, resulting in not only millions of deaths, but triggering emigration of Koreans to the U.S. and the migration of tens of thousands of military brides and Korean orphans to U.S. shores. This film will therefore be of interest to the general American public as this story is one legacy of America's foreign policy abroad.