Tag: Korean War

A ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon recently had his great book about the British and Australian forces that served in the Korean War translated into Korean:

British Ambassador Charles Hay welcomed the release of the Korean translation of “Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950” on Friday at the British Embassy in Jung District, central Seoul, expressing optimism that the book will help boost public awareness here and in the United Kingdom of a battle he suggests is being forgotten.

“When we look back over the relationship of the U.K. and Korea since the establishment of diplomatic relations, one of the most important events is the U.K. contribution in the [1950-53] Korean War,” said Hay.

“Unfortunately, as global history developed, the Korean War tends to be largely overlooked in the U.K.,” continued Hay, adding that the phenomenon seems “very strange” to witness from a country where it is deemed such an important part of history.

Hay, who served for five years in the British Army, commended the author of the 735-page book for bringing the war “alive” through personal interviews with British and Australian soldiers who took part in the three-year battle, saying the record of those memories seemed to have “captured the reality.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but if you haven’t already I highly recommend reading Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950. It is great that Korean readers will now have an opportunity to learn more about the British and Australians that fought in the Korean War like I did.

I always find these interviews of Korean War veterans in the Joong Ang Ilbo to be very interesting:

Gazing at the F-51D Mustang combat plane, the veteran’s eyes were still sharp. And just like the fighter jet he flew during the 1950-53 Korean War, his face had wrinkles carved in from years gone by.

But retired General Kwon Seong-keun looked elated as he stood before the old combat plane on July 1, at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, central Seoul, as if he had just met his former self.

He closed his eyes as he recalled the many times he risked his life during the conflict.

“There, you transcend the fear of death. It felt like being on a spaceship spiraling past meteors in muted silence,” said the 90-year-old Kwon, credited with contributing to the establishment of the nation’s Air Force.

The general was dispatched dozens of times during the war, though it has been decades since he has taken to the skies.

The JoongAng Ilbo recently sat down for an interview with the former Korean Air Force pilot to hear more about his life during the Korean War and under Japanese colonial rule.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Here is how Mr. Kwon said they conducted bombing raids on North Korean forces, by throwing hand grenades out of the plane:

On June 26, we brought 15 kilograms (33 pounds) worth of explosives from the U.S. ammunition chamber. I sat in the front seat of the plane, and in the back seat, another pilot got on the plane with his arms full of bombs and grenades. We headed to Dongdu Stream, where North Korean military tanks were moving along the road.

We threw the explosives down at the tanks with our bare hands. The bombs exploded, and there were momentary swirls of dust, but the tanks started moving again as if nothing had happened. We set out again on the second day. This time, we threw the bombs on the road. That was to destroy the road to prevent as many tanks from moving south as possible.

You can read the rest of the interview at the link.

This file photo, taken during the 1950-53 Korean War and obtained on June 23, 2015, from the Beijing-based International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for East Asia, shows a ruggedly dressed boy crying alone. This and other rare photos, which Red Cross officials and U.S. soldiers took during the three-year conflict, give a glimpse at how the inter-Korean war drove people into terrible situations, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the start of the war, which falls on June 25. (Yonhap)

This NK News article makes a really good argument that the Chinese government has no creditability to complain about Japanese World War II historical revisionism when they themselves have made laughable historical revisionist claims about their involvement in the Korean War.  Here is an excerpt, but I recommend reading the whole thing:

Finally, there is a museum titled the “Commemorative Museum of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid North Korea.” It has exhibits on how South Korea, in collusion with the United States, started the war, how the U.S. made use of germ warfare, and how American POWs held by the Chinese and North Koreans were treated humanely according to the Geneva Convention – including photos of a “Santa Claus” handing out care packages to POWs from the Red Cross. (This contrasts sharply to the reports of POWs repatriated after the war concerning their brutal and inhumane treatment, as documented in U.S. Senate Report No. 848, 83^rd Congress, Second Session – Korean War Atrocities.)

Xi Jinping, in his 2010 speech, repeated the dubious claim presented at the museum of the use of germ warfare by U.S forces when he said: “Thereafter, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army constructed an impregnable defense bastion and crushed the enemy’s multiple attacks and their germ warfare.”

In conclusion, the assertion by Xi Jinping in his 2010 remarks that Harry Truman started the Korean War is directly contradicted by the Yeltsin documents. It is thus as controversial as the claim of non-coercion of Comfort Women made in the past by Japanese Prime Minister Abe. Yet, while Abe’s intemperate remarks have caused criticism throughout South Korean society, there is almost no public outcry over Xi’s condemnation of the American president. Yet Truman was one of the leaders of the UN coalition which laid the groundwork for a viable and independent South Korean state.  [NK News]

Read the rest at the link.

This file photo, taken during the 1950-53 Korean War and obtained on June 23, 2015, from the Beijing-based International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for East Asia, shows a South Korean soldier giving a cigarette to a Chinese prisoner of war at a prison camp on the southeastern island of Geoje. This and other rare photos, which Red Cross officials and U.S. soldiers took during the three-year conflict, give a glimpse at how the inter-Korean war drove people into terrible situations, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the start of the war, which falls on June 25. (Yonhap)

You can see pictures of the Geoje POW Camp today at the below link:

• Places in Korea: The Geoje POW Camp

You can read my prior posting about the POW camp during the Korean War at the below link:

• Heroes of the Korean War: Brigadier General Haydon Boatner

Korea, 1952: U.S. Marines line up to pick up their pay during the Korean War.  [Stars & Stripes]

This file photo, taken during the 1950-53 Korean War and obtained on June 23, 2015, from the Beijing-based International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for East Asia, shows an American soldier (R) giving first aid to a wounded Chinese soldier. This and other rare photos, which Red Cross officials and U.S. soldiers took during the three-year conflict, give a glimpse at how the inter-Korean war drove people into terrible situations, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the start of the war, which falls on June 25. (Yonhap)

This photo, provided by Dewey McLean, a U.S. veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War and currently geology professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and taken during the war, shows an elderly merchant walking a trail on the slope of Mount Nam in Seoul. McLean served as a corporal for a transport unit of the U.S. 8th Army when he was stationed here from 1952-53. (Yonhap)

This photo, provided by Dewey McLean, a U.S. veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War and currently geology professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and taken during the war, shows a Japanese-style shrine (in circle, upper right) on Mount Nam in Seoul and a stairway (lower) to the shrine. McLean served as a corporal for a transport unit of the U.S. 8th Army when he was stationed here from 1952-53. (Yonhap)