The Colonial Haunted House: ROK Historical Memory

5/25/13: Visited the National May 18th Democratization Movement Cemetery in Kwangju. http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/국립_5·18_민주_묘지

I visited the cemetery in the winter of 2008-09 but most of the facilities were closed or under construction. This time I got to see the museum they've added next to the monument and grave sites. I had to move fast so I capture about every surface with text on it, but I'll show some of the pics that capture the layout and exhibition and stylistic decisions that make this museum site feel more like an art exhibit.

I've written a fair amount about how the colonial prison museums at Seodaemun at Cheonan utilize "Haunted house" effects such as motion sensors that activate lighting and dramatic audio clips when the museum visitor steps in range of the displays. I was thinking about this again at Kwangju because these tactics were utilized as well and I think I may be reading too much into their effect. One the one hand they help conserver energy, but on the other they use direction speakers that are very loud when you stand directly under them and view the displays they compliment. They have the effect of isolating a moment and space in the text of the museum and make it a visceral experience. In Seodaemun they're used to pipe torture sounds into the narrative, and in Kwangju they amplify simulated M16 shots and screams of slain protestors. I was worried going into this place that I couldn't read the museum with a critical eye because of my own biases about state violence and leftist Korean politics, so it helped that I had to speed through it, only documenting and noting what popped out.

My bias was that this museum was going to be flawless (whatever that means) because it is curated and administered by a survivors' organization of victims of state violence. Ignoring that, the museum actually does have an emotional impact like other South Korean museums documenting violence, but there were a few things missing: No bloody or sinister mannequins; where there were sneering japanese soldiers in the colonial museums, why no sneering ROK paratrooper mannequins perpetually beating innocent looking student protestor mannequins? Temporal proximity to the atrocities, as well as a continued controversy over their validity and accuracy shape the scope and riskiness of this museum. I was expecting a full-on display of the violence and mutilated victims, but found none.

This is a somewhat artsy historical museum in appearance and layout, but the antagonism comes through in the texts. Where you're not hit with visuals, the curatorial staff have laid out a rather radical activist narrative that employs the visitor to carry the message of the museum with them and into the "more public" public. It could be possible to call this an "activist" museum, but the the only action we're given (and probably the only thing people can get away with in the public sphere without drawing the wrath of the Korean right wing) is to "never forget." 

You can see in the pictures that the space is used for various exhibitions and education events. I followed a group of high school students through the museum and in the photo memorial hall there were young people from a range of age groups helping organize some sort of painting and Hanja (Chinese Characters) poetry/painting exhibit. A woman and student can be seen arranging stacks and stacks of submitted paintings. 

One thing that surprised me about the "Never Forget" kind of narrative was just before exiting there was a kind of "learning center" with a colorful child-friendly theme complete with fun looking characters and a library and crafts station. Fascinating: imagine for a moment (and not to trivialize 5.18) if the Kent State shootings or University of Wisconsin DOW Chemical Protests had a full museum and at the end there was a "Children's Museum."  Maybe that's one thing that can be viewed as pushing a more comprehensive social justice museum--getting the children involved in these aspects of revolutionary history--and maybe I'm reactionary for thinking its strange. I drew a line, though, at the photo sticker machine--the kind commonly found in East Asian countries that allows the user to add cutsie graphics to their commemorative photo.  

As far as the material culture of the museum, it's important to note that for this specific 10 days of history the museum covers, there aren't a lot of artifacts, and most of the survivors are still very much alive. The printed stories of the event and the text panels serve as the material culture to be touched and seen in this museum. The text panels and black and white photographs (that could be seen as dry) are laid out in the way I called "artsy" perhaps to utilize the full space they were given as well as guide the tenuously interested visitor. They do a gorgeous job of making text emotional. The only objects that can be gained from this event are displayed: bloodied flags, bullet casings, and bloody bricks. Life in Kwangju went on; street protests take place in thoroughfares so the evidence and materials left behind are hard to document. In memorializing an event like this, journalism, photography, personal accounts etc. pull what happened off the streets and commit it to memory and celluloid. We can't bottle a street protest, so this is the way this museum remembers it. Most importantly, this site was not the original cemetery--that was one of several dumping grounds for the victims' bodies the government tried to hide. (One picture is of a mockup of exhuming the victims' graves). 

