The Flesh-Witness: The Mark of Colonialism

Installation artist Kyuri Jeon's The Flesh-Witness is one of those short experimental documentaries that packs the punch of a feature-length film. The movie is built in part around Korean War footage sourced from the United States' NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). This seems worth mentioning because the clips are so damning regarding America's role during that conflict that I doubt that the current administration would allow such images to be released. Specifically, The Flesh-Witness recounts the enforced tattooing of Korean P.O.W.s with anti-communist messages as a way to spread pro-capitalist propaganda and make a return to North Korea untenable for the soldiers.

Watching scenes of often shirtless young men being disinfected and shorn prior to getting tattooed calls to mind atrocities like Auschwitz and Dachau. But unlike WWII, the Korean War isn't the story of Yankee rescuers, despite how some history books have tried to spin it. The Flesh-Witness reminds us that what brought American troops to the 38th latitude wasn't the liberation of the country from Japanese occupation but rather a fear that communism would take hold in this East Asian country which was being helped by Russia and China. Neo-colonialism and xenophobia, white supremacy and capitalist imperialism were the driving forces for General MacArthur and company who literally branded those with more personal allegiances once victory was at hand. Shameful.