Jae+Ho+Jung's+somewhat+depressing+interview

Interview with my grandfather, who have experience the Korean War.

-My name is Kim Dong Gue(김동규). I was nine years old at the time when the war first broke out. I used to live in GaeSung, the northern part of Korea. I was the oldest son of my family, and I had one younger brother and four younger sisters. We were one of the most influential family of our neighborhood, since my dad was a doctor. However, when the communists took over the Northern part of Korea, they imprisoned my father and sentenced him to a coal mine to work there. My mother felt that even I would be sentenced to a coal mine if I grew up few more years, and decided to send me to her brother who was living in Seoul. 2. Do you remember anything special when you first came to Seoul? -I came to Seoul with my mom, and she bought me Nangmeon(냉면), and I remember eating almost 5 bowls of them on that day. I never knew that would be my last meal that I would have with my mother. My mother said that she will come down to Seoul with other members of the family as soon my father is released from the coal mine. Sadly, they never were able to move South. After that, I lived in Seoul with my uncle until the actual war broke out. 3. Did you flee to Pusan when the North Korean army marched down to Korea? -Yes, I did, with my uncle. However, we moved back to Seoul when the war was over. 4. Did you hear anything about your family afterwards? -Yes, I actually met someone form my neighborhood after the war, and they said that my dad died working in the mine. Also, I actually had some opportunity where the South Korean government said that I could apply for an opportunity to meet my family in the North. However, I decided not to, because I knew that the chance of getting selected as one out of all the people that applied for them is very slim. 5. Did the war affect what you decided to do afterwards? -Yes, it did. Even though I was left alone with my uncle in South Korea after the war, I decided to continue on the family business and thus, I became a dentist after graduating from Seoul National University’s School of Dentistry. However, I thought that if I joined the army, I would have the opportunity to fight the communists who broke my family apart, and also gain the right to march in to North Korea and look for my family if a war brakes out again. Thus, I joined the army as a army dentist, and I also fought in the Vietnam war against the communists. I retired later, and opened my own dental clinic. 6. Do you think the war is over? -Yes, I think it is at this point. I think all the tensions that is going on right now is just something that happened before. It is something always happened in almost every ten years. There was the underground tunnel crisis, the battle in West Sea(서해) during Kim DaeJung’s presidency, and many more incidents where North Korea launched small attacks on South Korea. 7. Do you think the war was necessary? -Yes, I do. I didn’t know back then, but now I know that the communists are not the people that can tolerate any other people. If the war didn’t brake out on 6.25, then it would have broken out sometime later. 8. Do you want Korea to be unified again? -Both yes and no. As a boy who lost his family in the war, I wish to see my brother and sisters again. Thus, I might be happy if the nation is reunified. However as a grandfather of you, I am happy with my life these days, and don’t see any need of that huge change. 9. Do you miss your life back in North Korea? -Somewhat. Obviously, I miss my mom, dad, and siblings. I like the restaurants where they serve the North Korean style food such as Pyungyang Nangmeon(평양식 냉면), and Bulgogi(불고기). 10. Do you think Korea would be unified any time soon? -Not really, unless a war brakes out that will wipe out the communist leaders of the North.
 * 1) Could you tell me some background information about you during the war?

Reflection: While during the interview, I couldn’t stop thinking “Should I continue asking him these stuff?” to my self. It was that depressing, and it was that sad. I know that it is something that already happened and something that can’t be undone, but I realized that I could be actually making my grandfather uncomfortable by making him remember the things that normal people would not want to remember. I knew my grandfather ever since I can remember, and he came to most of the big events that happened in my life such as graduation and everything. I had a close relationship with him and my grandmother, which was an obvious result since I am their oldest grandson. My grandfather was, for the most of the time, a happy man that had lots of grandchildren and willing to play with them. I knew that he experienced the Korean war and the Vietnam war, but I didn’t know he had such a sad background, since he never really enjoyed talking about it, especially to his grandchildren. I always have heard about his legacy through my mom and all the stories about people who still have their family members in the North on the news, but hearing it from the actual person about them was different. I realized how deadly a war could be, even for the people that did not die from it. That is the reason I titled this “somewhat depressing interview,” and I think it suits the mood of the interview. I now I know more about the devastating results of war, and this will impact my view about South Korea, North Korea, and also impact my political views.