Korean+War+Interview+Project+Michelle+Kim+C+Block





Introduction  The Korean War is often known as many different names: to Korea, it was a civil war; to the world, it was a proxy war; to my grandmother, it was a heart-aching split of her home country. Losing her grandfather during the war, the Korean War had a huge influence on my grandmother's life more than anything else. Not only to know more about the war itself and the roots of Korean history, but also to see how wars can change people's lives, I conducted a short, but enriching interview of my grandmother. Her stories about the hardships, difficulties, and fears she had to face will reveal step by step about how the Korean War really changed people's lives. Release Form 

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Interview Questions  =====


 1. What was your age, occupation, and family status when the Korean War took place? 2. Can you describe what your life was like before the war? 3. How were you noticed when the war first took place and what was your reaction? 4. What were you told about or what did you think how the war started or who caused it? 5. What changes were made in your daily life, especially regarding school? 6. What changes were made in your family members’ roles? Why? 7. Were you ever trapped in a dangerous situation? If so, how? If not, how did you manage to avoid danger? 8. What was one of the greatest difficulties during the war? 9. How did you keep yourself hopeful and away from giving up during the war? What was the specific source of hope for you? 10. What was your view towards the North Korean soldiers during the war? What about China and Soviet Union? 11. How did you feel about South Korea’s leader Lee Seung Man? How did the general Korean mass seem to feel about their leader? 12. How did the war affect your family relationships? Were there any family divisions? 13. From what you can recall, how did the war end and how did you feel when it did? 14. What is your current view towards the division between North and South Korea? 15. What should the future generation do for the division between North and South Korea? Should reunification be pushed forward? or what other solution might be suitable?

Interview  media type="file" key="K.W.I. - MK 1 (final).mov" media type="file" key="K.W.I. - MK 2 (final).mov" media type="file" key="K.W.I. - MK 3 (final).mov"

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

Prior to the interview, my main previous knowledge about the experience of civilians during the Korean War was that all of their property, including houses, crops, and fortune, were taken by the other side's soldiers. My interviewee, who was a 17-year-old daughter of a farmer in the countryside during the war, claimed that all of their crops, especially rice, was taken by the North Korean soldiers whenever the soldiers came into the village. She stated how her entire family not only lost their main source of living, but also had to suffer from hunger everyday. Thus, that was where the Korean dish called "jook" originated from, because the making of jook involved mixing a small amount of rice with a large amount of water, so that the water would enlarge the rice. As I had previously known before, she described how all of her family's property was taken away and had no choice but to move around constantly. Such stories regarding losing one's property were very similar to my previous knowledge about the experience of civilians during the Korean War. Nonetheless, despite such similarities I found between my previous knowledge and her testimonies, another appalling fact I was not previously aware of was the different roles of men and women during the war. Contrary to how I expected to hear how men were used as soldiers and women were protected with their children, my interviewee claimed that men were either sent out to be soldiers or sent away to a safe place, whereas women were left alone in their homes in fear and danger. She claimed that such difference arose from the ideology of men being much more valuable than women. Hence, she expressed how devastating it was for her to be a woman during the war. The difference I found between my prior knowledge and her experience showed how gender roles or the perception of "women and children must be protected at all times" was not yet predominant in Korea in 1950s (during the Korean War).


 * 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 most devastating event that truly affected the lives of thousands of Koreans was most likely the losing of property. Sudden assaults by North or South Korean soldiers did not simply imply potential death, but also losing one's home, crops, fortune, and family. Thus, having one's property or anything that one treasures forcefully taken away without justification emptied countless people physically, mentally, and emotionally. For the general Korean mass, life was most likely without any material good to live on, but also filled with mental and emotional devastation and loss of hope. In my interviewee's case, all of her family's harvested crops, which they made their living on, were forcefully taken away by the North Korean soldiers without any justification. Furthermore, she lost her father to a North Korean soldier, who had tortured her father in prison until his death. According to her stories, a family without its head figure (father) felt even more hopeless than when their harvested crops were taken away. Thus, she claims she grew excessively fearful of any subject in life afterwards and worrisome at all times. Hence, the major events of the Korean War changed people's lives to becoming physically, mentally, and emotionally empty.

My interviewee claimed that she was constantly moving around to avoid any form of potential danger during the war. When North Korean airplanes were caught in the air, dropping bombs on the farmlands, she hid in a nearby field of reeds so that she wouldn't be seen. When North Korean soldiers launched a surprise assault on the village, she ran to a nearby forest or sometimes even to a safer place, such as her relatives' house. And when a noise or a strange sound was heard at night, she immediately woke up and sneaked out of town with her family. She claimed that even if her family was suffering from hunger or starvation, they did not approach any unknown source of food supply, in fear of being convicted as traitors. Hence, her main source of staying out of danger was to simply constantly move around and be alarmed at all times, rather than looking for a dangerous way to stay out of danger. Thus, the concept of property, belonging, or home disappeared during the war for my interviewee, for she was constantly moving around to avoid danger.
 * 3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger.**

<span style="font-size: 200%; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; color: rgb(83, 83, 198); background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">Essay <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; display: block;">

The Korean War is often known as many different names: to Korea, it was a civil war; to the world, it was a proxy war; but to my grandmother, it was a heart-aching split of her home country. Prior to the interview, I felt quite autonomous about my knowledge of the Korean War attained from school courses and historical texts. However, after interviewing my grandmother, a first-hand witness of the war, I realized how the mere facts and dates I knew were nothing in comparison to the stories she had always kept in her memory. Her stories about losing her father, hiding under the reeds in fear of North Korean airplanes, and having to give up her future opened my eyes to not only what life was really like during the war, but more importantly, how wars could really change people’s lives. From to the hardships, difficulties, and fears she had to face, it became so clear that the Korean War was more than a simple power struggle between two political factions known as Communists and Democrats. Although it might have been caused by the continuous power struggle between the two, what the war really did to the people of its country was beyond a simple power conflict: it was the loss of loved ones, a homeland, and the hope for a bright future.

Being a teenage daughter of a farmer, my grandmother was a seventeen-year-old high school student, living in the countryside, full of youth and hope for her future. When the war took place, as my grandmother said, she lost everything. Her father was captured and killed in prison by North Korean soldiers, all of her family’s harvested crops were forcefully taken away, and she had to move around constantly in fear of being captured someday. Moreover, gradually, she began to fear not only her enemies, but her own country as well. South Korea’s arbitrary bombing of farmlands near North Korea’s border forced my grandmother to hide under a nearby field of reeds, in fear of becoming a victim of such arbitrary assaults. Furthermore, her relatives were arrested by the South Korean government under the accusation of being potential traitors. Losing all sources to depend on, including her father, relatives, and her country, the war devastated her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Witnessing such atrocities at a young age made the vivid feeling of fear she carried during the war root itself completely into her mind, haunting her even until this day.

Interviewing my grandmother opened my eyes to what the Korean War really did to its people behind the scenes. While it was caused by a powerful, greedy minority, wanting to overpower another group of powerful, greedy minority, the biggest sacrifice was made by a weak, innocent majority, the Korean “people”. She also taught me what life was like for average civilians and what it was like to “lose everything”. But most importantly, I learned how extreme human atrocities, such as wars, can really change people’s lives and shape their minds with fear and dread that can last for the rest of their lives. The Korean War, another result of man’s infinite desire for power, was also an extreme human atrocity that changed the lives of thousands of people, tragically splitting one’s home country into two separate pieces of land that remained separate even to this day. <span style="font-size: 200%; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; color: rgb(65, 65, 195); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; display: block;">