Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum

This guide to the Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum traces the building from its start in 1929 as a Japanese colonial development company office, through its postwar life as an American cultural center teaching English and screening films, to the night of March 18, 1982, when students furious over Washington's silence on Gwangju set its reading room on fire. It follows the two men sentenced to death for the arson and the long dispute between Seoul and Washington over who owned a building that was, technically, still American soil. A small upstairs exhibit today lets you trace the scorch marks room by room.