War Memorial of Korea

This morning when I plugged my camera in, it did not light up. Turns out something's messed up with it, so I'm going to try to fix it as soon as possible. I'm really sorry I don't have any pictures for this post because it was such an amazing trip.

Since orientation ended yesterday I had an entire day free to explore Seoul. I decided to go somewhere that really interested me, something that wouldn't be that much fun in a group (at least to me anyway, I get kind of angry when I travel in large groups). That destination was the War Memorial of Korea. I had seen its location on the Seoul tourism website when I was looking for the cat cafe, and found it was very easily accessible by train. All I knew about it was that it had a big bronze cone statue.


When I got off the train I had no idea where this place was. It was surrounded by green area on the map, which I assumed was a park, but I had no idea where it was; everything looked like city. Luckily, I started walking in the right direction because I soon saw the top of the cone. And that green on the map wasn't park, it was Korean DoD owned land. The MP officers and the military insignia on the buildings tipped me off to that little fact.

The bronze cone was in a deep basin and surrounded by Korean soldiers and civilians all in action poses of fighting, leading, sending their sons away to war, suffering and crying. It was the Korean War Memorial. It was meant to represent how war impacts people from all walks of life. The bronze cone represented a bronze sword and the tree of life. Once I crossed the street I saw something I'd never seen before: a B-52. To the right of the monument was an outdoor exhibit of military hardware. And it was as awesome as you can imagine a huge sculpture garden, except instead of sculptures they had tanks, helicopters, airplanes and artillery. I had a huge grin on my face the entire time, the little boy who loved trucks and construction vehicles was out in full force. The coolest part was how you were allowed to sit inside some of the trucks and military vehicles, and even walk around on a decommissioned PT boat. A lot of them had big "Do Not Climb" signs on them, but all the anti-aircraft guns had stairs leading up and open seats for pictures (I'm REALLY pissed that I didn't have my camera). They had captured communist vehicles from the Chinese and North Korean armies, but my favorite part was the MiG from a defected North Korean pilot put on display as a big middle finger to the North.

Then I saw the Statue of Brothers, which you can read about here. If you're lazy, It's a statue of 2 brothers embracing. They are soldiers of each Korea's armies, showing that despite the fighting, unification is the ultimate goal. I find this interesting because in the museum and memorial they all talk about the dream of Korean unification, but at the same time the treachery and underhandedness of the North is brought up as much as possible. But I guess war is used as a means of peace. Weird, right?

Then I walked past the memorial for the Korean War. It moved me to see how they honored their dead, and then I turned the corner and saw names not written in Hangul. Then the New York State flag. They memorialized all the UN forces KIA in Korea. They took the time to memorialize each and every person who died to protect their country. That part moved me the most out of the whole museum. Not because I had expected to see it, but because I did not expect to see it. They honored not only their own dead, but the world's dead. I'm not embarrassed to say I cried at that.

When I went into the museum the first thing I saw were busts of famous war heroes. These people were immortalized for their heroism, and underneath each statue was a plaque explaining why they were immortalized.

Then I went to the Korean War exhibit which had a full timeline of the invasion, the push back to Busan, and the subsequent landing of UN forces and the whole war. They had artifacts of North Korean orders to attack, communiques from North Korea to China and Russia, and weaponry from both sides. Then there was a part about student volunteers from universities that dropped out to help fight. Korea University was, of course, on the list. My favorite part was the one dedicated to the people who fought or supported the war effort but weren't soldiers. Women, doctors, men who couldn't fight but took support roles, teenage guerrillas, and my personal favorite, the railroad workers. The railroad workers caught me totally by surprise, but the exhibit made sense. The railroad people ran the biggest supply lines and so they were HUGE targets. By constantly putting themselves in danger to keep the soldiers supplied, they helped push the communists back. I thought that was cool.

Then I walked through an exhibit about the Koreans fighting the Japanese when they invaded in the late 1500s. A lot of this exhibit was written in Hangul, so I could only pronounce it and look like an idiot to any Koreans looking at me read out loud in a museum. There were swords, old cannons, and some captured Samurai armor. Then the exhibit spit me out in this huge exhibit on the modern Korean defense industry. There were bullets, explosives, radios, missiles, miniature models of military hardware, a cross-sectioned jet engine, torpedoes, if the RoK military used it, it was there. It was a huge commercial for military contractors, but it was really cool to see just how many people are responsible for any nation's defense. Also, Korean Air makes their helicopters. Neat.

I then went to the downstairs of the museum. They had 3 naval replicas of ships used during the late 1500s including a "turtle boat" which had cannons on all 4 sides, and a spiked metal roof to repel boarders. Then there was another collection of busts of military heroes, but these went back for centuries to the old Korean dynasties and their ancient warriors. Makes you think about how young America really is.

The exhibit downstairs was on the military history of old Korea. They had ancient weapons and armor and a replica of an old castle. My favorite part here was the signal towers which used smoke and fire to communicate over long distances. Lord of the Rings are some dirty copycats. Korea was calling armies with that stuff long before Minas Tirith needed help fighting orcs.

Also, the bottom floor had this really bizarre kiddie playland with jumping castles and a pedal-car track. It was really unexpected, and not only because I couldn't understand the signs. There was a helicopter suspended over the whole thing, it was really funny to see this clash of innocence and the military. Weird.

I then went to the top floor, where the exhibit on the modern RoK military was. This was really cool because it talked about their actions globally since their inception. They had a big exhibit on their involvement in Vietnam, and a really interesting model of their main base of operations. It was cool to see what military construction looks like on the front-lines. Then they had uniforms of RoK forces from every engagement they've been involved in, which is mainly UN peacekeeping forces. Korean involvement in the middle east is fairly downplayed, probably because it's still going on. Then they had another exhibit about the Korean War with an exhibit for each UN nation who fought with the RoK. It was cool to see what uniforms from other countries looked like, Australia had the outback hat which was very eye catching, and the Colombian uniforms had a turtleneck which made them handsomest by far.

Then there was an exhibit on North Korean treachery, like the invasion tunnels that they dug under the DMZ. The most interesting part was the section dedicated to North Korean commando operation in 1968 to kill the president of South Korea. They got close too. I had never heard of it, and it surprised me a lot.

On the way out of the museum I walked past the Peace Clock tower. It was a bronze clock tower with 2 clocks on it. One has the exact date and time the Korean war started, the second displays the current date and time. On the ground is the third clock, which will be added and will forever display the exact date and time of Korean unification once it happens. That's going to be something to see when it finally happens.