One picture is of a battered corpse with the slogan "We will never forget." 

The first picture of a boy holding is father's picture over his coffin is one of the most iconic images from the event, and it is spread out on staggered triangular panels that have a second side with text, and the third with another iconic image of the protestors lighting the torch for democratization.  Again, the layout effect is impressive. 

Went to the May 18th Kwangju Democratization Movement 33rd Anniversary Memorial event today at City Hall in Seoul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_massacre

http://www.518seoul.org/

A lot of the museum studies scholarship I'm reading is about exhibitions and events rather than site-specific stuff like I want to do, so this was a different kind of visit for me. 

From eyeing the crowd, I was the only white foreigner in attendance. A few hundred people were there and it was in the middle of Seoul so it was somewhat surprising no foreigners wondered in. There was a large stage with chairs set up, and at the sides of the stage were photo exhibits. Most striking was one walled-in section with photos that had sheets over them with a warning that they may be too graphic for children, pregnant women,and people with health conditions.  This is the same kind of sheet I remember my partner lifting up at the Kwangju city hall and gasping at the photo underneath. (Trigger Warning: Gore/violence -->) The same photo was present at this exhibit as well: A Kwangju victims's bloodied upper torso, smashed into an unrecognizable mass of flesh, the head end of which is recognizable only because you can make out the set of teeth resting somewhere within it. 

The event was hosted by a number of survivors' and activist organizations and the Seoul  city mayor's office even sent delegates (maybe the mayor himself?) to lay flowers at the memorial alter. One thing I noticed was the irony of playing the ROK anthem to start the event commemorating one of the worst examples of state violence in the nation-state's history (2nd maybe to putting down the Jeju Rebellion, which almost no one remembers or talks about when bringing up the resort island). 

There were speakers from the various orgs as well as the city government, and a large number of high school students were given awards for art, essay and photo contests. After years of struggling to even have the South Korean state acknowledge that this massacre did even happen, and that it wasn't a North Korean provocation, the commemoration of this event has made it into school classrooms. The children subject to public education were encouraged to reflect on something they never experienced, and then create art, poetry or prose from what they learned. This was a surprise add-on to the event for me because I keep hearing that ROK youth aren't sufficiently educated about this event and post-Korean War history as a whole.  

The event ended with singing protest songs and a dramatic reading of a poem. Being in the crowd with older activists and politicians was a powerful experience, particularly when they sang the protest song. 

Prison Photo of Yu Gwan-sun, Korean Independence Activist

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0egcGVuKP9k/T1-FtCcJ65I/AAAAAAAAFck/dtAuYHBttF4/s1600/수형사진(유관순2).jpg

I tried but failed to share this video I saw at the newly opened Women's Cells exhibit at Seodaemun Prison. I'll give a full post on the exhibit with pictures once I translate a lot of stuff (not much of this exhibit was in English) but I wanted to share this video. Yu Gwan-Sun is one of the many recognizable heroes in Korean Independence history. She was imprisoned and died in the cell house I viewed today. One of the cells is closed off and through a glass window you can see a statute of her, and once I pushed the button to the left of the door a video appeared that was projected on the window glass.

The English subtitles get the point across but are just a summary of what's said. Like I said, I can't get the video to post on tumblr in it's current format so just to summarize the video quickly: Yu Gwan-sun's image appears, it is the photo taken of her when she was imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison. This is the most recognizable image of her because it is one her only photographs. Her face appears swollen and bruised, and the narrator begins to explain that this is not her normal appearance. A (male) specialist then explains that they have digitally recreated her face to show what she would have looked like minus the lacerations and bruising from being beaten by the Japanese prison guards. The specialist ends the video with the charge “It's an important mission for descendents to restore and spread the true appearance of our independence activists.” I'll try posting the video separately but I tried for about an hour and tumblr just won't take it or even say there's an error. I'll work on it. Anyways...

