Kang,+Min+Ji+(Daphne)KWP

media type="custom" key="21425916"

Translation of Video:

My name is Peak Hyung Jo. I am currently 77 years old and my religion is christina. I was a public official for 45 years, then became the governor of Junnam Province. After that, for about 10 years he became a professor in co
 * 1. Please state you name, age and your background information. **

I was 15 to 18 years during the war. I attended middle school and near the end of the war I was in high school.
 * 2.How old were you during the korean war? **

Julanamdo Junnam Province. Gohungun Manmyoun in the country side.
 * 3.Where did you live during the war? **

During the war, even though the North Korean soldiers didn’t come to my town, as they went to Pusan, the ones who were supporting the North Koreans in our town killed the police officers, public officials, military soldiers and rich people. Even people i knew got killed. Most people’s money was all taken away. However my family held on to our money because they didn’t come to our house during those 3 months, but our land was about to be taken away. Thankfully, on September, 28, 1950, the North Korean army started to back away back up the 38th parallel and left all the land and money. During the first 3 months our country had our land and money taken away and event the laws and government changed to communism. At that time people lived where there was no freedom, during June 25th (when the war began) until September 28th, as the 16 nations of the UN came to aid Korea. I have witnessed many peopled being killed and kidnapped away by the North Koreans, as well as taking people’s property, land and money of the people in my neighborhood. However because they can’t literally take away the houses or the land they left everything behind when they ran away. I do not know the exact number but thousands and thousands of children, that have lost their parents in the war were all over the streets. Some of them would come to our house and ask for food in the morning, then we would give a spoonful of rice and they would be extremely happy and walk away. I saw many dead people, and homeless people. Most of them were sleeping under the bridges, and they would freeze to death, because they had nothing to wear. I have witnessed all the consequences of the war. Also when the communist followers have been pushed up by the UN and the American soldiers, would hide in the mountains and stay there for 3 years. During the night they would come down into the villages and take our cattle or sometimes do worst things. In the night everyone would stay in there houses scared to death of the people coming down from the mountains. I can’t say all the damages of the war as there are too many.
 * 4.Explain what you remember or experienced during the war? **

During the war I thought that the communists were extremely cruel, scary, doesn’t not give human rights, or freedom to the people, violent and sociopaths. I experienced that communists were horrible people during the war. They would put fire the whole church with people inside, which shows that Christians were not accepted in there society.
 * 5. What were you thoughts about the Korean war during that 1950-1953? **

I was so relieved that the US came to help us, about 30,000 US soldiers came and fought for us, therefore our country has not become a communist society. During that time, the 16 members of the UN came and helped us as well. Countries such as American, France, England and Turkey soldiers came and fought for us and made the Communist North Koreans move back up the 38th parallel. I was very thankful to them, during that time, Korea had no weapons, and because it just earned its independence from Japan, there weren’t enough soldiers as well as the fact that they weren’t trained well enough. As a result in less than a month, South Korean land was invaded by the North all the way up to Pusan. When the country was about to fall, the UN has decided to help our country. From then South Koreans pushed the North back up the 38th parallel. At that time, the Americans were like our heroes. They saved us from the Communists, they made people like me not live communist society, where a family is dominating the country.
 * 6. How did you feel about the Americans and the UN whey they came to aid South Korea? **

When ROK and UN invaded all the up the North, about 100,000 chinese soldiers invaded Korea and pushed us back all the down back in the South. We repeated this back and forth. If this has not happened, Korea would have been a free democratic country. Because of Mao, a communist sent 100,000 soldiers making it impossible for Korea to unify. I still believe that the Chinese are bad, look at them now, they are horrible people, still a communist country.
 * 7.What were your feelings when the Chinese helped the North Koreans? **

I think that, the South Koreans, had about than 1 million dead and injured victims. A war is like hell. Beggars were all over the streets, people were starving to death as we were running low on resources. That poor country South Korea, is now one of the most economically developed country. The communist took all our food and resources away. People used to go up the mountains and eat the bark of the trees and other plants that were growing in the mountains. Me myself did the same, everyone had to there was no other choice.
 * 8.** **What is like to live through a war?**

**9.How did this war effect your life?** For me living through the hard times, the trauma, gave me the power and the mind to over come anything that comes later in life. The war also gave strength and determination. I believe that living through the Korean War was like a training for me to get tougher and a experience that helped me come to where I am today.

