I grew up less than a 15 minute drive away from this beautiful view, and I took this photo when my wife and I visited from Korea last December. It is Lake Ontario, and that will always be its name.
Jack Greenberg (그린버그 잭)
@jackwgreenberg.bsky.social
Independent Researcher and Freelance Writer. Former Global 🇰🇷 Scholar. 고려대학교 and McGill Alumnus. Currently working on contested histories, memory sites, and Korea’s truth commission. 📧 jwgreenberg@outlook.com jwgreenberg.substack.com
Happy to know this article has finally been published!! It can be found in Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Volume 99. It evolved from a lecture I gave last August and focuses on Kang's early efforts towards uncovering the truth of the Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine Civilian Massacres.
Friday marked 100 days since the launch of the 3rd TRC. 4,716 applications for truth-finding have been filed so far by victims, bereaved families, and other related parties. With the Yangju Adoptee Archive, we recently met Chair Song Sang-gyo and Standing Commissioner Kim Gwi-ok.
Yesterday at Jirisan Hwaeomsa in Gurye-gun, Masan-myeon.
My latest for The Korea Times ahead of this week’s 46th anniversary of the 1980 Sabuk Uprising. www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/s...
Sabuk Incident survivors renew demands for apology, fulfillment of TRC recommendations as third commission begins work - The Korea Times
Dressed in their old helmets and uniforms, elderly former coal miners gathered in front of Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul, April 14, joined by fami...
koreatimes.co.kr
Ggachi is back as a bilingual Korean-English weekly newsletter.
Ggachi Newsletter| Exploring Traces of Colonial Korean Labour in Japan (1)
+ Gana Art's 1991 Issue on Modern Middle Eastern Art.
ggachi.substack.com
My latest: Yesterday, a press conference was held ahead of the publication of "Biographical Accounts of Anti-Constitutional Actors (반헌법행위자열전)." The project will span 12 volumes; t identifies and profiles 312 public officials between the Rhee Syngman and Roh Tae-woo governments.
5 ex-presidents listed as ‘anti-constitutional actors' in new reckoning on historical state violence - The Korea Times
Five former presidents of Korea made it onto a list of perpetrators of state violence in Korea's authoritarian past. Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee,...
koreatimes.co.kr
New article for @koreatimescokr. I covered the background of the special opening of the Wongaksa Stone Pagoda and what has happened since recreational activities were banned in Tapgol Park. Also was able to fit in some historical tidbits about the pagoda's condition before and after liberation.
10-story stone pagoda in Tapgol Park receives first up-close public viewing in 27 years - The Korea Times
Class wrapping up on a Friday afternoon should have marked the start of the weekend, but Yang Seo-yeon still had something to do. Leaving Sungkyunk...
koreatimes.co.kr
My latest article for the Korea Times follows up on my research trip to Japan last month and takes stock of where things stand at this moment with remains recovery activities (led by @Chouseikizamu) at the Chosei Coal Mine. www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/s...
Lawmakers prod Korean, Japanese governments for action on Chosei Coal Mine excavation, repatriation projects - The Korea Times
UBE, Japan — An inflatable raft returned to the beach at Tokonami in Ube City’s Nishikiwa Village at approximately 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 6. Yoshitaka I...
koreatimes.co.kr
Surveying current conditions at the last two aircraft hangers from the Pacific War in Yeongcheon. They were built through the forced mobilization of students from Daegu Agriculture and Forestry School when Japan began to anticipate U.S. landings on the Korean Peninsula.
Last month, at Fukuju-ji in Kitakyushu to pay respects to victims of the 1940 Kokura Coal Mine flood incident. 39 lost their lives after being trapped inside. Among the 26 Korean victims, 19 left behind families. Recovery of the bodies took one year, but three were never found.
Wrote a reflection on Substack about Jangheung's Borimsa. On the surface it is a beautiful temple; home to several designated treasures. What the casual visitor won't necessarily perceive is its tragic Korean War history w/ civilians caught btw state & guerrilla violence. Link: shorturl.at/brxO8
Wandering alleys in Busan’s Jung-gu, I stumbled upon 정오사 in a Japanese style colonial house. It had a striking painting of Avalokiteshvara. 대승불교회 established a temple here in 1977, but in 1991 ownership of the premises was transferred to the Jogye Order’s 12th Diocese.