This approach to explaining Yu Gwan-sun's appearance in her most famous picture is really problematic. It's basically saying "We know you usually see this ugly picture of her, but let's explain why. She's swollen, scarred, and beaten, so her face is disfigured in this photo." As if to say women activists have to be "pretty" or at least remembered as pretty. The new cell exhibit features dozens if not hundreds of photographs of the women activists who were imprisoned there. I remember thinking how different they look than the South Korean young women of today with cosmetic surgery, makeup, and skin creams that tighten and lighten. 

It just felt disrespectful that the highlight video in this exhibit, the sound of which startled two different groups of visitors while I was there, takes up a lot of the space of the exhibit, could otherwise be powerful, but is in fact just a rehashing of the male gaze projected (no pun intended) onto one of South Korea's courageous female activists. The guy says that we MUST work to view our independence fighters as they were prior to violence, I just don't see why exactly.  

South Korean Contemporary History Museum

1. Museum front facing Gwanghwamun square. The museum is located right next to the US embassy.

2.This placard both credits former President Bak for this prestige project while also invoking the site's Choseon era history.

3. The eerie glowing red sign I mentioned in the last post. It's all one can see in this pitch black corner of the exhibit.

4. Placard with timeline of women's history in ROK. This reminds me of the article mentioned in the last post about poststructuralist feminist critique of museums. While necessary, this tiny section devoted to contemporary women's history is indicative of the problem: in fact, the entirety of the events depicted in the museum's exhibits involved women (they're half of every society), yet this section exists to appease but simultaneously isolate and marginalize women's role in the national narrative. The part that had the greatest impact on me regarding women's history was a set recreation of a 1970s sweatshop. The older men and women in the tour group that was near me took turns ducking to walk in and experience the tiny room with sewing machines and bunks above it. These people were old enough to have been part of the generation that took part in the rural-to-urban emigration to work in textile factories. I was reminded of the realization my partner and I had about her job. She's a South Korean textile designer, and her grandparents' and parent's generation worked in textile factories to bring South Korea into the global economy, for her to be able to study English and textile art, in a University, and is now an upwardly mobile professional working yet again in textiles, but in the US. *headspinning*   This tour group, if I was accurate in guessing they were middle to upper class, were afforded the experience of ducking in this room and could be part of the proletarian experience for one second. The museum allows people to experience time travel as well as class travel. 

5. Saemaeul (New village/community movement songs). I think these were either martial songs released by the gov or were speeches on vinyl.  The left is titled "The Pleasure of Working" and the right is labeled as songs for the Saemaeul movement and "Songs of the year of working" (not sure on this one). I found it interesting that the pieces on Saemaeul were next to the section on ardent anticommunism in the 60s-80s ROK. Saemaeul feels like a Stalinist or Maoist five-year plan. I have to read more on this time period to understand it. 

6 & 7. I was impressed by the exhibits on the Minjungundong (Democratization Movement) and Kwangju Massacre (5.18).  There were no pictures of the marches or armed soldiers themselves however, only this artist's depiction of students lamenting their fallen classmate.  Again, surrounding Kwangju: the painting has in impact but i've still met people that think the events were a "riot" that was put down, rather than a brutal massacre of peaceful protestors. In this case, documenting violence may be more effective. In Kwangju itself, the museums show the pictures of the bloody beaten bodies. Bitterness.

8. Tapes of Minjungundong folk and protest songs. There was a whole section on censored and banned music. May write more on that when I track down youtube videos of the songs. 

9. Before moving into the "future of Korea" section, the museum starts to wrap itself up as you turn the corner into a mock-up of the Blue House's presidential office.  Behind, we see through this perfectly placed window the actual Blue House behind Gyeongbok palace. Invoking the previous dynasty can be seen as undue legitimacy. This is another experiential thing though where i watched older people taking turns sitting in the chair getting cell phone pictures and chuckling. There are pictures on the sides of walls of all of the ROK's former presidents, I couldn't believe the audacity of keeping a picture of General Chun Doo-Hwan. Surprised there was no graffiti on that dirtbag's picture. 

