Ale Cepeda

It is sad to admit that war is a human thing. We have participated in them multiple times throughout history. Thus, it is something that must be discussed. It is easy to say that war can be most precisely analyzed from those who faced combat. Notwithstanding, why is it that the civilian perspective is rarely taken into account? It is they who faced the most disruptive change in their lives. It is they who also have wounds and scars that never healed. It is they who must also be talked about and recognized. This chapter will do just that, talk about the Korean War (1950-1953) from the civilian perspective.

It is easy to fall down the rhetoric that says that the Korean War is just another proxy war from the Communism vs. Capitalism years. Nonetheless, it is of vital importance to humanize the war, to not be indifferent towards it. Thus, the sources dealt with, mostly talk about how society remembers the war. Not the “victor tells the story” perspective, but actual Korean tales and experiences that showcase the fear and heartbreak felt throughout those times of pain.

This chapter utilizes sources by civilians because it is crucial to understand the war through their eyes. It could be easy to turn these stories into numbers on a spreadsheet or a percentage in data recollection to see the impact of the war on civilians. Nonetheless, it is different to hear the stories through their mouths and through their memories. Details of such heartbreaking events cannot be translated into numbers. The full understanding of the civilian impact of the Korean War requires these tales, as they bring us closer to it. They make us face it.

To say that there are many confirmed historical accounts of civilians is an understatement. Hence the vital importance of the subject. Nonetheless, it is still important to remember that some details may not be 100% accurate, as memories are subjective and at times foggy. This does not invalidate their tales, it’s just something to keep in mind.

Hwang Kye-Il’s story

These stories need to be shared, as this is something that still affects people decades after the happenings of the war. For example, this is true in the story of Hwang Kye-Il who is slowly going blind and suffered a facial disfigurement from American bombing during the war. As time passed, there was not a day that went by that Hwang was not reminded about the happenings of the war. “Half a century after his face was disfigured and his vision ruined by a bullet allegedly fired from a U.S. bomber, Hwang Kye-Il says he wants an apology and compensation for his pain and suffering.” ^[1] According to Hwang, he recalls that around 2,000 villagers were in a field of tall reeds, where they thought they would be safe from North Korean soldiers, on August 20 of 1950. He also stated that “he saw a U.S. plane overhead. Minutes later, four military planes descended, bombing and gunning down villagers.” The amount of trauma imposed on these bodies cannot be described, the fear and the pain that this attack caused on them is something that would remain with them forever. Whether or not the attack was made on purpose, it still left a high cost on many Korean villagers at the time. Hwang’s life was never the same, “because of a large scar on my face, I could not attend school. I was constantly teased by my schoolmates.” ^[2] Not only was trauma and ability at a cost for Hwang, but his education paid a price too. Due to the presumed recovery time of his injuries, the slow loss of vision, and the teasing of his schoolmates it would be easy to say that Hwang’s life was forever altered after the war. Due to his statement, one can assume that Hwang was quite young when the bombing happened, henceforth also showcasing how his youth was ripped away from him at the cost of two ideologies that would still remain separate.

The Korean housewife’s story

Sadly, Hwang’s is not the only story to tell. In Richard Peters and Li Xiaobing’s Voices from the Korean War, the story of a housewife and her family is told. The authors stated that the most difficult sources to find were the Korean ones. It was easy to find Chinese and U.S. American people that would discuss the happenings of the war, but only a few veterans decided to participate in the writing of the book. This gives us a clear image that this is a war that is not easily faced or discussed in present-day Korea. Due to safety and privacy issues, her name is not stated.

Living in Seoul, this family heard the news on the radio of the first North Korean attack on June 25. With little money, they knew they had to leave their home and city. She said that they “walked for about fifteen days to Hong Song, a city about seventy miles south of Seoul near the West Coast,” where her husband’s family lived.^[3] The journey was long and draining, “There were many other trying to escape the North Koreans, and some became so weak from lack of food they dropped out along the way and died.”^[4] She and her family were okay because they had some rice to keep their strengths up. The war took a toll on the Korean civilians to the extent that they’d run away, knowing that there was a possibility that they would not survive the journey. This particular story showcases how the war followed everyone: only two days after their arrival at Hong Song, the presence of the North Korean soldiers was known. The sense of physical and mental drainage after so much running, for it to be futile, can only be imagined.

The undeniably brave housewife continues her tale by showcasing how people were not just going to conform to the war that was thrust upon them, “Because he loved his country so much, in Hong Song my husband belonged to a local patriotic society. He received no pay, but sometimes gave the police information on who supported the North Koreans.” ^[5] Due to this, her husband had to live in a basement hideout, in order to remain protected from any soldiers. As can be expected, one cannot hide forever. Her husband went out for fresh air and was seized and brutally beaten up by the North Korean soldiers. Her husband was rescued by a friend and taken away to a further village where he could rest and recover safely. “My husband stayed in this house for several months, almost like a dead person.”^[6] Living in constant fear and constant worry is physically and mentally draining. The waiting for the war to end, for her husband to return, to be able to go outside without fear, and having to live with those feelings every day has psychological repercussions. Her family stayed separated until the United Nations forces drove the Communist forces back into North Korea. After his recovery, they were still separated due to her husband joining the South Korean army in light-duty due to his injuries. The housewife and her daughter “continued to live in Hong Song with my husband’s family until the war ended and he returned from the army in 1953. Then we all went back to Seoul, to the same house, which somehow survived all the fighting.”^[7]

