Dennis+Han's+Interview

__NOTE:the ones in parentheses are side notes of my thoughts and opinions that came to my mind during the interview.

-This was taken while I was listen, so there could be come grammatical and spelling errors. I edited most though.__ **Questions:**

**1. Name/ age / marriage / family / hometown / childhood**

-Ahn Young Soon / married Han Yeon Joon / 3 sons / Hamheung (함흥), North Korea.

**2. when, how, and why did you move to South Korea?** -1950, after 6 months of the outbreak of 6.25 war, she came down to South Korea when the American soldiers were pushed down by the Chinese troops. She moved to South Korea because her family hated Communism. Her family rented a small fishing boat and moved down together. -(asked my grandma about my granpa, who passed away) her husband lived in a countryside. He moved to a bigger city near his hometown and worked in a factory. When he heard that the US troops are retreating, he chose to go with them. He actually was on board of one of the American cargo ship that carried the troops and civilians to Pusan. He was an anti-communist. He left without even saying bye to his family, all alone.

**3. how was your life during the war? how did you feel about the war? were you scared?** -she had 4 little sisters (동생들), and because her mother passed away, she felt a great pressure and responsibility to look after them. She was constantly scared that his father would be conscripted to the army, and whenever she heard bombing sounds, she would freak out. Essentially, she was a mother of her family, as many other girls during this time. Her friends were also similarly suffering, or even worse, because most of their fathers were conscripted to the army. She came south with her father and 3 sisters on a fishing boat. She says it was really dizzy and she had to sleep to forget about it, and when she woke up she was in South Korea. The saddest part of the story is that she left one of her little sisters in the North because she was too young, and because they thought they’d be back in a month or so. The youngest sister was grown as an orphan kid, just like those in the video that Mr. P posted up in wiki. She actually got in contact with her youngest sister few years ago through mail, and her sister asked her for money. Her other sisters and she sent money in American dollar, but there is no way to see if it went to the right person. My uncle suspects that the sister was used by the North Koreans to bring money into North Korea.

**4. what did you think about Kim Il Seung when you were in North Korea? What do you think about North Korea now?**

-She thought him as a dictator and a tyrant. This shows that my grandma’s generation was not yet brainwashed or conditioned to think the dictator as a god. This also means that those in North Korea who are old enough to have memory of the times before communist regime would not trust what Kim Jeong Il says. She misses North Korea because it is her birthplace, but she doesn’t like the government and how they are so enclosed. All she wishes for is an end to the North Korean regime so that she can meet the people she misses.

**5. If you had a chance to visit North Korea, what would you do first?**

-She will visit North Korea even though she is scared of the communists. She wants to go back to the place she lived, as well see her little sister. She says she will look for her old house and her hometown. She says that the North Koreans and South Koreans are sill same Koreans, except under different governments.

**6. What was the first thing you did in South Korea? Where did you go?** -Her father and she started a restaurant to feed her sisters in Wonjoo. Her family, including her uncle and aunts settled in Wonjoo as well. So now, lots of her relatives (my relatives as well) live in Wonjoo. (in a sense, the war was a relocation process - families in Hamheung moved to South Korea Wonjoo, while the Han family largely moved to Pusan.

-after the war, she met my grandpa, and she moved to Seoul. They started out poor, from sketch, but my granpa was able to earn much money through bus company, taxi company, and many other businesses. She gave birth to three sons, my dad being the last one. (what is amazing, as a side note, is that my grandpa started out with 0 won and he finally reached the level of prosperity and wealth that he sent all three of his sons to America to study and live.) They wanted the sons to settle in the States, because they were scared that the war might begin again. (they were, for the most part, scared of the war)
 * 7.** **how was your life after the war? were you poor? did anyone help you?**

**8. do you think Korea should unify? why or why not?** -She totally wants Korea to unify, so that she can visit North Korea before she dies. -This shows even after the most cruel war, and after decades of separation, the Koreans are still feeling bonds and intimacy. I doubt that our generation would desire unification this bad.

**9. What do you think about the current tension regarding the sinking of 천안함?**

-she is enraged by what the North Koreans did. She tends to be very conservative in politics, because she thinks anything radical is considered communism. She told me she is going to vote for 한나라당, the most conservative party of Korea. It seemed like she has an attachment and affection toward her hometown and the people, but not to the government.

**10. how did you meet your husband?**

-she was part of this group of people who came from Hamheung (함흥), North Korea, and there she met him. -still a presence of intimacy between North Korean descendants exist in South Korea, and they help each other out. (it is weird, because she is a South Korean who hates North Korea, yet she distinguishes herself as a North Korean when it comes to culture and friends. -she is also currently part of a choir of people from northern part of the country (이북 출신 할머니 합창단)

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**Analyze** the historical significance of your interview and how you think it will help us better understand the Korean War in a **reflection post** on your wikipage. (this must be at least 250 words).

Through this interview, I have learned a lot of things about my grandma, her experience during the war, North Korea during the war, and the life of refugees after the war ended. One significant thing about her life during the war is her family. Her mom died, she was separated from one of her little sisters, and she had to work to feed her family. This was, as far as I know, the life of typical Korean children (my grandmother’s generation), and this experience of her is enough to provide a general view of the circumstances back than. Families were separated, children too young to work starved, while children old enough worked their butt out to earn money to feed their family. Fathers were taken away to war, and mothers were left the duty of both a father and a mother (my grandma’s case was an exception. After hearing this I was able to, even though limitedly, visualize and feel how serious and desperate Korea must have been back then.

One other significant thing that is observable from this interview and probably other interviews as well is that the generations that went through the Korean War and the separation of families that followed often want the unification. Especially, in case of the North Koreans living in the South, they want the unification desperately because they want to visit their homes once more. The sad reality is that people of my generation or around it won’t desire the unification as much as the people of my grandma’s generation would, since they don’t have as much personal connection with North Korea. I was rather surprised and moved by how much she wants to visit her hometown one more time.

The fact that my grandma still misses North Korea and that she hangs around with people from North Korea bring us to another conclusion; that the Korean War was a war caused by political difference. Even after the war, she still likes North Korean people and culture, but she despises the communist government. The war was not about the problem of the conflict between the people themselves. It was caused by a small group of politicians who were fighting over what kind of political system Korea would have.

Lastly, this interview gave me inspiration. When I heard that my grandpa started with no money or help to become wealthy enough to send all of his sons to the Unites States, I was sad and glad at the same time. The reason why I am here, and the reason why I am able to go to this private school is all because of the hard work my grandpa did to make his sons and grandchildren prosper. In a way, he was the one who placed us here - a high place in society. Also, we can say that the economic hierarchy right now in Korea all started after the Korean War.