Last Thursday (3/28) I visited the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Gwangwhamun, Seoul. It's only been open for a few months so I'm happy I was in Korea this early to check to it out. As one Canadian friend said "You'll have a field day." So I did. 

The main thing I want to touch on is the museum's chronological layout which starts on the third floor and ascends three stories. That layout is pretty orthodox but the lighting and mood created in each section is fascinating. The sections of the museum are as follows:

-Prologue

- Attempt to Establish an Independent Modern Nation

-Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and The Independence Movement

-Liberation of Korea, 1945

-Establishment of the Republic of Korea's Government

-Post-War Recovery

-Building a Modern Nation

-Economic Development and Industrialization

-Transformation of Urban and Rural Areas

-Growth of Civil Society and Democracy

-Korea's Embrace of Globalization

-Towards Developed Nation

-Future of Korea

http://www.much.go.kr/en/en2_3.do

Prior to visiting this museum I had just read an article on poststructuralist feminist critique of museums, so having that lens of usurping the museum's imposed text stuck on, this museum feels like one big linear text to be read (they give you a linear map too with arrows to follow).  The text we should read for meaning is everywhere, even the floor where you pass dates and titles like walking on a timeline. If I'm to accept a poststructuralist view of museums, where the meaning of exhibits should be fluid and determined by the visitor, museums like this are its antithesis. To transcend the state's imposition of its narrative of legitimacy upon me, I find it useful to visit a museum several times so it loses its effect. I'm rambling and will flesh this out better when I get a hold of what it is I want to say about why museums fascinate and infuriate me. 

The more clandestinely imposed subtext is in the lighting! The exhibits start with a projection screen in the dark with a video map of Korea and highlighted points of interest like Baekdusan, Gyeongbokgung etc. The first section describing the end of the Choseon Dynasty and descent into colonialism is dimly lit. The lighting and mood gets darker the further into Korea's Japanese colonial timeline you go, punctuated in the middle with a pitch black narrow corner. When you turn the corner, the only light is a bright red light that spells out "6.25" (the date in 1950 that the Korean War started).  The effect is truly eerie, on one part eerie as a casual visitor, and another part eerie knowing that you're about to endure a dose of Korean-style McCarthyism. The exhibits get lighter one by one, and more colorful as the timeline moves into the South's 1970s-80s developmental period. The final rooms are bright white and filled with sound effects and Psy's "Gangnam Style" blaring and projected on a huge screen. 

Visitors are taken into the darkest depths of Korea's 20th Century and finally bathed in white light and LCD screens, left hopeful about the ROK's future, completely ignoring reunification anxieties and nuclear proliferation. 

The second most fascinating thing was what happened to me about half way through the museum. I was stopping to take notes when I heard a crowd coming up the stairs, and suddenly I was entirely surrounded by mandatory service South Korean military personnel. I was intimidated, because jackboots and militarism should be feared, but mostly geeking out cause I couldn't believe what I was witnessing: I knew museums were used by states to impose their narrative on people, but here they were forcing citizens to not only be molded into violent patriarchal model citizens, they were being unabashedly ideologically brainwashed at the same time.

Interview with Seodaemun Prison History Hall English Docent Sunye Sul

3/26/13

*I tried to keep the transcript as close to what she said as possible. English is not her first language so there are grammatical mistakes. I put (sic) to denote some of them when it could be confusing as to wether I or the speaker made a mistake. 

JH: Could you please tell me your full name and occupation?

S: My name is Sunye Sul and I worked as a translator for a broadcasting company. And these days I quit my job for some time being and I work as a volunteer docent in this history museum.

JH: So how often do you volunteer?

S: Once a week.

JH: Just the two hours on Tuesdays?

