United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea as a Site of Memory―Heritagization of a War Cemetery

Lee Chungsun (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Cultural Resources, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo)

I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected as the 36th Pacific Basin Academic Grant recipient, one of the most prestigious academic grants in the Pacific Rim countries. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the professors of the Selection Committee and the managing staff of the OHIRA Masayoshi Memorial Foundation.
My research titled “United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK) as a Site of Memory―Heritagization of a War Cemetery” is a developed study of my PhD thesis, which I expect to submit to the University of Tokyo in 2022. It focuses on how the UN’s official final resting place of the 2,314 war dead, the heritage of the Korean War and a site of memory, can contribute to the international community’s solidarity in the 21st century.
The Korean War, which broke out after the birth of the United Nations, led to the UN coalition of the 22 nations under the resolution of the UN General Assembly. Since its establishment in 1951 by the UN Command after the strenuous process of integrating scattered temporary graves across the Korean Peninsula, this Cemetery has been underrepresented for 70 years.
Against this background, this study adopted a multidimensional analysis investigating a wide range of historical documents from the nations of the UN forces’ multiple archives, as well as my interviews with former UN soldiers and related stakeholders of the UNMCK, to examine how diverse memories associated with this Cemetery have been passed down over generations. In addition, my research re-envisioned this UN graveyard as a unique living cultural heritage that embodies a multicultural symbiotic society.
This study is the first to clarify that the UNMCK is situated in a significant position in the academic disciplines of the history of the Korean War, the Pacific Rim, including Japan, the United Nations, as well as related fields of anthropology and international politics.
Although 71 years have passed since the Cemetery’s establishment, collecting and analyzing relevant historical sources remains an arduous task. However, thanks to your generous support, I will fulfill my mission to bridge theoretical research and practice. I am grateful to all the advisors, especially my supervisor, Prof. Matsuda Akira, for his valuable advice and continuous encouragement throughout my research.

Education:
Chungsun Lee majored in Japanese Language and Literature at Korea University. After completing the B.A. course in 2003, she worked for Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) until 2014. During her KEPCO period, Chungsun received her M.A. in MBA at Waseda University in 2008.
As a recipient of the Japanese Government (MONBUKAGAKUSHO: MEXT) Scholarship from 2015 until 2020, she has been conducting interdisciplinary research at the Department of Cultural Resources of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Studies at the University of Tokyo.
Her works have been well received, winning various awards and research grants, including Outstanding Papers & Design Works Awards at the International Union of Architects (UIA) 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress and the 2021 Atsumi International Foundation Scholarship.
In 2021, she contributed as an academic adviser on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) documentary film titled “The Land of Memory, the United Nations Cemetery”, based on her PhD thesis.