Korean+War+Interview+Project+Jonathan+Kim+A+Block

Korean War Interview Jonathan Kim

//** 1. Identification (Briefly Introduce yourself) 2. What was life like shortly before the war? What was it like when the war broke out? 3. Where were you when the Korean War broke out? 4. What did you think of North Koreans back then? 5. Why do you think that the Korean War occurred? 6. Which side you believe won the Korean War? Which side lost? 7. At the location that you lived at that time, did the Korean army force you to leave the area? How were you transported to other cities? 8. During the Korean War, how did Americans act towards Korean people? 9. What were your great impacts from the Korean War? 10. How did you feel when your friends/family members died from the Korean War? 11. What was the environment like during the Korean War? 12. When the Chinese attacked during the winter of the Korean War, how do you think made the Chinese justified to attack South Korea? 13. What is your opinion after the Korean War ended?
 * //Interview Questions

media type="file" key="Part 1 Asian Studies Jonathan Kim.mp3"Part 1 media type="file" key="Part 2 Asian Studies Jonathan Kim.mp3"Part 2 media type="file" key="Part 3 Asian Studies Jonathan Kim.mp3"Part 3 media type="file" key="Part 4 Asian Studies Jonathan Kim.mp3"Part 4 media type="file" key="Korean War Summary Podcast Jonathan Kim.mp3"
 * //Interview Podcast//**
 * The silence is my grandfathers thinking...
 * Part 3 and Part 4 - my grandfather read the questions and just answered them to my recorder...
 * //Summary Podcast//**
 * //Analysis Questions//**

1)  How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians?  My grandfather described his life during the Korean War and it did not seem similar to the victims that we have learned in class about the Korean War. Both my grandfathers did not move down to Pusan when the North attacked and they just stayed in their hometowns, due to their insecurity of moving out. However, they still wanted to be freed from the hands of the communist party. We could stat that my grandfathers were not harshly victimized from the Communist party. They were not persecuted due to their wealth at that time and they were not forced to move to other cities when the war broke out. We could also see that due to the class differences that the lives of people that we have learned in class in greatly different from the lives that my grandfather went through with.

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? 

My grandfather was unable to face the tragic events that took place during the Korea Wars. He had listened to the rumors and stories from other people during the Korean War. He was mostly out of danger because the communist party did not use their military warfare on these towns. Because of the broke out of the war, both my grandfathers learned that was pretty effective was that this kind of war should not happen again in the future. They stated that even though there may be conflicting ideas between countries, there shouldn’t be any wars because many, as in many people may die from the Korean War. Also, Korean people will lose their idea as a human and will do anything in order to survive the war. 3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger. 

My grandfathers were able to stay out of danger most of the time because the Communist party did not do anything with their hometown. Even though many people starved during the Korean War, traditional home towns share their food together, meaning that the town had storages of food. They had just waited for the UN forces to liberate their areas. Even though there were several attacks, the towns were not located in urban cities, but their towns were located in mountains and some of their towns were hidden. 


 * //Essay//**

Analyze the historical significance of your interview, how has the interview added to your understanding of the war, and how you think it will help us better understand the Korean Wa r

Korean War, the war that lasted for 3 years, was the most tragic war in the history of Korea. Many people died, starved, and were in poverty during the Korean War and everyone in the population was panicking due to the outbreak of the Korean War. My grandfathers, the mother side and my father side, had several memories of what happened during the Korean War and how they survived during the Korean War. It was rather interesting to listen my grandfathers talk about the Korean War because I have only learned about the Korean War through classes and textbooks.

When I was listening to their answers to several of my questions, I was able to realize that the North Koreans did not attack every South Koreans at that time. If we look at my grandfather at my father-side, his town was only captured by the North Koreans, not massacred and tortured. This states how the North Koreans, even though what they have done was cruel, had some sort of sympathetic mind among the South Koreans. Also, I learned a lesson that the Korean War was a war, similar to World War II, that should not happen again in the future and should be prevented from happening again. The Korean War killed many types of people and the Koreans did anything, immoral and moral, in order to survive the war. The grandfather on my mother-side stated that we should not mock North Korea for what they have done during the Korean War because it will only cause conflicts and starts a possible Korean War II. He stated that even though what occurred in the Korean War was cruel, we should still understand each other more.

The interview has boosted my understanding of the Korean War because I learned a new perspective of the Korean War. People who were in the Upper Middle Class and were located in towns in the mountains did not actually become affected with the Korean War. They rather had to listen to the bombings carefully and had to listen to other people say about the Korean War. We could basically see the difference between the urban and the rural. With all the reading materials that we read during class, my grandfathers has showed that the Americans were actually allies of the South Koreans and did actions that helped the people and the economy of the Korean War. In the reading packets that we have learned, we learned about the cruelness of what the Americans did to innocent people. The interview with my grandparents showed a different perspective of the Korean War.

By using the material of the interview, we would be able to know variety of perspectives of the Korean War, ranging from the person who fled to the person who was partially part of the North Koreans. The Korean War should not be learned or taught in one perspective only because there are thousands of citizens who witnessed the Korean War and may know more about what exactly happened in the Korean War. The interview that I had with my grandfather had similar aspects and different aspects to the Korean War. With this interview, we may be able to learn that Koreans should be able to understand each other and there should not be any conflicting ideas that will cause another Korean War. 