Korean+War+Interview+Project+Clair+Kang+A+block

=Korean War Interview =

=Interview Questions= 1. Tell me about yourself during the war. How old were you, what was your family background, and what is your name? 2. What was the first day of the war like? Could you describe that day? 3. How did the war affect your family? 4. What was everyday like for normal civilians? 5. As a soldier, what were some of the hardest experiences? 6. In your perspective, how did the South Korea treat the North Korea, and how did the North treat the south? 7. What was your view on the U.S. troops? 8. Could you describe some of your battle experiences? 9. What was going through your mind when you heard about the armistice? 10. What was life like shortly after the war? 11. How long do you think it took until South Korea’s condition stopped being bad? 12. What did you think about Rhee and Western influence? 13. What do you think of communism, and what do you think of the North Koreans?

=Interview video clip=
 * Translations are at the bottom.

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=Summary/Podcast=

media type="custom" key="3811683" =Complete translation=

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Soon Soo Kang : That day, I was walking with my friend nearby Dong Dae Moon. Suddenly, a Russian jet, the Yaku plane, flew over the top of Dong Dae Moon. At the time, there wasn't any planes like that in Korea. The Korean troops didn't have battle jets. And that day, I saw a sign on the wall. They put it up there because it was emergency situation. That day was Sunday. The North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel on Russian tanks. The sign told all the South Koreans to come back to serve immediately because they were out for Sunday outing. So that was that first day of war.=====

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Soon soo Kang : Well, there the war did not affect the family immediately. I think it was the same for everyone. Even though the war started, nobody knows what to do. There's no time prepare your mind for the war. But after one day, refugees started coming down from the North. So we thought, "Maybe we should escape farther south too." But we didn't know where to go to. And then tanks started coming into Seoul. That was because, South Korea did not have a good army. Of course, there were training centers for people who wanted to be soldiers, but nobody expected a war. This is something that nobody knows, even the politicians. I know because I lived in North Korea. In North Korea, after the Japanese surrendered and retreated from the country, Russia controlled it. Below the 38th parallel, the United States was controlling the South. So in North Korea, they built a school in Pyung Ahn Do, and put 18 years old, 19 years old students in there.. Nobody was allowed to go past the iron bars that enclosed the school, and nobody was allowed to come out. So of course, nobody knew what went on in there. However, on the sign on the school, it said booankambu training center, which means the training center to make policemen. There were many of these in North Korea in each province. This means that, they were training young men to become good powerful soldiers. And this happend right after Russia came into the North, and i was living in North Korea at the time. . I hated the North Korean regime. First of all, I hated the Russian troops. I don't even like to look at them, they only do bad things. There's not much rice crops in North Korea. But the Soviets take these crop away to their own country even though there isn't enough for the Koreans. Well, the North Koreans cannot starve to death. So the Soviets, the "great" Red Army gave rations to the North Koreans. but the food wasn't actually provided by Russia. It actually came from China. So the more north side you live, they eat a lot of oil. The Soviets eat a lot of oil because it is in cold area. So they took the oil from the beans, which isn't much of food, more like food for pigs, and that was was the food that the Soviets gave to the North in place of taking all the rice from the North Korea. Nobody would believe this except for old people. About 2 million people from the North came to South Korea because of the bad condition. I was one of them. And in South, the U.S gave us flour, sugar, and milk, and those things weren't much edible either.=====

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Soon soo Kang : My dad had already passed away, but my mom was alive. Before North Korea turned into a communist country under the soviets' influence, life wasn't so bad. We lived in a good house too. And my brother earned good money, so there was no reason to come down to South Korea. And there were no worries about the family too. But after Kim Il Sung and the Soviets took over, problems appeared. One thing I would like to tell you is, when the North Koreans invaded Seoul in Russian-made tank,a Russian officer was in the tank!. they said it was the North Koreans who invaded, but it was no different from saying that the soviets invaded the South. but nobody believes me. If I tell this in public, most people would just say I'm crazy.=====

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Soon soo Kang : Rhee once wrote a book. He said, "U.S. must watch out for Japanese." Japan can ambush U.S. anytime, anywhere. And that turned out to be true because Japan attacked U.S. without any warning. But nobody cares. To me, the U.s. is a large dinosaur. It only moves when something hot touches it. Japan is sly and fast. Rhee wrote about it in his book, but U.S. doesn't listen. And that results in U.S. being attacked by the Japanese.=====

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Soon soo Kang : That is impossible to know. Most of them were pushed all the way to Pusan. First, they think it would be okay if they just cross Han river. They expected that once they cross that river, U.S. troops could take care of everything. However, U.S. needs to consult everything with the UN, so it takes time. After the refugees are pushed to Pusan, there's nowhere to run. U.s has a lot of money, so they have modernized weapons. When the U.S. pushed the enemy back to the Yalu River, the Chinese attacked. Now, when I tell you this, people who have not experienced with me will think it's a lie. When The Chinese forces attacked, all U.S. could do was retreat because there were so many of the Chinese. They say, U.s. had real explosive bombs, but the Chinese were like human bombs. The Chinese only had one gun. But when the attacked with so many of them being there, it was like human bombs. . China didn't have it.=====

