Exchanging Zoo Animals in Cold War Korea

• In Event: Power and Senses in Imperial Japan and Cold War East Asia

Abstract

In the aftermath of colonization, war, and national division, ever-rapid processes of urbanization and modernization took place in Korea under the military regime in the 1970s. An integral part of this grand project of national and urban reconstruction was creating zoos. Municipal zoos became established in major cities including Taegu, Pusan, Seoul, and Kwangju as part of an emerging system of public parks. Zoo were viewed as being not only symbolic of urban pride but also an ideal site of international diplomacy during the Cold War era. Mutual partnership of “global families” was often signaled through exchange of various animals, including deers, camels, wolves, and pheasants. As icons of peace, harmony, and reconciliation between empires and their former colonies, these animals, which crossed the national boundaries of Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Japan, became, in some sense, freer than men in the post-liberation era. On November 28, 1975, for instance, four owls and a pair of lynx were sent from Ch’angkyŏng Zoo in Korea to Tennōji Zoo in Japan with great fanfare. For many Korean-Japanese living in Japan, these animals symbolized their mother country and its people. This paper thus addresses the ways in which animal exchanges produced the sense of mutual love and respect between nations, and paved the way for new international relationships in Cold War Korea.

Author

• Gyewon Kim, Sungkyunkwan University