The story of the boy who served in both armies

Another heart-wrenching civilian tale is that of a boy who served both armies during the years of the Korean War. He described his village as being in a state of shock and fear. Rumors spreading about how it was most likely that no one in the South would survive at the hand of the Reds. This boy’s age is not stated. Nonetheless, it is clear that to grow up alongside a war is a thing that no one wishes. He said that “on the afternoon of June 26, I could see part of the war myself. Some wounded soldiers passed through the neighborhood, which made the war seem real to me.” ^[8] Being young and being energetic, the boy went out for a walk where he stumbled upon a man that called out to him: “Comrade, come here!” The boy, frightened, turned to see a man with a red armband. The man said to him, “Comrade, I welcome you. You are to fight for the hero of the people, our great leader, Kim Il Sung.”^[9]

The boy had heard stories of the war, he had seen images of the wounded soldiers, he knew that this man saying this to him meant that his life would change forever. His youth was taken away from him in a matter of seconds. The boy was taken away from his village and took to a building where he was asked to fill papers with basic information about him. There were fifteen other men there. They were hungry and were not fed. They were tied up and transported to a place that they did not know. “I lamented endlessly. It appeared that I would never be able to see my family again. Just like that, I became a North Korean soldier.”^[10] To be forced to fight his own country is something that undeniably had a psychological effect on this young man. He would grow to hate himself every second he spent as a member of that army. As they arrived in North Korea, they walked for miles and did not know when they would arrive to see combat. “I had suffered so much mental anguish I contemplated the feasibility of an escape. There was not a single soul who could protect me from the Communists.” ^[11] He met soldiers that were in a somewhat similar situation, they were also forced into combat. The boy suffered from terrible mental and moral battles, not understanding how he had to be the one to end up in this situation. “The fact that I was now aiming my rifle to the South tormented me endlessly. I was abducted by the Reds and became a Communist soldier against my will. But who would believe that?” ^[12]

After a raid so violent and so chaotic, the boy and some friends managed to escape from their platoon. “We buried our clothes and rifles and became civilians.”^[13] After such torment, such moral battles, becoming a civilian must have been such a relief to the boy. Nonetheless, as the boy was informed that there was a truck that sent shipments to South Korea, he knew that the impossible moment of escape had been miraculously placed in front of him. As he made his way home, he said: “I realized that I had an obligation to save my actual nation’s army just like any other young man in South Korea.”^[14] This boy was tormented to the extent that he could not forgive himself until he served his own country. This showcases the psychological damage that the war caused, the years of trauma ahead of him and the exhaustion that he buried away.

Artists remembering the war

These are just brief examples of the hardships faced by civilians during the Korean War. There are other accounts that showcase how people remember the war. For example, through art. Poetry and paintings are other mediums by which Korean civilians remember the years of war. Hwang Sunwŏn and Yi Pŏmsŏm are two examples of artists who recollect the war through poetry. The way they maneuver the words to express what they are feeling showcases the strength and bravery of the Korean people. Of course, these sources cannot be taken literally as they have artistic freedoms implemented in them. Notwithstanding, it did give clarity to some universal feelings among the Korean people. For example, Hwang described his old village: “The area showed no signs of what might be called the broken remnants of the present conflict. But is somehow did not seem like the old village were he had grown up as a youngster.” ^[15] The use of metaphor as a method of release of past traumas of the war is also present in Hwang’s work as he says: “Over the center of the fields, looking like some people wearing their white clothes, backs bent, that was a flock of cranes. The place that had become the demilitarized zone along the 38th parallel. Even though it had stopped living there, it was still a place where the cranes continued to live as before.”^[16]

Yi, on the other hand, uses a mixture of poetry and storytelling. The imagery used in their texts is a bit more graphic and more interconnected to the violence present in the war. For example: “The man kneels on a rock and washes his hands in a stream. The blue water is dyed by red twilight. Congealed blood melts from his hands into the water with a red even deeper than the twilight.” ^[17]

This painting is by Pablo Picasso, done in a similar style of his famous painting “Guernica” (1937), about the Korean War. It was done in 1951, in the midst of the chaos. This painting is entitled “Massacre in Korea,” which showcases civilians about to be shot by soldiers. This painting manages to showcase the fear and the horror that the civilians lived through.

Bibliography

Hwang Sunwŏn. “Cranes.” Translated by David McCann. Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture 1 (2007): 305-312.

Kang, K. Connie.”Civilian Survivors Recall The Pain Of Wartime In Korea.” Los Angeles Times. March 23, 2001, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-23-me-41608-story.html.

Peters, Richard A, and Xiaobing Li. Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.

Yi Pŏmsŏn. “Stray Bullet.” In Flowers of Fire: Twentieth-Century Korean Stories, edited by Peter H. Lee, 205-232. Rev. ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.