Podcast appearances and mentions of Grace M Cho

March 27, 2024 - In her intimate and touching debut, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, journalist Margaret Juhae Lee uncovers her family's lost history that had been buried in the darkness of Korea's colonial decades. Growing up in Houston, Margaret Juhae Lee was never told about her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha. His memory was submerged in 1936 Korea, when Lee Chul Ha died a disgraced communist rebel, leaving Margaret's grandmother widowed with their two young sons. To his surviving family Lee Chul Ha was a criminal. As an act of unearthing her own identity, Margaret needed to understand why. Margaret began investigating the truth of her grandfather's story. After many trips to Korea, she located her grandfather's interrogation records, and began a series of long-form interviews with her grandmother. Through her research, Margaret discovered an extraordinary young man, Lee Chul Ha – a student revolutionary imprisoned in 1929 for protesting the Japanese government's colonization of Korea. Lee Chul Ha was a hero and eventually honored as a Patriot of South Korea almost 60 years after his death. With this new knowledge came Margaret's realization that her grandmother had old wounds she needed to heal. Starry Field weaves together Margaret's family story against the backdrop of Korea's tumultuous modern history, with a powerful question at its heart. Can we ever separate ourselves from our family's past—and if the answer is yes, should we? In her conversation with Grace M. Cho, Margaret Juhae Lee discusses her memoir. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1784-starry-field-with-margaret-juhae-lee-and-grace-m-cho

In this episode, Assistant Adult Services Lynette Suckow unearths information about plants, vegetables, and books about gardening. Lynette's book recommendations: Soil by Camille T. Dungy Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho

Today Joe is joined by author Grace M. Cho to chat about her book Tastes Like War, which is our latest Big Library Read (BLR) pick. From May 3-17, the ebook and audiobook of Tastes Like War will be available to readers all over the world without waitlists or holds. In Tastes Like War, Grace shares stories of her and her mother's lives, the impact of food, small town life, war, and mental illness. Readers can sample and borrow the titles mentioned in today's episode on OverDrive.com or in Libby. Library friends can shop these titles in OverDrive Marketplace here. Looking for more bookish content? Check out the Libby Life Blog! We hope you enjoy this episode of the Professional Book Nerds podcast. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! You can follow the Professional Book Nerds on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok @ProBookNerds. Want to reach out? Send an email to professionalbooknerds@overdrive.com. We've got merch! Check out our two shirts in The OverDrive Shop (all profits are donated to the ALA Literacy Clearinghouse). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is so much fun for me when a guest takes me up on the offer to return to the show when they have a new book to talk to me about. Jasmine Vyas is one of my all-time favorite guests, an avid reader with incredible taste. Jasmine primarily focuses on books by underrepresented authors, and she posts reviews books under the handle @bookblanketfort on Instagram, GoodReads, and Storygraph. During the day she works as an attorney and privacy professional and is a mother of three school aged children. Today she joined me to talk about the searing memoir, “Tastes Like War” by Grace M. Cho.   Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website   Do you have a book you want to tell me about? Go HERE to apply to be a guest on the Best Book Ever Podcast.   Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram     Guest: Jasmine Vyas Instagram/Goodreads   Discussed in this episode:   Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang Ratatouille – Anton Ego eats ratatouille Best Book Ever Episode with the Three Kitchens Podcast Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War by Grace M. Cho What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo Jasmine's first appearance on Best Book Ever Podcast – Episode 059 Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby   (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you're shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)

During the Korean War, Grace M. Cho's mother was just a kid when she got separated from her family. Eventually, she found her way back home but had to survive on her own off of kimchi and rice for months. This week, Cho shares her mother's story of war, survival and how cooking opened a door between generations. We also learn about ginseng digging in Appalachia; we make Spaghetti with Ricotta, Tomatoes, and Herbs; and Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette share the rules of the dinner table—and the best ways to break them.Get the recipe for Spaghetti with Ricotta, Tomatoes and Herbs.We want to hear your culinary tips! Share your cooking hacks, secret ingredients or unexpected techniques with us for a chance to hear yourself on Milk Street Radio! Here's how: https://www.177milkstreet.com/radiotipsListen to Milk Street Radio on: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Journalist Anne Helen Petersen, co-author of 'Out of Office,' talks about how the pandemic has changed the way many of us work, and the opportunity we have to create a more sustainable work model. Maureen Corrigan shares her list of best books of the year. Writer Grace M. Cho tells the story of her mother's descent into mental illness, and her own quest to understand her family's past. Her memoir is called, 'Tastes Like War.'