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Soon soo Kang : In war, all you do is shoot and go forward. You just run and try to get rid of people who are trying to take your life away. There's no fear or anything like that. If I think about it later, I didn't even know it was hard. There's no home. They carry tents on a truck. You can't have stable home or tent built, 'cause troops are always moving. Soldiers carry aluminum plate. Whey they give out food, and when its' raining, you eat rice mixed with rain. If I think about it later, it might sound like it's difficult. But at the time, I couldn't even feel the difficulties. You are mentally unstable during war, so that is sort of expected. Once, I saw two soldiers who committed survive. Do you think they killed themselves because they were scared of the war? No. You have to carry so many things as a soldier during war. you have to carry heavy blank, shovel, gun, and emergency food, and other weapons as well. It's a great burden. So imagine you're hungry as well. That's when you kill yourself. There's no time to think about hardships or pain. They don't kill themselves because they're scared. Their mind is unstable because you never know when the war will end. And when young people tend to starve easily. So when you're starving, your mentality becomes very vulnerable. You don't want to live.=====

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Soon soo Kang : North Korean soldiers are the same as the South Koreans. Not all North Korean soldiers are communists, they just live under communism. So if you think about it, North Korea and South Korea are the same in terms of fighting.=====

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Soon soo Kang : Without U.s. help, there isn't South Korea. It would be under Soviet control. However, U.S. didn't sacrifice their lives for Korean people's lives. U.S. was in conflict with Russia. If I were to choose between living under Soviet influence or U.S. influence, I would definitely choose to be under U.S. control.=====

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Soon soo Kang : If it's impossible to give details about specific fighting scenes. But when fighting in battle, there are no specific targets. We just shoot as we move forward until one side surrenders. We were not aiming for specific targets. so when ask me about specific fighting, I can't answer it. I said this once, U.S. use volunteers to recruit troops. However, back then, they used drafts. People were forced to fight. People were dying and being injured for no purpose or reason.=====

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Soon soo Kang : It would be hard for you understand, but for people my generation, we detested armistice. The reason is, U.S. could have beat them. China only has the human bombs, and they didn't have a lot of weapons. U.S. could have won, but the war stopped and Korea left divided. U.S. values people's lives even during war, so U.S's view was that stopping the war was good.. However, for koreans, it was disappointing because South Korea could have won with U.S.'s help, and we could have a had a unified country.=====

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Soon soo Kang : Of course, life was hard. But we got a lot of aid from U.S. Most people were starving. However, Park Jung Hee made it possible for Korea to recover quickly.=====

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Soon soo Kang: I had been to Russia before Soviet power disintegrated. I saw a Korean old lady in Moscovow. She was born in Moscovow, and she never lived in Korea. But she's very good at Korean. Do you know what she said to me? 70 years after Lenin led the revolution, communism had failed. But the buildinggs constructed during those 70 years were all falling apart, and have to be rebuilt. I went to Russia only a few years after the olympics were held in Moscovow. During the Olympics, ltos of foreigners are visiting, so hotels that wouldn't shame the country were built. ANd i went there. But the hotel was so dirty that it even didn't look like a hotel. The problem was, one day I woke up and I was having breakfast. Some of the people were saying, "I couldn't sleep at all yesterday. The elevator was so loud, and the sound kept me awake all night." The hotel was built for the olympics, but that was the condition of the hotel. In a communist country, there is barely an improvement because people are fed no matter what, so they don't have to try so hard. In liberal or capitalist countries, there are improvements because it's a competitive society. In communism, you don't have to do well. If nobody's looking, they don't try. That is communism. Communism was a wrong policy to begin with.=====

//**1) How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians?**//
====My grandfather, like some of the civilians in the North Korea, escaped North Korea in order to come to South Korea. He tried approximately 6 times before he finally made it to South Korea. This was two years before the war started, and he had escaped because he did not agree with the North Korean regime. During the war, when North Korea took over Seoul, most civilians in South Korea fled to south, some all the way to Pusan. My grandfather served as a soldier during the time of the war, so his experience was a little bit different from those of normal civilians who were not involved in battles. However, he told me that most civilians packed only things that were necessary for survival and just headed South.====

**//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 war traumatized countless men and women in Korea including both civilians and soldiers. When the North crossed the 38th parallel and attacked South Korea, the innocent civilians living closer to 38th parallel like in Seoul, had to make a fast escape to more South area. The North pushed the people all the way back to Pusan. This left numerous people without home and shelter. Even after the war was over, they had nothing to come back for. Just like my grandfather, many people in North tried to escape to the South. These refugees had to be separated from their family, and a lot of them never saw their family again. My grandfather, after he escaped to South, never saw his mother again. The civilians living in the North were even more in danger because of constant bombing by the U.S. and U.N. troops. In addition to that, in both North and south Korea, suspicions were rising among their own people. For example, in the North Korea, innocent civilians were accused of being disloyal to their country and were often taken to prison or were executed. In Korea, people who were suspected of being communists were executed or kept in prison. This turmoil made life harder for every single person living in Korea. Like my grandfather said about the "policemen training center" in North Korea, men as young as 18 years old were taken into training center, and were not allowed to leave there. Even after the war, the total Korean casualties almost combine up to 3 million people, and many were left homeless, orphaned, and starved. People's lives took a huge turn as result of the war.====

**//3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger.//**
====My grandfather was one of the lucky people who survived great dangers. His first danger was when he tried to escape to South Korea. If he were caught by the North Koreans, he would have most likely been executed or kept in prison forever. However, he attempted escape many times, and finally succeeded. The second danger was when he was a soldier. He had to watch people commit suicide and get killed all around him. He told me that he did not have fear during the war. I believe that this is because the soldiers including my grandfather did not have time to be scared. He had to force himself to go forward and just keep shooting, or he would be dead. His sole focus is to survive, and there is no room for fear. Despite all the dangers that he faced, he fortunately survived. He had direct confrontations with danger since he was a soldier in war, and yet he was lucky enough to survive. I believe that this was due to his strong-will and strong mentality that kept him alive through all the hardships and risks.====

=Essay=

=Release Form=