DK+L-+Korean+War+Oral+History

Korean War Oral History

Transcript: (Interviewing Grandfather. Age 76. Name:이춘호 (Lee Chun Ho). Topic: Experience During the Cold War)

Father (On Phone): Father, my son needs to have an interview for an Asian Studies class. Can you help him?

Grandfather: Hello Dongkeun! What is it that you want to know?

Me: Grandfather, I would like to ask a few questions regarding your life during the Korean War.

Grandfather: Ask me anything. I’ll try to answer your questions the best I can.

Me: To start off, where were you during the start of the war?

Grandfather: I was in second grade (11th grade) in Gwangju Jaeil High School. As soon as the war started, the school closed and I walked back to my hometown, which was about two days away. My hometown was jeollanam-do and it was called gwangyang-gun, manduk-li. On a map it can be noticed as a small down near the central-southern border. I was too young to join the war, so all I thought about during this time was high school and home.

Me: What happened in your hometown during the war?

Grandfather: When North Korea controlled all the territory expect Busan, my hometown, unlike many of the other areas of South Korea, wasn’t really regarded as of any importance to the North Koreans. They would occasionally visit the area, but really didn’t change how our lifestyle. They would just pass by my hometown without much recognition and didn’t consider it significant because it was in such a small area. After the North Koreans controlled south west of Korea, they would have only used the large roads to get to the final location, which was Busan.

Me: Were there any problems or events during the time you stayed at your hometown?

Grandfather: There was one interesting series of events that occurred. In one of the attempts to gain land back to the South, the American military arrived at the southern coast. The military groups sailed north by the Sumjin River. While they were sailing north, they decided to separate into two different groups. This led to a catastrophic event for one of the groups where they faced North Korean soldiers and lost. The interesting story occurs around this period. Around eleven soldiers, who had survived the battle, retreated in a small ship back south, in the hopes that they would be able to reach their main coastal base in time, before their death. They had ended up arriving in my hometown. They asked where the hospital was, since one was brutally injured, and me, having learned English in school was chosen to be the guide to the hospital. I knew I could have a conversation with them and answer their questions, but I was too scared. They had fierce eyes and structurally large bodies which had frightened me, so I didn’t really speak to them much. I led them to our small town hospital. The doctor had fled, so the American soldiers were able to use the limited amount of resources to treat themselves. Many of the townspeople gave them eggs and jumukbab (piled rice). When they were healthy and ready to go, I directed them all the way to the coast to their base. They showed their thankfulness by giving us large bags of rice, which was distributed among the community.

Me: How did you feel and what were the people in the town like after the Americans had left?

Grandfather: All the people seemed to have been pleased with their actions, and were grateful that they were able to help the allies of our nation. It was a great experience for us to notice how the Americans were like, since we had never actually communicated with them before.

Me: What are your opinions about North Koreans?

Grandfather: This reminds me of another event that occurred. The North Korean government after gaining control of most of the South, decided to open the schools again. After I heard that my high school reopened, I started my two-day journey again to my high school. In this time, I just thought that the North Koreans wanted the lifestyles of many people to remain the same as before the war. They believed they had obtained victory, and believed that it would be safe to open the schools in their power. North Koreans like us were fighting for their lives, but they were the same people as us. They didn’t just go around hating everyone, but acted as if everyone was still part of their society out of the battlefield.

Me: So what happened?

Grandfather: It was nightfall of the first day, when a carriage went next to me. It stopped, and in the back was a North Korean soldier with a gun, but the carriage just seemed to be going peacefully. The North Korean asked me if I wanted a ride. I said yes, and rode in the carriage with the soldier. When it was about morning, where it was still really dark, I told him that I would get off. He let me get off the carriage and I started to walk again. I didn’t know why I decided to get off so early in the morning, where I wasn’t even able to see the road in front, but I thought it was the best decision to make. A few hours later, I found out that the Americans had bombed the road about thirty kilometers north of me. The bomb had hit the carriage. If I had stayed in it a little longer, then I might have died, and wouldn’t be living today.

