Postwar Korean Short Stories (review)

112BOOK REVIEWS Success finally came to Shufeldt in 1 882; this time he was ordered to China specifically to use Chinese influence over Korea to negotiate a treaty. Months of negotiations followed, and frequently Shufeldt's patience was sorely tried. His reputation as a diplomat was seriously marred by his impatience, which led to his writing a letter to U.S. Senator Aaron A. Sargent criticizing the Chinese. Sargent interpreted Shufeldt's description of the letter as an "open letter" to mean that it was acceptable to release it to newspapers. The letter was subsequently published by the San Francisco Bulletin, resulting in a diplomatic furor. Throughout his negotiations the question of Chinese influence and control over Korea's affairs plagued and puzzled Shufeldt, as it did others in the State Department. The publication of the "open letter" was certain to be controversial and there was fear that the Chinese would use it to discontinue their efforts to assist in negotiating the treaty. The treaty as finally signed on May 22, 1882 did not include an opening statement that Korea had signed the treaty with the advice of the Chinese government , under whose suzerainty she then fell. Although the Chinese and Koreans had previously insisted on such a clause, the strong objections ofthe United States government finally prevailed. The book is carefully researched and written, and sheds new light on some of the controversies concerning both Shufeldt and American-Korean relations. Both the Sargent letter, which was to cause Shufeldt so much trouble both in his treaty negotiations and in his subsequent naval and diplomatic careers, and the full text of the treaty are included as appendixes. Readers of this journal should find much to interest them in the detailed analysis of American attempts to open the Hermit Kingdom to the Western world. Others may find the parts of the book dealing with naval matters of equal interest, despite the fact that Shufeldt's naval career was atypical and not nearly as interesting as his work as a diplomat and advocate of American commercial expansion in the Pacific. Joseph R. Morgan University of Hawaii Postwar Korean Short Stories, by Chong-un Kim. Seoul National University Press and the Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaii, xxxviii, 239. $18.00. Postwar Korean Short Stories, the 1983 republication of a collection published by Seoul National University Press in 1973, presents seventeen short stories, in very fine translations, from the important but ever more rapidly receding decade 1953-1963. The stories have been lightly revised; one, "The Migratory Bird," by O Yongsu, has been dropped from the present collection. Provided with a new introduction, the anthology unquestionably will be useful in courses on modern Korean literature, and will command the attention of the reader with a more general interest in modern Asian fiction as well. Professor Chong-un Kim's thirty-one page introduction to the new edition presents a thoughtful discussion of the stresses that have befallen Korean society in the last thirty years, from the Korean War through the Syngman Rhee dictator- BOOK REVIEWS113 ship, the student revolution ofApril, 1960, the briefdemocratic interlude, the coup d'etat and installation of the military government in 1961, and establishment of the Third Republic in 1963 with Park Chung Hee's change from military to civilian government. How the Korean writers of that turbulent era responded to such social, political, and spiritual uncertainty is the main theme of the essay. Professor Kim handles this theme ably, with a deft balance of historical summary, examples of literary response drawn from a few of the selections contained in the anthology, and a generous sampling of references, and indeed extended summaries of materials not included in the present work. My one quarrel with the essay is that it seems to slight the historical in favor of the categorical. The discussion of the period after the military revolution of 1961, for example, observes that (p. ix): after May 16, one can say that two problems stand out as the paramount issues of concern: modernization and national security. The latter is not a new problem . It is a semipermanent condition that dates back to the cease-fire of 1953...