Kim,+Peter+JoonsooKWP

media type="custom" key="21497142" 1. How old were you when the war started? I was 11 years old.

2. Where were you living at the time? I was born in Hamheung in North Korea. Before Korean war, my family moved to South Korea. We lived in Busan at that time. Let me tell you about background of my family’s moving.

3. Why do not tell us about background of your family’s moving? My hometown is Hamheung. When I was 7 years old, it was still under the control of Japan. One day I heard the gun shots from the Japanese soldiers upon searching for the people who were in the basement of my house. Those people seemed to work for Korean Independency against Japan at that time. My eldest brother and mother asked me and my other brother not to go outside, beause it was quite dangerous. While they left the house, I heard the Japanese soldier yelling “shoot everyone.” Inside the basement, I heard the sounds of the gun shots and saw the flashes outside. During the nights, my brother and I were very scared so that we hid in the closet with the blanket over us. In the morning after several days, I heard the “Daehanminguk Mansae” (Cheer for Korea). It was Korea’s independent day which was on August 15 in 1945. My eldest brother was in a high position in the police department. His job was to arrest the Japanese and bring them to jail or send them back to Japan. After the Japanese went back to their country, the soldier of Soviet Union arrived there and they stole our properties and raped the young women. I remember that some soldiers stole a lot of watches from the people, waring them on their arms so that their arms were all covered with watches. Communists ruled North Korea ever since the Soviet Union came. The situation was that Soviet Union occupied North Korea instead of Japan. So my family decided to escape North Korea and move to South Korea. In order to leave North Korea, we had to secretly cross the Eemjin river. However, there were many soldiers to prevent us from escaping. My brother carried me on his back and swam across. When we arrived to the coast, I could see the sunrise. At that moment, it was very awkward but I sang a song with happiness that I learned from the communist. Later I learned that Korean war is the simple extension of the attacks to occupy this country from North Korea instead of Soviet Union.

4. How did you become aware of the Korean war? I was able to figure out that there was some emergency such as a war, because everybody started to leave home to move to the southern parts of Korea. There was no place to sleep in every places. So my elementary school became a shelter for those people.

5.What happen to the people around you when the War started? I saw a lot of dead bodies around. May people lost their family members. In the middle of a lot of death, I rememberd that my mother helped a lady give birth to a baby during the war.

6. How did the war effect your life? One of my brothers went to the army and he died in the war. It was a very painful moment for me and my family.

7. What were your feelings about the Korean War? Did you support certain side? I think that war is tragic to everybody. It should not happen anywhere else again. The Korean war resulted in the sharp borderline in the middle of country, which prevented me from visiting my father’s grave in the North. It is so sad that many family members became separated. From time to time I have missed a lot my hometown in North Korea. I do not support the communism because, as I strongly realized from my real experiences, it takes the human rights away from the people.

8. What memories can you recall from the War? I remember the severe hunger at that time. We would collect food from the U.S armies waste. Some people would even eat the bark of the pine trees.

9. How do you feel about North Korea today? There is no human rights in North Korea. There are many people who are still starving to death like us in the Korean war.

10. What do you think about the unification of Korea? I wish that we could unify peacefully so that we could live together and help each other in family members. I fact, we are from the same origin and one single nation.

11. What do you think about the Americans helping South korea? I think that United States is our quite close friend and ally. They have supported us in many ways. If the Americans did not help South Korea at that time, we would probably be suffering with hard times just like those in North Korea now.

12. How do you think Korea would be different if there was no war? Korea would have been a more thriving and developing nation. We would have been played more leading roles in the world.

Korean War Reflection 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).

In my opinion history is a story of our past, and it always passed down from generation to generation through oral language or script. I think that when trying to learn about something, nothing is more effective in telling history then from the experience of a family member themselves. Usually in history class I would read the textbook and even though the subject may be interesting it would not really stick with me, but once my grandmother told me her experiences of war it really opened my mind.

From my grandma I learned that war is truly one of the most tragic things that could happen. I always knew that people would die and that families could get separated but when she talked about how she couldn’t go to her father’s grave it really hit me that I really don't know anything about war. Another thing that she talked about was how during the war she had to eat from the wastes that the American soldiers would throw away as trash and this reminded me of how she used to always feed me when I was young. I remember how whenever we met she would buy me any kind of food that I wanted and would always tell me “Eat more” in Korean. So then I started to call her the “Eat more” Grandma when I was a kid. However now that I know what she has suffered through it really makes me feel guilty because I never thought that she had experienced something like that. I think that by understanding history in a more personal sense makes us realize how much we really don’t know about the Korean War.