S: Yes but for other days I also work as a volunteer tour guide for Seoul City, Seoul Heritage, such as palaces, or Bukchon area. Sometimes when I have a book (reservation) I do those things.

JH: So I'm interested why do you like to volunteer or what makes you interested in this volunteering?

S: Well, I'm so interested in this work because I can meet many people from many other countries, and I'm very proud when I introduce our culture and history to those people. So I enjoy it, yes.

JH: How long have you been doing this volunteering?

S: It's not a long time. For this Seodaemun History Hall, I worked from last year and for Seoul City from this year. Last year I got lessons for a long time, it was over six months. I got some education to be the volunteer guide and I started it from this year.

JH: Is that like formal education like a certification or just you practiced?

S: Yes, I have a certification as a volunteer tour guide.

JH: And that's through the city government?

S: Yes.

JH: So what makes being a tour guide at Seodaemun difficult and also enjoyable?

S: Sometimes I have some difficulty in translating some historical accidents, some historical words, those are somewhat burdensome for me. So I have to memorize the specific words for some cases. It's challenging for me.

JH: And what makes it enjoyable?

S: Enjoyable...as I told you a minute ago, I can meet many people and I can tell them our exact history, or the correct history. Sometimes some people misunderstood some history so I want to make them understand our correct history and make them like our history. I just enjoy it.

JH: WHat makes this tour different than other tours? LIke you give many tours...

S: It's somewhat sad when I (laughs)...sometimes I can feel some hope or some energy in the deep part of our ancestors or of our people. When I finished my tour I feel somewhat, a bit...one part sadness, and one part some...our energy, I can feel that. But in other tours, just I can enjoy it with a light mind and just I can just enjoy it with the beautiful environment.

JH: When you say "energy" do you mean you feel...what do you mean by that, you feel connected?

S: Our people's strong will because we experienced many wars and experienced many hard cases but we overcame it. Yes, so I think our people have very strong energy and very strong will in deep parts.

JH: Did you ever visit here before you were a tour guide? Just as a visitor?

S: As a visitor, yeah, of course. WIth my child.

JH: ANd how has your experience changed with the museum?

S: The environment you mean? What do you mean?

JH: How has, or has your experience changed, like the first time you visited the museum compared to now...

S: Ah yes, it has changed. Because when I visited here I felt somewhat...I worried a little bit, because I just felt "Oh, so many people died here!" and they had some very sad souls, and their sad souls could be around here, so I could feel it and sometimes I feel cold and I worry a little bit...and when i first started this volunteer work here, I also felt a little bit, I worried a little bit because "oh, I have to come here every week!" and "oh, I feel a little bit coldness in this building!" But, it has changed. Now I feel comfortable, sometimes, I can feel some beauty here, I can feel the souls who sacrificed themselves. So those emotions, yeah, those have changed.

JH: So there are many people living in Kukdong apartments behind here, you know the apartment complex behind the prison, do you think anyone thinks about that too? About the spiritual...

S: Well, I don't think so (laughs).

JH: I Just remember the first time I visited the museum I saw that tunnel and I see that goes directly under the apartments, so I thought that seems strange.

JH: What used to be behind the museum? Because the apartment complex looks new...

S: Yeah, it was a graveyard. Yeah, and there was a tunnel connected between this Seodaemun Musuem and to the graveyard, and they used that secret tunnel to throw away the bod(ies) in the graveyard. Now they removed the graveyard and built the apartment complex there.

JH: Who are most of your visitors that you take on a tour? What sorts of people?

S: In our country, the majority of tourists from East Asian country people (sic), but his museum is different, but most of them are from Europeans (sic) or sometimes Americans. Yeah, those people came because...because some of them also have a experienced (sic) similar history and experience. So I think they have some interest in visiting here.

JH: Do you get many Japanese visitors.

S: Oh, yeah! I also want to know (laughs) how their mind (sic) when they try to visit here, and sometimes I ask the Japanese tour guide what do you tell them to Japanese people, then...they said they just have, just select some words for Japanese tourists because they cannot tell everything what they want to tell, because they are just a tourist, so they cannot, they should not invoke their emotion, so just use moderate words for them.

