Letters from Korean History 5 - From the Daehan Empire to North-South Rapprochement

The English version of Letters from Korean History is published for young readers overseas who are curious about Korea and its people, and for young Korean readers keen to learn more about their own history while improving their language skills as global citizens. I hope that readers will not feel obliged to start at the beginning of Volume I and plow all the way through; rather, each letter contains a historical episode in its own right, and can be chosen and read according to the reader’s particular area of interest. The text is complemented by plenty of photos and illustrations, giving a more vivid sense of history - reading the captions that accompany these should enhance the sense of historical exploration. -Park Eunbong Progressing from the stones and bones of prehistory all the way to the turbulent twentieth century in the course of five volumes, Letters from Korean History can be browsed as a reference text or plowed through from beginning to end. As with most histories that cover such a long period, the density of information increases as the narrative approaches the present. The relatively recent Joseon period, for example, accounts for two of the five volumes (III and IV), rich as it is in events and meticulously recorded historical data. Letters from Korean History has been a great success in its native country among Korean readers. I hope that this translation will now be of help to ethnic Koreans overseas, others interested in Korea or history in general, Koreans looking to study history and English at the same time, and anybody else who believes that exploring the past is a good way to try and make sense of the confusing, flawed and wonderful present. -Ben Jackson

Contents Vol. 5

Lost sovereignty
Secret mission to The Hague

The struggle to save the country
Yun Huisun and the Ansaram Righteous Army

Gunfire echoes across Manchuria
A learned man’s burden

The nation rises up
‘Gisaeng’ fight for independence

Hong Beomdo and Kim Jwajin, ndependence army heroes
Yi Hwarim, the female general

Bang Jeonghwan and Children’s Day
Kim Sowol’s ‘Azaleas’

The Kanto Massacre and forced relocation
The photo brides of Hawaii

Sin Chaeho, the father of modern history
A history of pain and blood

Yi Bongchang and Yun Bonggil
The Liberation Army OSS

Koreans who amazed the world
Kim Yeom, Film Emperor of Shanghai

Stolen youth, rotten minds
Investigating Korea’s collaborators

Liberation and national division
What is socialism?

Kim Gu crosses the thirty-eighth parallel
The Jeju Uprising

War divides a nation
The SOFA and the death of two schoolgirls

Rapid growth: a time of miracles and tragedies
Multicultural families, our new neighbors

The struggle for democracy
Democracy and the World Cup

Encounters for reunification
Toward reunification

Index
Image credits and sources