Nonkilling Korea

Foreword
Sung Chul Yang

Preface
Glenn D. Paige and Chung-Si Ahn

1. Introduction
From Cultures of Killing
Glenn D. Paige

2. Korean Culture
1) Spiritual and Practical Assets of Korean Nonviolence
Jang-Seok Kang
2) Nonkilling in North Korean Culture
Discoveries of a Former Enemy Soldier
Glenn D. Paige

3. American Culture
From Nonkilling to Beloved Community
Can America Help?
Michael N. Nagler and Stephanie N. Van Hook

4. Chinese Culture
Possibilities of a Peaceful Nonkilling China
Cultural and Political Perspectives
Dahua Tang

5. Japanese Culture
Nonkilling in Japanese Culture
Mitsuo Okamoto and Tamayo Okamoto

6. Russian Culture
1) Evolution of the Idea of Nonkilling in Russian Culture
Tatiana Yakushkina
2) Nonkilling in Russian Culture
Social Science Approach
William V. Smirnov

7. Conclusion
Toward Nonkilling Korea
Glenn D. Paige and Chung-Si Ahn

Appendix
March 1, 1919 Nonviolent Declaration of Korean Independence

Contributors

Over the past century four of the world's most dynamic and lethal societies ― Japan, America, Russia and China ― have impacted upon the Korean people, leaving them divided, and with all six cultures suffering from killing within and among them, perpetrated before, during and following the Korean War (1950-53). Customary scholarly and policy analyses related to Korea since 1945 have focused upon geopolitical and inter-Korean military, political and economic security concerns as each of the six societies seeks to pursue its interests by continued reliance on killing and threats to kill. By contrast, this book begins to explore nonkilling cultural aspects in each of the six societies that could be combined to reverse the legacy of lethality and assist realization of a unified Nonkilling Korea.

Nonkilling Korea can be envisioned as a unified society in which Koreans do not kill each other, no foreigners kill Koreans, and no Koreans kill foreigners, including Koreans sent abroad to kill. The society is characterized by absence of weapons specifically designed to kill and absence of ideological justifications for killing. It is distinguished by a strong nonkilling ethicthat pervades all aspects of national culture and contributes to decisions and processes of problem-solving to realize personal, family, community and national well-being. It is saliently practiced in relation to Korea's Asian neighbors and to all people of the world.

The following chapters present initial scholarly explorations of nonkilling aspects in each of the six cultures. Authors outside Korea were not asked specifically to relate discoveries to Korea. This task remains for further exploration. These studies begin to lay the groundwork for comparisons and relating discoveries to Korea. No specific guidelines were given to authors although attention was called to two earlier essays on the subject (Paige, 1984; 2000). Authors were familiar with the nonkilling thesis of Nonkilling Global Political Science (Paige 2009). They were invited to respond to the open-ended question, “What are the nonkilling aspects of your culture?” Readers will appreciate the difficulty of the task posed by this open-ended question and can benefit from the discoveries shared here. Readers are invited to engage in further nonkilling explorations in these or their own cultures that can benefit Nonkilling Korea and a killing-free world.