JH: Do you have any negative experiences with visitors?

S: Usually tourists, they don't show those negative emotion directly, just sometimes I can read their face. Sometimes because I am a Korean and I tell our history, in my side (sic), yeah, but history is about between our country and Japan, just I can tell our history in my position. But the tourists they are in the third position so they want to see...(long pause) not private sight of a view?

JH: Do you mean objective?

S: Yeah, they want to be objective so sometimes when I tell some parts, their face (*sound and face of displeasure or disbelief*) "I can't believe it" (laughs) Yeah, that kind of feeling.

JH: Then how do you feel when that happens?

S: Well I think it's natural, and it is also natural that I can tell our history in some part in my position, so I just thought...yeah...they could do that, yes. But I'm a Korean and I'm a Korean tour guide.

JH: Why do you think this museum is important?

S: For children, they have to know our history, because I believe history always repeats itself, so especially for children they have to learn our history and they have to know how the wars are going, and they have to learn the relation among our neighbor countries and they have to know how they are changing, how the relation is changing. Especially they have to know Japan because Japan is our closest country but sometimes because they are very close to our country, so we can be close together but sometimes they can be a threat for us. So children should know how Japan make our country as their colonial country and attack our country--the steps, how did they step forward to those evil mind (sic). And...in this time, these days, Japan sometimes show those initial steps when they did in the past, so children should know what those things mean. So we have to always try to make our country strong and try to respond to the changing situation.

JH: You mentioned before you brought your child here, how did you feel after bringing your child here?

S: My children are still elementary school student so she's not so alert those things. Just, "Oh, it was a sad thing." That's it, not so much...but just step by step children, they are growing and step by step they will learn deeply, and they will learn more things.

JH: How do you feel about the violence depicted in the exhibits?

S: Sometimes children worry, so sometimes for children I don't tell them about torture specifically, just "those violent things happened,” just like that I tell them because it's so cruel and violent, so I don't want to tell them specifically, the specific kinds of torture, those things I don't tell them. They worry.

JH: Now I'll ask a little bit about the remodeling, do you know much about that?

S: These days the underground cell of Yu Gwan-sun is almost finished and it will open from April. They remodeled some parts, they want to exhibit the history more effectively so sometimes they change some parts and...you know, in 1987, the detention center was moved to Uiwang area, and after that they tried to demolish all the buildings here so after that left only five buildings left here. From that time they started to rebuild some buildings, some important buildings and so these days the cook house was rebuilt. That Yu Gwan-sun underground cell was rebuilt.

JH: Do you think remodeling some buildings or rebuilding them will change your tour much—what you say?

S: I think so, they tried to find some more effective way to show, how to show our history. They think about it and they try to find more effective way (sic) so sometimes they remodel it. Most...in our country except, not only this museum but also other historical sites, they're demolished because we experienced the Korean War and many...so hard period in economically...many other parts we experienced so bad things a lot, so so many historical sites were destroyed. So from 1990s began restoring them. So this museum, not only this museum but also other sites, they are now being restored. The most important point in remodeling is to restore the original shape. So this Seodaemun Museum also has changed in its shape, but we tried to find its original shape of Japanese Occupation, because after Japanese Occupation we still used this museum and from 1945 to 1987 we still used this prison building as a detention center. During that time many parts were changed because this building was built under Japanese Occupation and it was 1910, 20s or 30s those very old time. So the condition was so bad so prisoners could not live in that condition so they had to change a little bit, they had to build some toilet, or they had to build some...what other things (laughs) especially toilets! In Japanese colonial time, this prison cell there were no toilets. They were...did you remember? In the cell in one corner there's just a little hole and they used a small bucket and they had to do their human waste in the bucket and they have to put it out through the hole. Yeah, they used just a hole for toilet, so after liberation they attached a booth outside the building to make a toilet for the prisoners. It was white wood. So when you go out and when you look on the walls, you can see some white part, this building is a red brick building so mostly they are red color, but some parts have some white parts. That is the remain (sic) of the toilet booth. So when we tried to make this prison as a museum, they removed that white booth and just they wanted to make this as original shape in the colonial time.

