Tracing Anti-Communist Nation-Building in South Korea
type: CreativeWork
description: Anti-communism has always been the cornerstone of South Korea’s national identity. The Rhee government, the very first of the post-Independence era, created the basis for anti-communist state-building. This thesis focuses on how the South Korean and the U.S. governments succeeded in internalizing anti-communism among ordinary civilians through critical historical incidents and cultural policies. By tracing the Yeosu-Suncheon incident and the Korean War, this thesis investigates how the Korean peninsula – which in the immediate wake of liberation from Japanese colonial rule was a relatively open space in ideological terms – shifted to a closed-off and exclusionary space, only allowing anti-communism. This thesis argues that war and state violence instilled fear among South Korean civilians and provided the critical momentum for the internalization of anti-communism into society. After the war, governments utilized soft power to accelerate the internalization of anti-communism. Specifically, the Rhee government utilized a “carrots and sticks” approach; they provided incentives to creators who followed the state apparatus while imposing penalties on those who did not follow. The U.S. government employed financial and cultural support, with idealization of consumer goods, to induce and maintain South Korean anti-communism and pro-Americanism.
abstract: Anti-communism has always been the cornerstone of South Korea’s national identity. The Rhee government, the very first of the post-Independence era, created the basis for anti-communist state-building. This thesis focuses on how the South Korean and the U.S. governments succeeded in internalizing anti-communism among ordinary civilians through critical historical incidents and cultural policies. By tracing the Yeosu-Suncheon incident and the Korean War, this thesis investigates how the Korean peninsula – which in the immediate wake of liberation from Japanese colonial rule was a relatively open space in ideological terms – shifted to a closed-off and exclusionary space, only allowing anti-communism. This thesis argues that war and state violence instilled fear among South Korean civilians and provided the critical momentum for the internalization of anti-communism into society. After the war, governments utilized soft power to accelerate the internalization of anti-communism. Specifically, the Rhee government utilized a “carrots and sticks” approach; they provided incentives to creators who followed the state apparatus while imposing penalties on those who did not follow. The U.S. government employed financial and cultural support, with idealization of consumer goods, to induce and maintain South Korean anti-communism and pro-Americanism.
author: Im, Jiyoung
date published: 2025-05-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:38:43Z
provider: Chapman University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Chapman University