Journalist Anne Helen Petersen, co-author of 'Out of Office,' talks about how the pandemic has changed the way many of us work, and the opportunity we have to create a more sustainable work model. Maureen Corrigan shares her list of best books of the year. Writer Grace M. Cho tells the story of her mother's descent into mental illness, and her own quest to understand her family's past. Her memoir is called, 'Tastes Like War.'

Writer Grace M. Cho tells the story of her mother's descent into mental illness, and her own quest to understand her family's past. Cho emigrated to the U.S. as a baby with her Korean mother and American Merchant Marine father. Living in a small town in the northwest, Cho says they endured racist taunts, threats and assaults. After her mother developed symptoms of schizophrenia, Cho learned more about her mother's hardships growing up under Japanese occupation, through the Korean War, and afterward in a shattered Korean economy. Cho would learn her mother was likely a sex worker catering to American personnel stationed in Korea. Her mother's traumas, Cho believed, likely contributed to her mental illness. Her memoir is called, Tastes Like War.

Writer Grace M. Cho tells the story of her mother's descent into mental illness, and her own quest to understand her family's past. Cho emigrated to the U.S. as a baby with her Korean mother and American Merchant Marine father. Living in a small town in the northwest, Cho says they endured racist taunts, threats and assaults. After her mother developed symptoms of schizophrenia, Cho learned more about her mother's hardships growing up under Japanese occupation, through the Korean War, and afterward in a shattered Korean economy. Cho would learn her mother was likely a sex worker catering to American personal stationed in Korea. Her mother's traumas, Cho believed, likely contributed to her mental illness. Her memoir is called, Tastes Like War.

Grace M. Cho (College of Staten Island, CUNY) discusses her hybrid text Tastes Like War: A Memoir (a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction) and how her framing of memories and the geopolitical context of her mother's life are sociological investigations. Topics discussed include the biological gaze on schizophrenia, writing to uncover unspeakable and unknowable traumas, hearing voices as an experience that gives insight into the past rather than a symptom of pathology, and food as a form of resistance in her mother's life.

November is Memoir Month!!! Have you read a memoir yet? The LSMR Girlies have! Aliza read "Tastes Like War" by Grace M. Cho and Marissa read "Men We Reaped" by Jesmyn Ward. Both of these books were fantastic and absolutely devastating! Also, notice these authors are both women and POC. We would like to remind you to support POC authors! Read their memoirs and their stories and thank them for the courage they must have had to share these words. We admire women POC authors, and have absolute love and appreciation for them!

Grace M. Cho grew up Korean-American in a small town in Washington state. Her mother, Koonja, was a Korean woman who met Grace's white-American father – a merchant marine – on a US military base in the aftermath of the Korean war. Charismatic and determined, Koonja did everything she could to 'fit in' in their town: she threw a party for Grace and her brother's teachers to help them integrate at school; she learned to cook American food; and she also founded a thriving woodland-foraging business that led to her being nicknamed “the blackberry lady” by the locals. Still, Grace never felt the family was truly accepted, and they often experienced harassment. When Grace was 15, Koonja suffered a psychological breakdown that would, years later, be diagnosed as schizophrenia. Struggling to help, Grace turned detective and uncovered her mother's traumatic history in Korea. But it was through cooking – and recreating Korean recipes Koonja had not tasted for decades – that Grace and her mother were able to find comfort and connection. Grace's memoir is called Tastes Like War. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com Presenter: Anu Anand Producer: Laura Thomas Picture: Grace M. Cho Credit: Patrick Bower

