Collective Memories of Korean History: A Comparative Study of Koreans in Seoul and Los Angeles.

This paper examines generation effects and migrations effects on Korean's collective memory of Korean history in the last century. Two hundred sixteen subjects from South Korea and the U.S. were asked to identify three important events in Korean history, and to provide reasons for their selections. This study contributes to the literature in the sociology of collective memory by examining a non-western, culturally homogeneous population in a homeland, and comparing them with their emigrant counterparts. This study confirms the generation effect identified in previous collective memory studies, and the discussion highlights the differences in reasons for selecting events as reflective of respondents' direct or indirect experience of historical events. The study explores the emigration effect on collective memories, and offers suggestions for how future studies might account for the effect of migration patterns on collective memory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]