Jae-Dee is only three years old when she’s abandoned by her parents into an all-girls orphanage and raised by Catholic nuns. A curious, cheeky, intelligent, and sometimes defiant child, she’s forced to adapt to a life of abandonment, loss, and grief. In Jae-Dee Survives the Home of Many Mothers, she tells of her life experiences from the voice of her inner-child until she grows older and strong enough to express her life in a more mature and perceptively insightful manner. A fictional story inspired by real-life events, Jae-Dee shares her feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and chronic bed-wetting that stem from her abandonment, neglect, and abuse. Jae-Dee’s parents suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse as well as financial and social poverty. But when her parents relinquish her, Jae-Dee is raised by Sister Grace, a Catholic Sister of Mercy and surrogate mother from hell, whose hatred and inability to demonstrate compassion or nurturing toward her wards is strongly depicted in her strong and sadistic character. Jae-Dee calls attention to the effects of this childhood trauma, and she shares how she developed skills to overcome those challenges. In addition, Jae-Dee Survives the Home of Many Mothers captures the cultural history of post-war families and offers reflections of the South Australian social welfare system during the 1950s to mid-1960s. “Jae-Dee Collier writes with searing honesty and ironic humour. Jae- Dee Survives the Home of Many Mothers takes the reader into the trauma of her early childhood experience of life at an Adelaide orphanage in the 1950s and ’60s. Vividly and skillfully told through a child’s eyes, this beautiful and tragic story of vulnerability, abuse and hope needs to be told, and everyone needs to read it.” —Dr. Paul Williams, Program Leader, Creative Writing, University of the Sunshine Coast

The Korean War is multiple wars. Not only is it a war that began on 25 June 1950, but it is also a conflict that is rooted in Korea's colonial experiences, postcolonial desires and frustrations, and interventions and partitions imposed by outside forces. In South Korea, the war is a site of contestation: Which war should be remembered and how should it be remembered? The site has been overwhelmed by the Manichean official discourse that pits evil communists against innocent Koreans, but the hegemonic project remains unfinished in the face of the resiliency embodied in the survivors who have withstood multiple killings by the state. The historical significance of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea (TRCK), lies in its success in bringing back to life the voices of the silenced that complicate the hegemonic memory of the war as yugio, the "June 25th war." At the same time, the Commission embodies the structural dilemma that the effort to give voice to the silenced has turned to the state to redress the state's wrongdoings. The TRCK as such stands on the problematic boundary between violence and post-violence, insecurity and security, exception and normalcy. Truth and reconciliation, and human security, are perhaps located in a process of defining and redefining the boundary. This edited volume explores such political struggles for the future reflected in the TRCK’s work on the past war that is still present. This book was published as a special issue of Critical Asian Studies.