[Online] “˜Forgotten Terror’ exhibit highlights lingering effects of World War II
By Andrew Lee
Nov. 16, 2003 9:00 p.m.
If there’s one potential misconception UCLA alumnus Jean
Chung wants to shake off, it’s that “Forgotten
Terror,” the art exhibit she helped organize, treads on old
ground. Her concern rests on the fact the exhibit is related to
wartime atrocities committed decades ago during World War II.
But consider one display by photographer Cheol Hoon Ham, showing
a graying Korean man weeping, with a message running across the
picture that reads “Nippon changed my DNA.” The picture
is pristinely shot with luminous colors, a sharp contrast from the
grainy black and white shots commonly associated with the past
era.
The photographs in the exhibit were taken this past summer,
pushing the issues of “Forgotten Terror” squarely into
current times. Opening today and running for five days at Kerckhoff
Hall Art Gallery, the collection of works was brought together to
show that the aftereffects of many wartime atrocities still
haven’t gone away.
The exhibit, co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Korean Studies
and the Alliance to Preserve the History of World War II in
Asia-Los Angeles (ALPHA-LA), features photographs by Ham, paintings
by a former “comfort woman” and the screening of two
documentaries called “A Forgotten People” and
“Silence Broken.”
Together they help reveal the lingering effects of Japanese
conscription from the end of the 1930s to the end of World War II,
which resulted in forced labor for more than 10 million men from
occupied territories in the Pacific Rim.
The exhibit also deals with the approximately 200,000 women who
were forced into sex slavery during this time period. A number of
groups have been calling for an apology and compensation for the
atrocities, but cases have been stalled in court. Most recently, a
Washington, D.C. appellate court dismissed a class action suit
filed by 15 former “comfort women,” claiming that the
suit wasn’t within its jurisdiction.
According to Chung, the purpose of the exhibit is two-fold.
“Increasing public awareness is the first thing,”
she said. “But we also want the students and faculty to have
a chance to relate these issues to the current day. We are
struggling with war in the beginning of the 21st century, but the
victims of the 20th century have problems that still haven’t
been solved. I’d like to provide a chance for everyone to
think about the historical lessons we can take from
this.”
Chung did her master’s and Ph.D. coursework at UCLA from
1986 to 1993, during which she studied European history, so her
decision to debut the exhibit on campus is fitting. But she also
attributes the exhibit’s prominent debut to the assistance of
East Asian languages and cultures Professor John Duncan, who serves
as director for the UCLA Center for Korean Studies.
“He understood this issue, so we didn’t have to
really convince him,” Chung said.
Chung, who travels to Japan and Korea three to four times a year
to help organize conferences and strategy meetings, hopes to keep
increasing awareness in the United States by taking the exhibit to
other schools around the nation.
“We believe that these kinds of issues are lingering just
because the public doesn’t really know about it,” she
said.
“Forgotten Terror” will be on display at Kerckhoff
214 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day until Nov. 22.
