Hyun+K.+Interview

=** INTERVIEW **=

media type="file" key="Interview-hk602.m4a" width="300" height="50" 1. Please give us a background information about yourself. GrandpaMy name is Yonho Kim. I was born in December 15, 1931 and am currently 78 years old. I was born in Pusan in a family of 8 with 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I married at 36 with Yangja Jung and I lived in Pusan until highschool. GrandmaMy name is Yangja Jung. I was born in June 8, 1941 and am currently 67 years old. I was also born in Pusan in a family of. I married at 27 with Yonho Kim. GrandpaMy school closed down and became a hospital run by Swiss doctors. It was a hospital for soldiers. I was 19 when the war broke out. There were refugees that came from all regions above the Daegu Province that sought freedom. In general, the Korean Peninsula was in ruins. GrandmaThere were refugees that resided in front of my house because there was a big lot there. In the lot, there seemed to be somewhat around a hundred refugee “huts”. We used to donate some food to the people in these lots. The school used to be in the forest with just a chalkboard. People from the upper provinces transferred into our so called school after they came over as refugees. I worked in the US army in the Korean base, where I was an engineer. I also helped fund the rebuilding of a bridge. This was significant because by working with the US army, developed an insight into the way the Americans felt and became pro-US. Also, by connecting the bridge, supplies were able to be transported into Seoul. My family did play in a war in the independence movements against Japan, but did not play an active role in the war. The consequences were that my father suffered from tortures for his actions. Our family, recently, received recognition for my father’s actions. GrandpaThe education was stopped for me because the school closed down. GrandmaMy education continued because our school continued teaching in a mountain. The classroom consisted of students, teachers, and a single chalkboard. The US was a huge ally of the South Koreans in the Korean War. Korea was only able to successfully come out of this conflict with the support of the US. Military-wise, the US sent countless soldiers to Korea. Even when thousands of soldiers became casualties of the war, the US did not rage on the Koreans. They also sent a massive supply of food and other resources for the Koreans. Without the US, Korea would have never survived to this day. China and the USSR were allies of the North Koreans. They have similar beliefs and I believe that they have their own reasons for their philosophy. To protect their philosophy, they helped each other. During this time, Japan was yet recovering from the destruction from the WWII. The Korean War was a great opportunity for the Japanese to make money. Because Japan was geographically closer to Korea than was the US, the Korean/US army bought supplies (Uniform, weapons) from the Japanese. Due to this, the Japanese economy skyrocketed and became the economic superpower today. There were about 15~20 different countries that came in to support the war. Although not much credit is given to these nations, they did really help. For example, Swiss supported Korea medically by building hospitals. This is a very difficult question. Personally, I believe it will be impossible until North Korea changes to a degree that it becomes somewhat similar to the South Koreans. If the communist rule in North Korea is maintained as it is currently, unification would never occur. It would be nice to have Korea Unified because being constantly under war environment is extremely dangerous for both sides. Also, all the families that were separated would be able to reunify. GrandmaI remember that every time an area got bombed, the place would just be in ruins and suddenly thousands of refugees would need to evacuate the land. These refugees used to come near my house and made temporary houses. In a bit of time, some even became fabric factories. I remember that in one time, fire caught in one of these factories and spread to other houses. The fire was huge. It almost spread to our house, but we managed to turn it off before it came. We collected water from our garden pond and dumped it on the fire. Later, we noticed that the fishes were missing from the pond. This was memorable because such a big fire was impacting to me. Seungman Rhee was a great president who helped protect Korea with by bringing US to aid them. There are many people who hate him. However, he is not god and he could make mistakes. Overall, he really helped South Korea win the war and was a great figure. I think that both Seungman Rhee and Myungbak Lee are great presidents in their own ways. In the current situation, Myungbak Lee is a good president because he is good at politics and boosting the economy. Seungman Rhee was a good president because he helped Korea even during the time of disparity, to success. I do not think South Korea will undergo a war again against the North Koreans because the North Koreans are in no state to go on a war against us. Even though they may successfully create a lot of casualties, they will never win the war against us. They are too poor at the moment and declaring war against us will be like suicide. This current antagonistic behavior of the North Koreans has been a regular pattern for a long time. Some time ago, we used to stash up boxes of ramen and other supplies, but nowadays, I don’t even bother because we know the war really has a sleek chance of breaking out.
 * 2. How did the war affect your daily life?**
 * 3. What role did you play in the war? Why was that significant?**
 * 4. How did your family support the war? In what way? What were the consequences?**
 * 5. How was the education like during the time?**
 * 6. What do you think about US? China? Japan? USSR?**
 * 7. Do you think that Korea should/will be unified? Why or why not?**
 * 8. Tell me couple of your most memorable experiences during the war. Why was it memorable?**
 * 9. What do you think about Rhee Seungman? Do you prefer modern day presidents over him? Why or why not?**
 * 10. Do you think a war will break out again? If so, how will we react to it?**

=REFLECTION =

Although I was worried that this project may be extremely difficult, I found this project to not only be fun but enlightening. Through this project, I gained an insight into my grandparents’ lives and about how life was during the war. It is true that I was already aware of most of the facts that my grandparents flooded me with. However, unlike secondary sources, getting information from a primary source was more interesting. Unlike secondary sources which present memories as a mere “data”, hearing the war experiences from a primary source felt much more lively and interesting...The Korean War really feels like something that “happened”, now that I heard about first-hand experiences. Until now, I was only able to interact with history through the presented facts on textbooks.

Although most secondary sources are also written with a bit of bias, I noticed that from a primary source, this was especially true. However, I felt that this bias was why the primary source was valuable: this was what people really felt and believed. And sometimes, emotional things have more value that just the facts.

Through hearing from my grandparents, I really experienced what people meant until now by wisdom. Because I have never really talked with my grandparents about the philosophical aspects of life, I have never really understood wisdom that comes with age. However, from this experience, I really the wisdom behind my grandparents’ words. Also, the experiences that I have heard has created a deeper bond between me and my grandparents. I feel that I am now able to understand them better.