It’s not easy being the curator of North Korea’s virtual holocaust museum in real-time.

For one thing, it’s a thankless job. Hardly anyone appreciates what The Chosun Journal stands for. A monument to free peoples’ apathy. A testimonial to South Korea’s unprecedented levels of narcissism. Holocaust museums are depressing enough. Having one in which its exhibits are supported by the inactivity of its visitors is unbearably so. Needless to say, I don’t get many thank you cards.

Another hardship is that a holocaust museum set in real-time is self-defeating. At The Chosun Journal the “never again” purpose for such memorials is hard to uphold with much hope.

Perhaps the most difficult challenge of being The Chosun Journal’s curator is keeping things real.

At least with the US National Memorial Holocaust Museum there is the imprimatur of history. Ironically, it is the lack of distance in the information age that has made the current atrocities seem so surreal. Today’s North Korean holocaust in many ways seems less real than the Jewish holocaust of 60 years ago.

Moreover, there is something very unsettling about watching The Pianist knowing the same things are happening now. What explains this cognitive dissonance lies somewhere in between guilt and shame. My challenge as curator of the CJ is making the contemporary historical enough to bridge the responsibility gap of the now. And giving such perspective is no easy task.

Incidentally I wonder if Schindler or Wallenberg knew that their acts had such historical significance, not after the fact, but while they were doing them?

Since you’re already here, let me take you on a brief tour of the museum.

Here is South Korea, the primary benefactor of Kim Jong Il’s cult dynasty. If you look closely, you’ll see on display the card recently issued by Seoul abstaining from the United Nations vote on Pyongyang’s human rights abuses.

To your left is the popular exhibit of Jimmy Carter and Kim Dae Jung, both recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in large part for breathing another 20 years of life into Kim Jong Il’s reign.

If you’ll look to your right, past the temporarily closed Korean-American churches exhibit which is currently undergoing badly needed repairs, you’ll notice the oldest exhibit in the museum displaying Chinese police rounding up defenseless N. Korean refugees to be sent back to NK concentration camps.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2003 and is filed under Edward Kim's Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.