Eric+K.+-+Korean+War+Oral+History

Korean War Interview (as a stand-in for my grandfather, who was unwilling to be interviewed, my mother was interviewed)

Mother Name: Lee Kyung-sook Birthdate: July 23, 1966 Age (present): 45 Job (present): housewife

Grandfather Name: Lee Bong-kyo Birthdate: November 5, 1930 Age (present): 81 Age (when war started): 20 Job (present): retired Job (when war started): in middle of military service

(these questions were meant for my grandfather, but I will show the answers as my mother said them)

1. Could you please state your name and a bit about yourself? My name is Lee Kyung-sook. I was born in July 23rd, 1966. I am here in place of my father for this interview.

2. What was your life like before the war actually started? He had just finished high school some time before the Korean War. Since his family was quite poor, he could not go to university at that time. Because of that, he had to go to the military, since it is mandatory in Korea. It was during the time when the Korean war started.

3. What was it like training in the military? Apparently the training was very harsh, since some normal human rights didn’t seem to be taken into account when training. He had to learn things like certain battle formations, how to shoot and reload a gun, and other things that were necessary for fighting with North Korea.

4. What kind of role did you play in the war? He was actually one of the soldiers that were fighting in the frontline during the war. He wasn’t just one of those soldiers that were stationed in a place where nothing happens until the enemy gets there. He was one of the soldiers on the offense.

5. Do you perhaps remember any one of the battles that you have fought? He never mentioned any in particular, but he said that being on the battlefield was like hell, with all the gunfire and bombs exploding. His hearing is permanently impaired due to all the explosions in the battles.

6. Have you suffered any major losses in the war? He lost two of his brothers in the war, both of them his elder brothers. He also lost many of his high school friends as well, all of them by fighting in the war. He lost his mother during the war as well. Although she died of disease and not by fighting in the war, it was still left a heavy impact on him along with the other losses that he suffered.

7. What did you do when the war ended? He quit the army after the war ended and started to work in a political office. However, he quit working at it because he hated all the corruption that he saw in the government. After quitting, he went into business and started to earn money for his family.

8. Do you feel very lucky that you are alive today? (for mom: Do you feel lucky that Grandfather is alive today?) Of course I feel that we are all lucky that he is still alive. First of all, I would not have been born if he had died, and neither would have you. And out of the many number of people who have died in the war, it’s amazing how your grandfather is still alive after facing all the dangers of the battlefield.

9. What do you think of the government at that period? He told me that he was utterly disgusted at how much lying, cheating, and bribing was present in the political offices. As he once worked in one himself, he had firsthand experience in seeing what this was like. Even now, he absolutely hates the government and thinks that nothing has and will ever change in the government and its corruption.

10. Is there anything that I haven't asked that you might like to add? Your grandfather has suffered a lot during the Korean War with his losses, so it would be best not to press him too hard. Also, your grandfather won an honorary award for being a great soldier of the front line during the war.

Release Form

Reflection Although I could not get an interview directly with the interviewee, I feel like I have learned a lot more about the Korean War from how my grandfather lived through it. There were a lot of things that I did not know about my grandfather and the Korean War, but with this interview, I learned a lot about what the Korean War sort of looked like in his eyes. All the losses and hardships that he suffered brought a whole new perspective on the Korean War, not to mention that he lost several family members during the war. It is quite a shame that he refused my requests for the interview, for I think that I would have gotten a lot more out of this if he were to tell me directly about his life during the Korean War. One new thing that I learned of was that my grandfather really hates the government because of the corruption that was present in the government during that time. Of course, I did not even know that he was involved in politics in the first place, so that was very surprising. That taught me that there was indeed corruption in the government at the time of the Korean War, and that would probably mean that Syngman Rhee was also a corrupt politician as he is known in history. Through my mother and her secondhand tellings of my grandfather’s experiences, I was able to grasp the grief and happenings of the Korean War.