Jung,+Jae+Won+(Carol)KWP

=Video=

Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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=Interview Questions + Summary=

My name is Cho Yong Ja. I’m 72 years old, and used to be an English translator. B: How old were you when the Korean War started? Who were the members of your family? I was 12 years old. I had my parents and three other male siblings.
 * 1. A: Please introduce yourself.**

B: Before the war started, it was calm and peaceful. No one knew that a war would break out.
 * 2. A: How was situation like before the war? Did you expect such a war to happen sometime?**

B: My father was a doctor, so we did not experience any economical problems before the war broke out. However, when the war started, we started to encounter some problems.
 * 3. A: How was your family’s economical conditions at that time? Did the war worsen this condition?**

B: Yes, I was attending 5th grade peacefully like any other elementary school kid. But the whole family had to escape to a calm area about an hour away. We got an empty room in that area, so I couldn’t attend school for about a year. I realized later that the city our family escaped from was completely bombed & destroyed. There was absolutely nothing left in that area.
 * 4. A: Were you attending school when the war started? How did the war affect your school life?**

B: Almost everything was gone. There was a very small variety of food we could get access to, and one was rice with kimchi. During the war, even rice and kimchi were so valuable that they tasted so good. Mostly, adults took care of the food. Besides this, all furniture was destroyed, so basically our whole family just lived in an empty room.
 * 5. A: How did the war affect your daily necessities? (food, house, etc)**

B: None of my siblings could attend school. Also, we got dispersed at times. My mother and father got separated for over one year. After escaping, the NKPA (North Korean People’s army) came all the way south, where we were staying. The members of this army taught little kids to support North Korea.
 * 6. A: What harm did your family experience from the war?**

B: There was no one who did not experience any harm. Young men were forced into army. Sometimes they hid in the forest because they didn’t want to get seen by the North Koreans. One day, I stepped into this city where the ground was full of dead people. I was so shocked to see this many people killed. I don’t exactly know how they were killed, but it was probably because of poison gases. This memory is so vivid in my mind.
 * 7. A: Besides your family, did your close friends or neighbor also experience harm?**

B: I learned that war is frightening. It should never happen again.
 * 8. A: What did you feel about the people fighting and getting killed in the battlefield?**

B: I remember dead bodies lying down and bombs falling from the sky. At the time when General McArthur came to Inchon, the South Korean army stepped into North Korea. It was such chaos that we had to flee multiple times in different areas. I also remember when there was a very crowded train that would go to the South. So many citizens wanted to take the train, but somehow, my family was able to get in. We saw American soldiers riding in the train as well. They gave us honey that we used to eat with rice. People falling from the train was also a common death. We were very lucky. When we arrived at our new place, there were many U.S soldiers with food. My brother used to ask them all the time, “Give me chocolate!” After some time, we had to walk for 3 days straight to another safer place. We also went into small towns and ate rice with salt. After all, we found a place where we could stay for a long time. My mom selling toothpastes was our only source of money, though.
 * 9. A: From 1950~1953, what are your most vivid memories?**

B: Before the war began, I participated in many activities like performing in plays. I often got main roles in those plays. This was a huge part of my life, but all of this was gone. Also, the studying atmosphere changed a lot. Not a lot of people really tried hard as before, including myself, which I regret.
 * 10. A: What change do you think the war has brought to your life?**

B: Yes, this is why a lot of people attempted to escape. Since cities were the main targets of the bombing & attacks, some areas outside of the city were comparatively safe.
 * 11. A: Was it guaranteed that fleeing was safe?**

B: Yes. Our family was a lucky case because we got to meet all together after a year, but there are still families that are unable to do so.
 * 12. A: Are there still separated families today?**

B: After the Korean War, more South Koreans strongly went against the communist party because they experienced terrible things like torture and death.
 * 13. A: Is there anything else you want to tell me about the war?**

=Reflection= Having a direct interview with someone who lived throughout the Korean War (first hand experience) was definitely much more interesting. It made more sense because I got to hear real life stories that really said a lot about the situation. In our course of study, we just got to learn about the basic causes and events during the war, but we never really got to hear stories about people’s lives. It was definitely a really unusual and different way of approaching history.

A significance of having an interview with someone who actually experienced an event is that it is much more reliable than reading off of a historical text. Historical texts may seem to have exaggerations, so sometimes I just tend to ignore statistics that seem unbelievable. However, when I heard about how people lived and were treated during the Korean War, it made everything sound so vivid and real.

What I learned throughout the interview was that every single person who lived during that time period was affected in some way. I was also really shocked that my grandmother had a lot of vivid memories in that three years of her lifetime. It made me think that those years were so unforgettable that she still remembers to this day even after 60 years. This interview also made me view the Korean War in a different perspective. It made me imagine how chaotic it would have been for students to constantly escape instead of study, and for adults to ask for money and food instead of work.

Overall, I think the 30 minutes I’ve spent in this interview was definitely a time of respect and appreciation.

=Release Form=