The Role of Museums for Peace in Preventing War and Promoting Remembrance, Historical Truth and Reconciliation (2014)

This is a plenary address given at the 8th conference of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP) that was held at the No Gun Ri Peace Memorial in the Republic of Korea. The title is also the theme of the conference. The memorial commemorates the massacre by the US Air Force of citizens fleeing the village of No Gun Ri during the Korean War (1950–1953). To remember the atrocity, establish the truth, obtain an apology, and start a process of reconciliation, a long campaign was conducted by a survivor, Chung Eun-yong. His moving novel, Do You Know Our Pains? (1994), greatly advanced the cause. The title of the novel is reminiscent of the graphic work of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz whose drawings, etchings, and sculptures of the victims and survivors of war have universal resonance.