Grace M. Cho grew up Korean-American in a small town in Washington state. Her mother, Koonja, was a Korean woman who met Grace's white-American father – a merchant marine – on a US military base in the aftermath of the Korean war. Charismatic and determined, Koonja did everything she could to 'fit in' in their town: she threw a party for Grace and her brother's teachers to help them integrate at school; she learned to cook American food; and she also founded a thriving woodland-foraging business that led to her being nicknamed “the blackberry lady” by the locals. Still, Grace never felt the family was truly accepted, and they often experienced harassment. When Grace was 15, Koonja suffered a psychological breakdown that would, years later, be diagnosed as schizophrenia. Struggling to help, Grace turned detective and uncovered her mother's traumatic history in Korea. But it was through cooking – and recreating Korean recipes Koonja had not tasted for decades – that Grace and her mother were able to find comfort and connection. Grace's memoir is called Tastes Like War. Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com Presenter: Anu Anand Producer: Laura Thomas Picture: Grace M. Cho Credit: Patrick Bower

Award-winning Author and Associate Professor Grace M. Cho chats about her process, inspiration, and real-world experience for her book Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War long-listed for a National Book Award. Getting real and raw in all the right ways to better understand how we connect across generations via shared trauma and how it shapes culture. Grace was interviewed by BUCK's Janice Ahn and Heloise Chung. https://www.csi.cuny.edu/campus-directory/grace-m-cho

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/korean-studies

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies

The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean government actively supported the creation of camptowns for its own economic and national security interests. Utilizing the Japanese colonial policy, the US military and the South Korean government sought to control camptown women's bodies through vaginal examinations, isolation wards, and jails, monitoring women for potential venereal diseases. Denigrated as a “traitor” for “mixing flesh with foreigners,” camptown women and their labors were disavowed in Korean society.[1] However, the Korean government also depended on camptown women for its economic development: camptown women's earnings accounted for 10% of Korea's foreign currency.[2] Speaking against this silence, Grace Cho's new memoir, Tastes Like War (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021), brings to light not only the pain and trauma of militarized violence as experienced by her mother who worked as a camptown woman in the 1960s and 1970s, but also the beauty and poignant resilience of her life. In Tastes Like War: A Memoir (Feminist Press, 2021), Cho explores the connection between food, war, trauma, family, and love. After marrying a merchant marine, Cho's mother moved to a white town of Chehalis in Washington in the 1970s. Abundance, social mobility, and progress – America promised Cho's mother what seemed beyond her grasp in Korea. However, the daily traumas of racialized violence and institutionalized abuses at her workplace furthered her fragmentation as a Third World subject whose body and subjectivity were created by complex ties between the histories of empire, militarized and sexual violence, and racialization. To understand the roots of her mother's schizophrenia, Cho delves into this history, focusing not only on the traumas but also on hope, strength, beauty, and resilience as embodied by her mother. The everyday acts of cooking Korean meals and foraging for mushrooms and blackberries signaled her mother's will to survive no matter the condition set by the global empire. Through the act of writing, Cho reconstructs the fragments of her mother's life – illustrating her mother's persistent and creative drive for life despite the historical violence that continued to condition her present and the future.  [1] First quote is from Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, 94 and second quote is from Cho, Tastes Like War, 93. [2] Park, Emmanuel Moonchil, dir. Podŭrapge (Comfort). 2020; Seoul, Korea: Independent, 2020. Vimeo. Da In Ann Choi is a PhD student at UCLA in the Gender Studies department. Her research interests include care labor and migration, reproductive justice, social movement, citizenship theory, and critical empire studies. She can be reached at dainachoi@g.ucla.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

Author Grace M. Cho breaks bread with the numerous voices haunting her ‘pained spirit' in her new novel.

In the 1950s, over 100,000 biracial children were orphaned in South Korea, sparking what is known today as international adoption. These were children largely abandoned by US military men and the Korean prostitutes the US military exploited during the war, by expanding the forced sexual labor camps established earlier by the Japanese, and which exist today. Grace M. Cho has written an homage to these women in her book Haunting the Korean Diaspora, telling a story which can only make sense in the retelling of the larger narrative of the Korean War. Join us, as we delve into the waters of sex workers, napalm, atomic bombs, and shamans, trying the piece together the fragments of lost voices. Special thanks to Jamie Ward for his standup. Visit philoofhealth.org to support this podcast and my path to healing by donating or using my ebay or amazon links, or to set up a personal consultation with me.