Was in Gyeongsan’s Namsan-myeon today to dig deeper into the history of a 1944 uprising against forced mobilization under Japanese occupation. Visited one of the leader’s children, and was treated to a delicious homemade meal and tea. At 80, she still keeps a lovely house filled with plants.
Now updated with the verdicts delivered this afternoon. While Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment with labour in the first trial, the court also sentenced five co-defendants to prison terms and found two not guilty.
The court is currently delivering the verdict in Yoon’s insurrection case. It confirms that Yoon sought to obstruct and paralyze the National Assembly with the aim of preventing its functioning for a considerable period of time.
Only a few hours left until the verdict in Yoon Seok-yeol's insurrection trial. It will be televised nationally and will take place in the same courtroom that issued a death sentence to dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who Yoon praised, when he was a presidential contender, for conducting state affairs well.
Wandered into another wonderful library without any prior knowledge of its history YDA. Kitakyushu City Central Library was designed by Pritzker Prize winner Arata Isozaki and completed in 1974. The exterior doubled for Musashino Library, the Library Defense Force HQ, in the Toshokan Sensō films.
This morning after arriving by ferry to Shimonoseki, Jenna and I made our way to the site of the Josei Coal Mine. We’ll be in Japan for a week to visit and research sites associated with Korean forced labour in mines.
오늘 장생탄광 있는 우베시에 갔습니다. 오후 3시 30분경 희생자 유해가 추가로 수습되었습니다. 국제 다이버 팀이 지난해 8월에 첫 번째 유해를 발견했는데, 오늘 이어 두 번째로 두개골 1점을 수습되어 현장에 있었던 유가족 품으로 돌아왔습니다.
Kim Yeo-jeong is one person who tried to record the hardships endured by Bogwang-dong residents since the Korean War. In a bid to overcome her depression, she had opened Cafe Tara in the neighbourhood, and it turned into a sort of community center that drew a diverse cast of regulars.
Recalling a visit to the Shinto Shrine on Sorokdo, the island in southwest Korea where colonial authorities forcibly segregated leprosy patients. substack.com/@jackwgreenb...
Large parts of Bogwang-dong and Hannam-dong in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu are being demolished for the Hannam District 3, or New Town, redevelopment project. This is happening 17 years after the area was first designated a promotion district. The plan calls for 127 residential and commercial high rises.
Heartened by today’s announcement regarding the successful identification of seven Jeju 4.3 victims through forensic testing and DNA analysis, in 2025. Two were held at Daegu Prison and executed at Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine. This is the 1st time 4.3 victims have been confirmed from the Gyeongsan site.
Seven Victims of Jeju 4.3 Identified, Including First Confirmations from Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine
Jeju to Restart Blood Sample Collection on Feb. 2 as DNA Identifications Rise to 154 Nationwide
open.substack.com
The stunning gold-coffered ceiling in Toronto’s Commerce Court North (1930), which was designed by Toronto architecture firm Pearson & Darling, and had been the British Empire’s tallest building until 1962. CIBC still maintains offices in the 34-storey tower.
Today’s the 135th birth anniversary of Antonio Gramsci; brilliant thinker/theorist, anti-Fascist, genius strike leader, and a founder of the Italian Communist Party. I found this mural depicting his face and the motto from L’Ordine Nuovo's 1st issue on a Bologna HS near the site of Le Caserme Rosse.
One resolution for 2026 is write more frequently on my Substack. This week I posted the year's first newsletter, which covers LJM's mtg w/ Takaichi, Daegu's mayoral race, a possible Daegu-Gyeongbuk merger, and an update on the PCH statue at Dongdaegu Plaza dispute. open.substack.com/pub/ggachi/p...
Ggachi vol. 3, no. 1.
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
open.substack.com
This week I finished a history of the Old Don Jail -- third book of the year so far. I recently went to see this former "monument to human misery" for myself. Before its closure in 1977, 1 million were confined in its cramped, rat-infested cells & 70 ppl died on its gallows, including 34 by hanging.
