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Korean War Interview



Release Form



 Interview Questions

1) What is your name, how old are you, were you married at that time, and what occupation did you have?

2) How did you first find out and realized that the war was happening in your country?

3) what was your view of North Korea before the war

4) What exactly had happened in your town?

5) How did your family react?

6) Did anything happen within your family?

7) What happened to your brother?

8) How did you feel when your brother was captured by the communists, and met his death?

9) What do you think of the communists as?

10) What role did you play in this war?

11) What did you think of the UN forces and the American military as?

12) what is your opinion about reunification

13) Do you still contact with your friends who lived near your house during that time? What happened to them?

Additional... 14) When you were young, what did you think of Lee Seung Man as?

15) When you were young, what did you think of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung IL as?

16) What do you think a war can do to people and their lives? What do you want for the next generations of Korea?

Interview

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Summary of the interview

media type="custom" key="3812853" My grandmother, Kim Young Sook, was a thirteen-years old kid, when the Korean War first started. Since she was an elementary student, she did not know much about what was really going on at first. On 26th of May, her schoolteacher told her to hide herself at home, because a war broke out. This was when my grandmother finally realized what was going on in her country. According to her, before the war broke out, she learned that the North Koreans were just bad people from her school. As soon as the civilians were realizing that a war was happening, they started to evacuate and run for their lives. Unfortunately, a sudden bomb from an American jet bombed her town, destroying her house. This was because Americans and UN forces thought that the Reds disguised themselves as the civilians in order to hide themselves. From then on, she had nothing with her. Everything was gone – the photos, clothes, money, and books. Even worse, her brother was captured by the Reds, and was killed by getting shot. My grandmother saw this event, and her hatred towards the Reds grew on deeper. Since she did not have a house, she went into a cave-like place, where she secretly cooked food sometimes, and slept quietly. From then on, she lived in that dark place, until the war ended. During the war, she suddenly became sick, and a U.S. missionary helped her to cure her illness and make sure that she gets better. After she was cured, she was absolutely thankful towards the missionary, and that was why she thought that the UN forces and the U.S., forces were her heroes, who cured her and fought with the enemies to save her and other South Korean citizens. Today, she still thinks that the North Koreans are bad, not entirely, but a little. According to her, that was because the country was still a communist country; reminding her of the brutal Reds. Thus, she does not really want the reunification of Korea to happen, although she pities the Korean families, who were separated between the North and the South. Furthermore, she thought of the first president of Korea, Lee Seung Man, as a hero while Kim Jung IL was an immoral, and brutal person. Her last message in the interview was that she really hoped to live in a world, where there was no war. She mentioned that the war would bring so many consequences, and problems, that would be hard to face and to overcome. All she wants now, is to live in peace.

Analysis Questions (interview)

Her story about how the Americans bombed houses in South Korea to kill the Reds who disguised themselves as the South Koreans with their jets fit with what I had learned in class. Moreover, I also learnt that the Reds’ brutal ways of killing the civilians were really true – my grandmother witnessed these scenes with her own eyes.
 * 1) How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians?**

At the time of the war, where major blood-bath events were taking place, the interviewee’s life, indeed, was affected. First of all, her family was separated, and her brother had died, because of the Reds. Moreover, she was a young 13-year old student when the war first started. Thus, because of this war, it was impossible for her to go to school and learn education. Furthermore, since her house was bombed, she had to hide in a cave; the lack of food shortage soon caused her to get severely ill. Luckily, a missionary from U.S., soon took good care of her, for her to regain her good state of health back again.
 * 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 interviewee was able to stay out of the danger by hiding in a cave. She always had to be aware of the fact that the Reds could find this place out and come over in any minute. When the Reds or the Chinese soldiers seemed to have left the place, she frequently went outside of the cave to play, and whenever she heard a plane or jet coming to bomb the town and the streets again, she hurriedly went back in to the cave and hid herself with a blanket on top of her. Once, however, the Chinese soldiers suddenly burst in to the cave. Scared, my grandmother hid herself with a blanket. Then, after saying something in Chinese, they walked away, as if they saw nothing. To my grandmother, this was unexpected, for she thought that she was going to die. Because of them, she was able to survive, since if it were the Reds’ army that had appeared into the cave, she would have been dead.
 * 3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger.**

Reflection on the Korean War interview (essay)

First initiated by the North’s sudden attack to the South Korea, the Korean War was an international war, bringing in all the other foreign forces like that of UN, U.S., Soviet Union, and China. This war, eventually, led to a hot issue about “communism vs. capitalism”. However, although everybody knew the general big idea about this topic throughout the world, no one – except those who lived and witnessed the South Koreans during this period, was really sure of what happened to the civilians who had to suffer because of this war. Nonetheless, these untold stories, and inner thoughts of the civilians’, soon revealed slowly through an interview of a person who lived during that era, helping us to understand better and further on the Korean War. The significance of my interview is simple – it leaves a historical proof. This video would give a chance for our next generation and generations after that, to learn about what really had happened in the Korean War, in their grandmother’s point of view. Being the witness of the war, she would know about things that other people, like us, may not know of. Through her expressions, the silent moments, and her voice tones, we would soon realize how intense the war was like. Thus, leaving us a primary source proof on this topic of Korean War, the interview is historically significant. Throughout the interview, my understanding of the war grew deeper and deeper. By interviewing a person, face to face, who experienced the war for real, other than reading textual sources, I could not stop but to imagine those exact events playing in my head. The person made me to feel as if, I was at that situation. The interview showed how the lives of civilians in South Korea, in general, were like. The themes and ideas on deaths, famines, diseases, and separations could be more openly expressed and discussed. Her real-life story was such engaging that perhaps, this may be the sole reason why my understanding of the war grew significantly than I could have done, by reading off some textual sources. The interview helped us to understand better on the Korean War, because it gave the realistic points of views. Although the text sources are also important and contain crucially vital information, hearing the exact information in a realistic and more detailed way caused one to think much more deeper. For example, there is always a certain limit in terms of “feelings” when reading the information through the texts, whereas the feelings, emotions just revive and flourish when listening to an interview. Thus, having no limits in anything and being able to think much deeper, the interview, indeed, helped us greatly in comprehending better on the Korean War. In conclusion, interview really helped one to actually learn something that is really important, in a detailed, and deeper way. It gave a living proof on how the war was generally like, from an existing person, who had experienced the real war. Furthermore, it gave us a chance to learn about the civilians’ lives, and their points of views during that war. Dealing the Korean War topic in both realistic, and emotional ways, the interview did really help in understanding better on the subject.