My happiest moment was that I could stay with my family and have to go through the war by myself. My brother was kidnapped by the communist to become their soldier, but was lucky enough to escape. I am very thankful that my family was not hurt or victimized by the war. There were so many people who lost their children, or parents, but I am so glad that our family was not separated.
 * 10.What was your happiest moment during the war? **

I believe that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the world’s poorest and one of the worst country that does not give freedom or human rights. I could intemperate North Korea as a Jail. Only the military and the Leaders are like royal families. Everyone else is dying from starvation, and they are still going up the mountains to eat the barks of the trees. Their average height is 17cm shorter than Korean’s average height because they are suffering from malnutrition. The military soldiers, government and sports players are taller because they get more food but the rest of the people are suffering from malnutrition. I don not believe that the North Korean people are bad, it is their government that are the ones to blame.
 * 11.How do you feel about the North Koreans now? **

If I could go back I would want to stop the chinese from helping the North, because if they haven’t done that the two country would have been unified and who knows Korea could have been the world’s most economically developed country.
 * 12.If you go back in time what would you change about the war? **

**13.Do you still want unification?** Yes, we have to unify. North Koreans are not allowed to leave their country, even if their family lives in the south. North Korea is the only country that does not allow anyone to come and go out of the country. That is now mean the North Korean government is. If that was not the case than the UN would have aided the North so there is no hunger. I believe that unification will happen. It has to. If we were to unify the country we would be as powerful as America and China even if our country is small because we are smart and hardworking. We have to save our brothers that are living in North Korea. I know that it will unify because God is watching them, he will punish the North by making them fall, allowing the country to unify. The North Korean people are pitiful, they have done nothing wrong only the communist government is. The communist government’s living conditions are way better than the royal family in any other country, while its people are living worst than the beggars in our country. We must help them and unify.

**14.What do you think about the Korean leaders during the war time?** Even if some people find them as a supreme power, by have presidency for as long as we know it, they helped our country become a free country, where we have our own rights. In the North you are not even allowed to leave your own city, if you want to go to another city you must bring your passport and sign paperwork, and you are not even allowed to live in other parts of the country. You are to live in the place you are born and stay there until death.

Korea has gone through all the hardship of the Korean war, and developed so much. If you go to Seoul you can see so many buildings, and the Han River has 22 bridges. This is a result of years of building and hard work of the Korean people. Before there wasn’t a single building standing in Seoul, no bridges in the Han River, people had to ride boats and cross over it. Now Korea is 12th richest country in the world.
 * 15.How do you feel about south korea? How much of it has it changed after the war? **

Refection:

This Oral interview with my grandfather allowed me to understand that war effects everybody in some way. Even if they were not major victims or soldiers or someone who have played a big part of the war, they still lived through the same war as all of those people, thus they have their own memory and feelings of the war. My grandfather allowed me to get more of a personal feeling towards the Korean War. I never thought of it as too much of a big deal, I didn’t know when it started, when it ended, what happened or who was involved. To be honest I didn’t care so much. However after the interview I have learnt why as a Korean citizen it is important to know about the Korean war. As he said in the video the war has shaped our country and our people. It effected they way people think and the way they act. I have learned so many new things by interviewing my grandfather, such as the fact that North Koreans are not allowed to live in any other parts of the city rather than where they are born, or that my grandfather’s brother was kidnapped by the North Koreans. I didn’t even know where he lived until the interview.

I never really understood why people had such strong views on the unification of Korea. I thought that each country was happy as their own nation, but now I started to understand and get the feeling of why people feel such way and why all this is such a big deal. Technically the Korean war hasn’t ended yet, our country is still at war, and I am living through a war that just has an agreement that they won’t fire at each other. On the other side of the border there are on going suffering. I believe that the war has almost lost its reason in why they started the war in the first place, what is the point of this war? It has lost its point and reason. It is almost as if it is a war that is not to unify to countries but to prove that one is stronger than the other. Through this interview, it allowed me to think into a deeper level of the war and why it is so important to me. It also made me understand what it is like to live through a war, I read books and heard other stories of it, but never a personal story that effects me, a story from my family.