Hee+Jae's+Interview

By: Hee Jae Choi
 * Oral History of Korea War **



**Interview with my grandma**

Name: Wan-Sook Lee Age: 81 Age at the time of war: 21 Family: No husband, one daughter (60 years old)

**Questions and Answers/Summary**



**Reflection** Usually, I do not really talk to my grandma that often, but through this interview, I was able to hear her story - a story that has always been buried like a burden at the bottom of her heart. It was a true privilege and honor to learn from her what it was actually like to live during the Korean War, which I realized is something far more different from what is stated in cold, black words on a textbook. It was full of emotion and drama - it was a story of a strong woman and the hellish experience she went through before and after the war, striving to be a mother //and// a father to her little daughter. She sacrificed her whole life to support her family; sending her sisters and cousins off to college and marriage, economically supporting them by herself. I cannot help, but to say how inspired I was because not only was it an inspiring story, but it also revealed a significant amount of evidence on the effect of the Korean War. Through her story, we can learn how the war did not happen at once; it had been planned by North Koreans for over a long period of time, seeing how many communist advocates were located even within South Korea, hidden and camouflaged amongst other South Koreans. Compared to the Korean-Japanese war, the Korean War was less brutal in the fact that the soldiers did not massacre everyone that they saw (at least in the countryside); the women and children were spared and during the day, they were able to carry out their normal activities because the North Koreans were active only at night. However, it was very different in that the amount of betrayal citizens felt from their very own neighbors - a very LARGE majority of the population - who turned them into the enemy suddenly one day without hesitation or regret was immense. People's sons and daughters were killed by their very own friends, people whom they have trusted over a long period of time. By looking at those who became communist advocates, we can see the true characteristic of communism. My grandpa's grandpa's student who gave directions to all the North Korean soldiers was the son of a concubine; although his family was rich, he was poor and he held a lot of grudge against the upper class.