Me: Whoa! That’s really interesting. What was significant in your life that occurred when the Americans had obtained Seoul back from North Korea?

Grandfather: I was still in my hometown at the time. As the Americans gained control of Seoul, the North Koreans who couldn’t retreat back were left to fend for themselves in the South. A lot of them hid in the mountains, which were located north of my town. I just remember that they would hide in mountainous regions and would obtain their food by methods such as stealing from the villages. In the mornings, the police would patrol and would stop the North Koreans from stealing food and goods, but late at night, they would come down from the mountainous regions to obtain their resources. Many times, I would see North Korean soldiers who were actually younger than me. Unlike the older soldiers, these teenagers would not steal from the villages. They seemed to just share food with the others that were able to obtain it.

Me: Were there a lot of North Koreans that you were able to interact with? Were you able to have conversations with them?

Grandfather: Like I had stated before, there were many times they would visit my village, but while some of the people would talk to them, I would have just stayed quiet and let them pass by. There were usually no conflicts between them and us and I just thought that it was unfortunate for them to be fighting against the South. We were the same people from the same country, but the idea that we were in opposite sides bothered me. I know that it was thought to be not right for many of the North Koreans too.

Me: What did you think about the relationship between Russia and United States during this time?

Grandfather: Throughout the time after WWII, when I was a child in elementary school, they kept on having many disagreements about the issues concerning their government systems and land. Since I was young, without much knowledge about the two nations, all I thought about was that they weren’t in a good relationship. I thought that it was very unfair for those two nations to split Korea by the 38th parallel without the Korean citizens’ consent. We were forced to fight against each other and were left with devastating consequences of creating separate countries.

Me: After the war, what were some of the important events or facts in your life?

Grandfather: During the end, I joined the navy and later, went on into college. I was thinking of going to doctor school, but due to the problems that I have with surgeries and operations, I decided to go on into electrical engineering. There were still arguments between the South and the North, but I believe that the citizens of both nations, even after the war just want peace so that they would be able to reunite.

Me: For the last question, what are some of your opinions about the ongoing conflict between North Korea and South Korea?

Grandfather: This is something that I would only tell you, and I believe strongly in it. If we ever go into war with the North, I believe that we won’t be able to win it. Like the kamikaze of Japan, the North Korean military is trained to believe that they are going to die if they fight. They don’t have the mind of survival, but only of death. That strong mind of theirs to fight till death is very different from the South, where maybe you and the other people would think primarily on survival. You would probably run away during the war in order for your own survival. That is not the mindset of the North Koreans, which makes it difficult to defeat them in the end.

Me: Do you have anything else you would like to say?

Grandfather: I lived through the Japanese occupation, through the Pacific of Japan against China, and through the Korean War. I have lived a thorough amount of time and have experienced many events that are shocking, but also meaningful to tell people like you. If you would like to know more about my history, just feel free to ask me anytime.

Me: Thank you for your insightful retell of your experiences during the Korean War. (Hang up call)

Reflection This interview was a great experience for me to know more about my grandfather's past. He was able to truly tell me about his experiences and the life that he went through during the Korean War. The interview overall, was able to help me notice the lives of many Koreans, both North and South, and how their lives changed because of the War. Since it's a primary source of information, I was able to imagine what it might have been like to live throughout this time period and how significant the certain events were to my Grandfather. Unlike many wars of the past, where it's based on the battle between two different nations, I was able to learn that the Korean War was the fight between brothers and families. It was the fight that not many people wanted, between the same nationalities, the same language, and in the same country. While there were a lot of blood spilled, I learned that there was also love and friendship that was able to develop. My grandfather's interview would be historically important in gathering the "puzzle pieces" and matching all the different stories together to form the history of the citizens in Korea. It was important in helping figure out how people felt about Americans and also the North Koreans during the time. It was significant in the fact that it is part of the larger idea and story which had one of the largest impacts for the population of Korea.