Korean+War+Interview+Project+Kevin+G+Lee+C+Block

Podcasts: (though they were 23 minutes in original length, I have cut it down to 10 some due to privacy and sensitive matters as instructed by my grandmother and my mother. Please talk to me instead of marking me down, I had proper right to erase some of it's contents and i could not receive any more answers without delving into private matters)

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Asian Studies Interview Questions and Summary

1. What is your full name? My Name is Lee Yong Ja.

2. How old were you during the Korean war? I was 9 years old during war.

2.5 What was your occupation, if you had one. Because I was 9, I went to elementary school during that time

3. Where were you located throughout the war? I was located in the city of Mokpo, in the province of Junlanamdo.

4. What side did you support during the war? When I was a kid I did not fully understand what it meant to be on a side. However because I was a South Korean, I was obviously on the South Korean side.

5. Was there anyone you had become separated from due to the war? Yes, because of the war North Koreans had taken away people from their homes such as my older brother who was taken to places like Seoul to work. (not told in video for private reasons but, her brother was ultimately killed)

6. While the North Koreans were pushing the south Korean army down to Busan, how did people in your city react? During that time, because the North Koreans were taking over our city, we started to retreat towards the country side where many people started to flee towards. However they still had come to the areas where we newly resided, forcing us to constantly flee.

7. How did they react when South Korea pushed them back up? Because our people thought that the war was nearing it’s end and we were winning due to help, we moved back into our houses to repair our broken items and replaces stolen ones. Then we started to try to live our normal lives again.

8. What was your opinion about the Americans and the UN before the war? Before the war, I knew nothing of the UN or the Americans, and they were nothing that I could understand at the time.

9. When they came to help South Korea, did your feelings change at all? When they came to help, I thought of them as saviors who ultimately were the ones to help us end the war.

10. During the war, did you believe that South Korea could be united with the North Once again? Yes, because we were a “family” I thought that if we were united, no matter how we were different, I thought we could be united as one. I wished this would happen

11. Did any North Korean soldiers come to your city, and what did they do once they got here. Once they came to our city, they captured the men, sent them to work, killed the young men, stole our food, made the children and the elderly suffer. Overall it made our lives a lot harder. I also found out in the future that they would capture any man or woman that they distrusted, even slightly, and executed them.

12. Who do you believe was the instigator of the Korean War? Why? I did not think anyone was the instigator until I became an adult who had listened to other stories about the war. I thought that we had been able to live peacefully without conflict, and right now I can not really say one side is at fault and I wish war would have never started.

13. What was the overall thought of North Korea before the war? After? We thought of them as our family, where we could have shared our experiances and would have gone along peacefully. However as the war showed this could not happen. The two family members started taunts, killing each other and treating each other unfairly. Then I thought of them as not my family but just another enemy that was against what I was living for. I did not wish for this to happen because I wanted the 2 nations to live peacefully, free of war and hatred amongst each other.

14. What is a memorable event that occurred during the war? Because I was young I can not remember so many things but things such as the darkness with the sounds of explosions still haunt me. I could hear the cries of the people and the smell of the blood in the city. I was so hungry and because I was so scared, I wanted war to never happen again. I thought that no matter what the problem, starting a war would make the civilians suffer constantly. So many people died, including young people and my own family. This type of things should not happen. This is why I think I our people of Korea has done a great job so far preventing another mistake.

15. Now that some time has passed since the Korean War, how do you think Korea would have changed if there was no war. If there was no war, I believe Korea would have not been divided into 2 countries. There would be no separated families and no deaths amongst the people. I could have seen my brother and other family members that have been separated from me. If there was no such war, Korea would have been much more happier, stronger and a great country.

16. How was your family during the war? My family was not that great during that war. It was just my mother, my 6 year old sister, my 4 year old brother and me. My father had died in the wars against Japan and my mom was mainly taking care of me. I did not go to school often to help my mother gain money with my sister and brother.

17. How did your family move about during the war? Because my mom was 40 and I was 9, my mom took our belongings and my younger brother, while I took care of my younger sister. We ran away together. It was difficult, and I did not want to go through it but I had to for my mother. The hunger and pain made the trips to places difficult but I believe I got stronger because of this type of movements.

Analysis:

1) How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians?

My Interviewee’s testimony fits in with what I have learned because she had explained it to be nearly like how we had read it in the packets. However, it seems as she was unaware of other powers such as the Soviet Union’s involvement in Korea. But other than that, her description of war has fit almost exactly of other testimonies. She had seen the amount of blood being shed uselessly amongst both sides and the cruel life that had been created during the war time periods.

2) Using your background knowledge try to contextualize their testimony. How do you think major events of the war affected their life at the time?

The main thing that the Korean War had changed for my grandparent was the fact that they had to distance themselves from the fighting. Their lives changed into something similar to nomads where they had to flee constantly to avoid danger. And even fleeing did not help sometimes as some family members were captured. It had completely changed the way my Grandmother had lived for the years after the war.

3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger.

I believe my interviewee was able to stay out of danger only barely by moving from place to place. Also the fact that she was a young child might have saved her from death from the soldiers. But her family did not avoid the N. Koreans completely as her brother was eventually stolen and killed. So even though my Grandma herself was able to stay out of danger, it might have been due to sheer luck.

Korean War Interview Essay

As I interviewed my Grandmother for my Korean War interview, I came to understand how life was different for each and every person in Korea during that time. The historical importance in my Grandmother’s story was the fact that someone who had seen the war first hand had told me about the horrors the war had created for all types of people in Korea. Because she told me about how war really changed people, I learned that in desperate situations, people change drastically.

Before the interview/learning about it in class, I saw the Korean War as nothing more than an insignificant event in the history in the world. After all, other things such as the Cuban Missile Crisis or even the bombing of Japan were much more popular topics. However, after learning how the war had changed the history of Korea so drastically –perhaps even the history of all of East Asia- I was shocked. The fact that former brothers fought each other because of several cultural differences was the thing that got to me most. But after I looked at the situation where 2 heavily disputing superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States were backing up one part of Korea, I guess it could only be expected.

As my Grandmother continued to talk about certain events in her life where such atrocities happened, I began to realize more and more that the history of South Korea was a bloody one. All the fighting that had taken place before the modernized version of Korea we see today is almost unbelievable. But I believe that knowing this contributes to the incredible amount of recreation South Korea went through to achieve it’s state today. Many other nations had believed such a thing was impossible for a country like Korea to achieve and it was in reality nothing short of a miracle.

The main thing that this interview helped me with was the understanding of the main points of the Korean War under the view of the Korean civilians. It seems to be even though the government starts most wars, the ones who really end up “fighting” are the civilians caught between the power struggles. Though this is nothing new I have learned this year, it reinforces the idea even more. Finally, with the addition of an actual experience with someone near my family lineage, I believe that I finally am able to truly “connect” with a war that has happened in the world.