Epilogue

How would the reunification of two Koreans impact the case of memorializing the Korean War? The unified land of Korea itself will present a unique memorial site of the Korean War that is filled with cacophonous sets of objects, rituals, and bodies. Such a site will provoke us to witness many ironic puzzles of memories: one’s oppressive ideology could be another’s legitimate saga; victims at a memorial on one side could be recalled as perpetrators in a memorial on the other side; and heroes of one site could be villains of the other. Surely, the unified land of Korea will increase the chances that we will see not only the enmeshed lines among victims, heroes, and perpetrators of both war realities, but also our acts of remembering themselves. It will become a revived palimpsest that invites us to uncover complex layers of memories that conflict with one another and thus are not wrapped up merely with the narrative in hegemony. In these ways, the reunification of the two Koreas potentially will transform the Korean Peninsula from a topography of terror into a subversive platform of empathic mourning.