Military Family Dynamic and Multicultural Identity of Korean American Children
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Rocker, Juntae
- Area of Honors:
- Interdisciplinary in Asian Studies and Korean
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Jooyeon Rhee, Thesis Supervisor
Jooyeon Rhee, Thesis Honors Advisor
Ran Zwigenberg, Faculty Reader
Soo-Yong Byun, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- U.S. Military
Asian American
Korean American
Multicultural Identity
Mixed-Race - Abstract:
- The United States and the Republic of Korea have a long standing diplomatic and military alliance that reflects their closely interconnected histories and peoples. The U.S. military has intervened countless times on Korean soil throughout significant historical events such as the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and Korean War from 1950 to 1953. These historical legacies have propelled the waves of Korean migration to the United States at the expense of Korean women and mixed-rate children as victims of military injustices. Others left much more to explore through deeper research and closer study, like contemporary populations of multicultural Korean American military children. The topic of identity formation of children from military backgrounds has not been studied at length, but it is a crucial topic to explore since their nuanced social and cultural identities require scholarly attention to help them navigate issues surrounding their intersecting identities. This research bridges the gap by establishing the historical and social contexts of Korean American children from military backgrounds, focusing especially on their unique linguistic challenges and effect of language on their identity as Korean Americans. After reviewing available literature about the topic and drawing from my own experiences as a Korean American military child myself in relation to other children with similar backgrounds in this study, I assert that the authoritarian military family structure and community unique to these children have significant impacts on their identity as Korean Americans. I especially focus on loss of language and its effects on them by borrowing studies from a scholar, Jong Brewer, in addition to my own observations. This study contributes to the scholarly understanding of the interrelated nature between language and identity of biracial children whose military living environment and background must be considered.