This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

American educators, take heart: US students are not the only ones in the world with a shaky grasp of their own country’s history. Students in South Korea are alarmingly in the dark about circumstances of the Korean War. A poll taken by a monthly magazine revealed that over half the students had no idea when the war began – 14th century? 12th? 10th? – while about 20 percent believed that the Americans or, possibly, the Japanese started the whole thing. Fewer than 50% correctly identified North Korea as the aggressor making a move to unify the peninsula by force. Educators blame the confusion on unification-oriented textbooks. In striving not to encourage hostile feelings against the North, feelings about the West and East have gone south.

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.