Day 33 - War Memorial of Korea

Front view of the War Memorial of Korea

Today I went through my normal school routine and then after class I went with my friend Sophia to the War Memorial of Korea, which is a combination memorial and museum to all Korean wars (not just the Korean War 1950-1953). It was a really great museum and had some pretty tear-jerking memorials.

A close up of one of the statues near the obelisk.

When we first got to the memorial, we decided to look at the stuff they had outside because it was a rainy day and we wanted to take advantage of the slight lull in the downpour. We looked at the large statues and obelisk that are situated front and center before walking around to the right and seeing the large assortment of vehicles, planes, and boats they had on display.

A bunch of vehicles, boats, planes, and helicopters outside the right-hand side of the museum.

Next we went and saw the stone monuments containing the names of all the Koreans who died in armed conflicts from 1945-1953, which is very similar to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. There are over 150,000 names listed on all of the stone blocks. The sheer number of names is daunting and saddening. What evoked the most emotional response from me, however, was when I stumbled upon the American and United Nations section. They have stone blocks with the name of every killed/MIA American soldier and all of the other members of the United Nations Command. I had no idea that this would be here and it was very sobering experience, all in all.

(Left) One of the many rows of names. (Right) A close up of one of the stones.

(Left) One of the rows of American soldiers. (Right) The row of other UNC nations.

American soldier names with the quote, "Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met."

After seeing everything outside we headed into the museum. The main entrance is on the second floor of the museum, which is mostly dedicated to the Korean War (45-53) and includes an indoor shrine and reflecting pool memorial. The Korean War is essentially skipped over in American public school education so I learned a lot of new things I never knew about. The museum started at the end of World War II and continued until the signing of the armistice agreement in 1953. Some of the things I never knew included the student soldier battalions and the North Korean anti-Communist guerrilla fighters.

(Left) Busts of famous Korean War heroes. (Right) Assorted vehicles and artillery from the Korean War.

Uniform of a North Korean anti-Communist guerrilla fighter.

One thing that really interested me was the praise given to General Douglas MacArthur, who is often disgraced or downplayed in US accounts. In the War Memorial of Korea he was referred to as "The Great General" and described as "honorable", "valiant", and a friend of the Korean people.

(Left) Chosŏn era war banner. (Right) Extremely long sword of Admiral Yi (it was about 5 feet long!!)

(Left) Chosŏn era rocket-arrow launcher. (Right) Three Kingdoms era (57 BC-935 AD) siege ladder reconstruction.

After seeing the Korean War section, we headed down to the bottom floor which had stuff on ancient wars, such as the Kuryŏ-Khitan wars (993-1019) and Chosŏn era (1392-1897) artifacts. This section was rather interesting because I knew a lot of the wars from my Premodern Korean History class. One of my favorite things on display here was at 1:2.5 scale model of the Turtle Ship which was designed by Admiral Yi, a famous Korean naval commander (there's a statue of Admiral Yi in Gwanghwamun Square).

The Turtle Ship

After we finished seeing the bottom floor we had to leave because the museum was closing! We headed back to Sinchon Station (the closest subway station to Yonsei University) and met up with 3 more of our friends to go to the Insadong district to get dinner and buy cheap Korean soccer jerseys. Our dinner was delicious (although a bit expensive) but the soccer jerseys were only 5,000 won each (about $4)!

A picture of the street that where we bought the soccer jerseys. We ate dinner in a restaurant on a back street.

We wanted to get these jerseys because we are going to the Korea vs. Japan soccer match this Sunday, which is part of the East Asian Cup soccer tournament.

The Statue of Brothers, near one of the side gates to the War Memorial of Korea.

That's all for now!