Korean+War+Interview+Project+Agatha+Wuh+C+Block

=Release Form=

[|Release_Form_AW.JPG]

=Interview Questions=

1. Tell me about yourself and your family during the Korean War. 2. Explain the transition from Japanese rule to the coming of U.S. military. 3. How did the drafting of soldiers affect your family? 4. Were you or your relations ever accused of being communist? 5. Did you stay in Seoul the whole time during different occupations? How was each occupation different? 6. What did most people do to escape bomb raids in the city? 7. Which one did you think was safer: to flee or stay put in the city? Why? 8. How did your family go about getting food and necessities? 9. What were your family’s political views? Did you support Syngman Rhee? 10. What was your opinion of the North? 11. What was your view of U.S. control of the South Korean government? 12. Do you think that the North and the South should be united? Why or why not? 13. Is there anything I haven't asked about that you think I should know?

=Interview Part I= media type="file" key="Korean War Interview 1 AW.mp3" =Interview Part 2= media type="file" key="Korean War Interview 2 AW.mp3" =Summary= media type="file" key="Korean War Interview Summary AW.mp3"

=Analysis Questions=

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

Although my interviewee told me more than I knew, she did not say anything contradictory to what I have already learned in class. Like in Still Life with Rice, the North Korean army was after her brothers and searched her house. Her account of crossing the Han River and fleeing the city was very similar to the story. She remembered that it was in the middle of winter that her family fled south, and her family slept outside in snowy fields. She viewed the North Koreans as her enemy because of all the terrible things they had done to South Koreans. However, back then, she had a positive view of the U.S. forces as Syngman Rhee made it impossible for people to criticize the Americans after the war. Her account of the war is special in that it confirms what I have learned in class to be true.

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?

Since my grandmother lived in Seoul, she felt keenly the harsh effects of the Korean War. She went through both the North Korean occupation and the U.S. entering the city to push up towards the North. She remembered celebrating when the U.S. forces marched through the city and expressed contempt at how badly the North Koreans treated South Koreans. The war made a huge impact on everyone during the time period, especially my grandmother because she was only a teenager. With onset of the war, her education was suspended, and she had to focus her attentions on survival. She was trapped in the city when the North Koreans first made their attack. When the Chinese later entered the war, her family fled to the countryside to her relative’s house but came back later. The different stages of the war were what determined her family to make certain choices in where to stay.

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

While North Korea first occupied Seoul, she sold various goods to earn money. In two ways this benefited her. First is that she was able to feed her family with that money, but another is that the North Korean soldiers didn’t arrest her for not working. Because of the communist ideal that whoever didn’t work didn’t deserve to eat, anyone who didn’t work were arrested and put to work. Since selling was technically working, she was prevented from being arrested. Her family finally decided to flee to the countryside when the Chinese entered the war, and this I think is what saved my grandmother’s life. When she came back to Seoul, she realized that the U.S. bombed the whole city while her family was gone. Although her house was untouched, something bad could have happened if her family was still there.

=Analysis Essay=

Solid facts can come from books and research, but this interview was much more valuable in that it provided the attitude and thought of the people during the time period. Towards the end of the interview, I asked my grandmother whether she agreed to the reunification of North and South Korea, but to my surprise, she disagreed. She told me that because she has experienced how badly the North Koreans treated the South Koreans during the war, she still considers them as enemies. The anti-communist propaganda during the time period has had a huge impact in that it helped shape the way she view the North Koreans. I was able to see a generation gap in that the older generation has a negative view of the North Koreans while many of the younger generation believe in reunification. This sort of information can’t come from secondary sources, and that is what makes this interview so special.

Through this interview, I also learned that not everyone knew exactly what was going on during the war. For example, my grandmother told me of the harsh treatment she received from the North Koreans, but I don’t think she knew that the South Korean soldiers treated the North Koreans equally as bad. I didn’t tell her this in fear that she might become provoked, but it was interesting how she had no knowledge of this. From this, I came to a conclusion that many South Koreans don’t know that our soldiers too made many atrocities in North Korea. Just as the Japanese people contorted the history to make themselves look as victims, the South Korean people could have been kept from knowing South Korean atrocities so that they would feel as victims of the war. This accounts for the reason why so many South Koreans have a negative view of communism.

My grandmother also told me things that I never knew before such as that American soldiers raped many Korean women. (It is ironic that soldiers would offend the civilians of a country they were trying to protect.) She told me many small anecdotes that made the war seem that much more real to me. By hearing an account of the war from a real person, I began to comprehend that the war did not happen too long ago, and I was able to see the sheer magnitude of the Korean War. All the stories that my grandmother told me helped me visualize what it was like to live during the time and how horrible war is. Just hearing of all the hardships that she went through helped me sympathize with my grandmother and other people who lived through the war. Though the interview may have not been entirely accurate from memory defects, it was useful in seeing what the people remembered the most from the war. This interview is special in that it has people’s feelings and emotion of the war that speak louder than cold facts and data.