This book initiates a series of comprehensive annual reviews of issues and events in the Republic of Korea and on the peninsula as a whole in 1990. It provides both students and specialist with a useful overview of a rapidly changing society.

How do we explain Park Chung-Hee's determination to push through the coup d'etat in 1961 and the modernization programs afterward? How did his family's poverty and his experiences in Manchuria, Japan, and China affect his later career as South Korea's leader? How would he have answered his critics' charge that he was a pro-Japanese collaborator and a Communist renegade? How can we explain his harsh suppression of domestic dissidents and opponents? In trying to answer these and other questions, Lee presents a kaleidoscopic history of modern Korea from the 1890s to the 1960s. Like Park, the author also grew up under Japanese rule and lived in Manchuria, where Park spent more than three years. This meticulously researched book uses Korean, Japanese, and English sources to put Park's life into historical context.

How do we explain Park Chung-Hee's determination to push through the coup d'etat in 1961 and the modernization programs afterward? How did his family's poverty and his experiences in Manchuria, Japan, and China affect his later career as South Korea's leader? How would he have answered his critics' charge that he was a pro-Japanese collaborator and a Communist renegade? How can we explain his harsh suppression of domestic dissidents and opponents? In trying to answer these and other questions, Lee presents a kaleidoscopic history of modern Korea from the 1890s to the 1960s. Like Park, the author also grew up under Japanese rule and lived in Manchuria, where Park spent more than three years. This meticulously researched book uses Korean, Japanese, and English sources to put Park's life into historical context.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1983.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1983.