The Meaning of the Field Research on Oral Life Narratives of the Korean War Veterans in Turkey

Abstract

The friendship between Turkey and Korea, which is expressed as “The Brother's Country”, is based on common historical experience of “Korean War” above all. The word “Kan kardeşim” means that “my brothers who shed blood together”, which refers to Koreans by the Turks, is suggestive of the significance of the memory of the war in their relationship itself. And this makes possible to imagine the situation in which the memories of the Turkish veterans who participated in the Korean War spread to the Turkish society and the friendly recognition was settled in the process. The problem is that memories of the war that form the foundation of friendship between two countries, and the Korean War veterans of Turkey, the subject of such memories are disappearing. Therefore, the researcher designed a field research study to accumulate the memories of Turkish war veterans of Turkey who were leading the friendly recognition of Korea by the form of oral life narratives. The purpose of this research is to examine the necessity and specific methods of such field research, contents to be investigated, and its implications and possibilities based on oral data secured through actual research.