S: This building was an investigation building and in 1920s and 30s it was a red brick building but after we became independent they attached some white tile on this red brick, so it was in 1960s, 70s this building was a white building but we decided to make this as a museum. They just put off those white tiles. Make it a red brick building.

JH: That's one thing I noticed about your tour that's different than when i took a tour three years ago, there was a different English docent at that time. At that time the museum did not mention the post-1945 use--

S: Ahhh, yes!

JH: Can you comment about why that's different now?

S: Yes, but these days also we have to be careful to talk about it because it's present history, so there are many different opinions about present history so sometimes I can meet some people who have some strong (laughs) his own idea about present history, then they are opposed about my opinion--my speaking. So I have to be caution...careful, yes. So we don't tell so much about present history because these days we can tell anything, it's ok, it could be different, because not so a few...some ten or twenty years ago we could not tell those things but these days it's ok--it doesn't matter, we can almost speak anything what we want to tell. But just individually I could be in trouble with some specific person (laughs), so I just be careful when I tell about present history.

JH: Is that your personal decision or does part of your volunteering--they told you "avoid that topic?"

S: Uh....sometimes they...who....my seniors, they recommend me "Try to not talk about present history, it could be in trouble sometimes." So yeah, I also a little bit avoid. Another reason is this prison history hall is not so much in present history, it was focused on the...it's enough to tell about the function as a prison in colonial time. That's enough for this museum hall, so I don't have to make (laughs) some trouble.

JH: Last few questions...There are exhibits and events that help remember victims of Japanese Colonialism. Are they any events or special exhibits for people who experienced this prison under Park Chung Hee or Rhee Syngman or Chun Doo Hwan...

S: Yeah but present history...oh yeah, and today also you can see some exhibition in the twelfth prison cell...I didn't see it yet, another docent told me he saw it a few minutes ago and that exhibition started maybe this weekend, this week, and it is about some democratic activist who fought against the government in the 1940s, 50s and 60s in that dictatorial government. In this museum they hold that kind of exhibition about the democratic activists.

JH: Do you think you will learn about that portion and add that to your English tour?

S: No...actually I don't add about those democratic activists, like I told you before (Laughs) yeah, that could...some people have a different opinion and so I don't prepare for the tour about that part and ....because....when you go outside these days in our society, the ideas are totally different. The...usually the old generation and young generation, they have totally different idea about that dictatorial governments. Some people don't think they are dictators, they think sometimes--they praise. You know, Park Geun-hye is president, and her dad was also president, and some people call him as a dictator, but some people, some old people, don't say like that, they praise him so much because he contributed for our economic development so much and they just think it...much about that part. As his contribution, and they just don't think it's...he's not dictator and some people know he's a real dictator and...yeah, so much (sic) people were victimized under his government. So much (sic) different ideas, so the last president election, the ideas were totally divided. The youngers (sic) and the olders (sic), two generations were so different, so young people...I'm in the middle (laughs), I'm just in the middle part. I'm a little bit conservative but just in the middle part in my case. So just I tried to be careful when I speak about those things.

JH: Is there an official Korean Language tour?

S: Oh, Yes.

JH: Will that new exhibition...Is that part of the Korean tour? Or is it an extra part?

S: No, I think for that specific exhibition there's no tour. Just a tourist, visitors look around that and they can read the panels.

JH: Who designed that exhibition or who pushed to have that here?

S: There is some organizations...yeah...like some democratic, some kind of organization they designed it.

JH: Was that kind of a conflict to have that put here? Is it controversial?

S: I don't think so because this prison was used in that time and those democratic activists were held at that time so it also has meaning so nobody opposed to show that exhibition.

JH: Thank you very much, just the last thing is...What do you think is the takeaway message of this museum?