Korean+War+Oral+History+AK

 ORAL HISTORY OF THE KOREAN WAR


 * Interview**

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1. Self Introduction: How old are you? Where were you born? What jobs have you worked at so far? 2. How did American and Soviet occupation of Korea influence you? 3. What was the atmosphere in Korea like when Japan withdrew its troops? How did you feel? 4. What was the economic situation of your family when the war first started? How did this affect you? 5. What were your feelings towards Communism as an ideology? What did you think of the communists? 6. What were some of your encounters with the Communists like? 7. Do you remember the day when the war broke out? What happened that day? How did you feel? 8. What is the one event or aspect that is most prominent in your mind regarding the war? 9. How did you manage to escape to South Korea? 10. How do you think the war changed your course of life? What do you think would have happened if it had not occured? 11. How did the war end? How did you feel when it ended? What was the general atmosphere in Korea like? 12. Do you have any lasting feelings or recriminations regarding the war? 13. Is there anything I haven't asked about that you think I should know?
 * List of Questions**


 * Summary**

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 * Reflection**

I didn’t expect to be surprised by my interview with my grandparents as I have heard them talk about the Korean war before and I thought I had heard everything they had to say about it. Yet, this could not be further from the truth. I never thought of myself as not being close with my grandparents, however after hearing their experiences in this interview I was shocked that they had lived through such profound, life changing experiences and that I had never known about them - never even asked about them before I was forced to do so for a school project. And perhaps this is an extremely insulting notion, but it shocked me nonetheless to hear my grandparents speaking of terms that I had spent so long attempting to commit to my memory in Asian Studies - such as MacArthur and Truman - with such ease and accuracy. I had always ignorantly assumed that my grandparents had no idea about all of the information I was learning at school, and today was the first time that I realized that this was not the case, and that in this instance they had actually lived through it.

This interview, though perhaps not exceedingly significant at this exact time, will hold enormous historical significance in the future - if it survives until that time - because it will serve as a primary resource for learning about the Korean war. The interview is a primary account from people who actually lived through it first hand, and so it is an invaluable source in terms of its accuracy (although age and prejudices against Communists may have created some inaccuracies and bias in the interview.) I personally believe that it will help future generations understand what life was like for people born in North Korea who risked their lives to reallocate themselves in South Korea. When I study history and read about immigrants who move to different places I never realize how hard the actual process of moving must have been in the past. In the interview my grandfather describes with real emotion and imagery the situation in which he crossed the frozen river, and I think that this will help future generations understand the situation that these evacuees were in. It also very specifically portrays the emotions felt towards North Korean Communists, and this is more evident in the interview (rather than my summary) as my grandfather always refers to them as the “reds” - a derogatory term for the Communists.

This interview also helped me better understand the Korean war. It’s interesting that though prior to this assignment I was aware that my grandparents were alive during this era, the full significance of this never hit me. I never really thought to myself that they had lived through such hardships. I had studied the Korean War like any other war - a distant conflict that has passed and does not concern me. A war in which people I did not know and did not care about died. Yet talking to my grandparents about the war really made me see it in a different light from a more human point of view - they made me realize the human cost of the war. The pictures they painted from their descriptions made me realize the full horror of the war and descriptions they gave made the atmosphere of that time really come to life in my mind.

Talking to my grandparents about the Korean war really helped me to understand it better, and surprisingly I found this assignment quite interesting.


 * Release Form**



Note: //handwritten and read to my grandparents in translated Korean//