This study aimed to propose documentation methods for records related to Busan as the wartime capital during the Korean War. It defined these records as a documentation target and analyzed their distribution across holding institutions, institutional ...
This study aimed to propose documentation methods for records related to Busan as the wartime capital during the Korean War. It defined these records as a documentation target and analyzed their distribution across holding institutions, institutional management structures, and patterns of record-type distribution. To this end, it examined how relevant records are dispersed across domestic holding institutions and analyzed each institution’s management and access practices. In addition, it conducted topic modeling on academic journal articles on Busan as the wartime capital to derive thematic categories and key terms, and then identified record-type distributions by category.
The findings show that administrative and institutional records related to state operations are relatively well documented, whereas records on displaced civilians’ housing and daily life, livelihood activities, popular culture, and cultural and artistic activities are comparatively limited. These gaps are often traceable through oral histories and photographs, suggesting that absences reflect structures of record creation and accumulation rather than collection shortages alone. The study also confirms that relevant records are dispersed across multiple actors—including the National Archives of Korea, the Presidential Archives, museums and memorial institutions, outputs from local government documentation projects, and private research organizations—resulting in fragmented contextual access and breaks in exploration for users.
Based on these findings, the study proposes documentation methods that focus on analyzing existing record structures and supplementing and connecting what already exists, rather than prioritizing large-scale new production. It emphasizes supplementing gaps in documentation, establishing linkages among dispersed records through theme-based and place-based connections, and presenting a linked integrated archive framework as a practical implementation model.
Importantly, the proposal does not prioritize consolidation into a single system; instead, it emphasizes building relationships and contextual linkages among distributed holdings to support user exploration.
This study has limitations in that it relies primarily on publicly available domestic sources and does not sufficiently include overseas holdings or non-disclosed records, and it is also constrained in conducting in-depth analysis of individual record contents. Nevertheless, the study is significant in framing records on Busan as the wartime capital as a record landscape shaped by structural dispersion and gaps and in systematizing actionable directions and measures for documentation.