Jae+Doh+KRW+Interview

=THE KOREAN WAR INTERVIEW PROJECT=

The interview
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__The Release Form__
In view of the historical value of this oral history interview, I Kim Myung Sup knowingly and voluntarily permit Jae Hyun Doh (도재현), Asian Studies, Korea International School the full use of this information for educational purposes.

Signature : Kim Myung Sup 김명섭 ( 1933/ 08/ 18)

Date : 2008. 08. 06

Interview Questions
1. How old were you when the Korean War began? Where did you live?

2. What made you want to leave Japan when the war started?

3. How did your family react to the war? How did you react to the war?

4. What were your thoughts and feelings about the war? What did you think was the cause of the war?

5. Was anyone in your family forced to take part in the war? If so who, how did you family react to this?

6. How did you feel about the North Koreans when the war began?

7. What casualties did you and your family face during the war?

8. Did you have to leave anything behind? Why or why not?

9. What were your feelings for the South Korean government?

10. You've suffered through a war, what is your opinion of wars now?

11. How did you manage around the war, how did you solve your financial/ family problems?

12. Is there anything else you would like to add about your personal experiences about the war?

Summary of Interview
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1) How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians?
Some parts of the testimony fit and others do not. Something that was different about my grandfather was that he was born in Japan and lived there until he graduated. He joined the army because he wanted to even though they had not forced him to, while in many of the things we've learned about people ran away from the military an avoided joining them. Another interesting thing that his testimony had that not many of the other ones we had read was that, he helped the American army by translating and communicating. I think my grandfather's experiences of the war was much more dramatic than the others. However his older brother was forced to join the army, so in this case the testimony fits. Another thing that my grandfather had was money, although they were not rich, they lived far away from where the war was taking place. So in a sense, he viewed things about the war that no one knows, and at the same time he was not as affected as much in terms of loss of family or financial problems. In the readings and videos that we watched during class it showed the Korean civilians leaving their belonging behind to flee, and going around place to place looking for a safe spot, however this was not the case for my family, once they had left Japan the family's safety was somewhat insured. Perhaps not economically and financially but they were not in any life threatening situations. Something that struck me as being a little strange was that, during the war, my grandfather and his older brother took part, however their father did not. If I recall correctly he was of good health and was not too old to take part or be drafted, however he was not taken to work for the army. This was a different case from other civilians because usually they took the father first (unless they were old or unhealthy) and then they took the sons depending on their conditions.

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?
Obviously the war had a greater value for those in the army, they could be fighting to protect their families, or they were forced to fight and leave their family behind. War for a fact impacted my grandfather greatly. For one being that he was caught in a battle where he saw people die and people had thought that he had died as well. The scar of war is still apparent on my grandfather's body, due to the mine accident, he lost his left leg and is now unable to hear in his left side of the ear. These are just physical effects that the war had on my grandfather. After seeing people kill one another and living through a war and taking part in it during the crucial part of his years, his way of thinking was altered. He viewed wars as being an extreme game where the winners and losers are difficult to figure out. Where people must kill others to win, and the only way for a winner to be certain is when all his enemies are dead. For this reason he had implanted in him the strong belief that he must be strong and be able to protect his family. That when people are not strong enough to protect, they affect the people around them. Also during the time of the war, since my grandfather was part of it, the major events had great affects on him. When the boarders were pushed back he was pushed back, etc, he moved with the flow of the war. He worked with the American Army which lead him into many dangerous occasions. However as I've said multiple times, once he lost his leg he had to leave the war and stay in the hospital and eventually at his home. So, during the early phases of the war, the major events of the war affected my grandfather's life greatly, but after his injuries he went back to his rural village and was not affected by the war as much.

3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger.
My interviewee did not stay out of danger. My grandfather felt that it was his duty as a citizen to take part in the battle for his country, so instead of avoiding danger, he went straight to where the danger is. I am not sure if this was a wise decision or not, but he felt that it was something he had to do. He said he does not regret it, however he did lose his left leg when the car he was transporting in ran over a land mine and blew up. The land mine had killed everyone except him, and when they took him to the medics they thought he was dead to so they left him unconscious without treating him at all for 1 or 2 days. When he gained conciseness the doctors were very surprised and amazed, but they were forced to cut his left leg off, because it had begun to rot, and they had to stop it from spreading. So this shows that he was definitely not a person who hid and ran away from the danger. Obviously after his leg was amputated he did not take part in the war, he went home and tried his best to make money, and his older brother stayed in war. My grandfather felt very strongly from his youth that he was a Korean citizen and when the war began he did not flee but went straight to Korea to take part in it. He told my great grandmother that he wanted to fight for his nation and to aid it in whatever way he can. So at his teenage years he made the decision himself to take part in the Korean war, putting his own life at risk for his family. I think my grandfather's nationalism was very strong and he took pride in being Korean (even though he was born and grew up in Japan, which lead me to think that he would think more like a Japanese rather than a Korean. However this was not the case for my grandfather).

Analyze the historical significance of your interview, how has the interview added to your understanding of the war, and how you think it will help us better understand the Korean War
War is not the same for people who lived through it, and those who merely heard from it. People who did not go through a war during their lifetime would not understand the horrors and agony of living in wartime. My grandfather was 17 when the Korean War started, during the time he was living in Japan. This interview helped me understand some of the feelings and thoughts that went through his head as a teenage boy taking part in the war. All primary sources and secondary sources state that the people who suffer the most during a war are the citizens. Often time they are not even aware of why the war had begun in the first place. My grandfather being 17 was also a citizen of a country, which was consumed in warfare, however unlike many of the primary sources we read in class like the Still Life with Rice he did not flee. He had a strong sense of nationalism, even though he was not drafted by the military to serve in the war, he felt that he had to help his nation in whatever way possible. This shows a different path that the citizens could have chosen. Some fled for safety, others went and fought for what they believed. My grandfather’s life during the war is a significant historical source for me because he helped the American army during the war. He worked with them, and also served as a translator during the war with the English he had learned while doing his part time job at YMCA in Japan. This implies that citizens had the chance to take part in various ways. The story of my grandfather’s life made me angry, proud, and sad, although I would never be able to completely understand how he felt during the war, I believe that this interview had allowed me to understand to a slight extent. It taught me what textbooks could never teach me, I felt more connected than ever to history, because it was the history of my family. This is the significance of an interview, a primary source. Before I heard about my grandfather’s life all I knew about the war was the statistics and dates, etc. I knew that it started on June 25th, and that it was a war between N. Korea and S. Korea, with the U.S and Soviet Union pulling the strings from behind. However data cannot tell me what went through the minds of the innocent citizens that got caught within the battle, the people who suffered the most. This is the value of a primary source, and the value I got from interviewing my grandfather. He was able to tell me what I could never learn in textbooks. Although in class we read the story of Still Life with Rice the story was of a North Korean escaping to the South. My grandfather’s story was about a Korean living in Japan leaving to his mother nation so that he can stand besides his brothers and fight for his country. These were two very different scenarios during the war; one being a story about escaping danger and going to a safer place (which is very logical), and the other being nationalistic and going to participate in the war. It helps us to see in different perspectives when looking and reading about the Korean War. Not everyone fled from the Army; some joined them willingly when they were not even required. It also tells us how involved the citizens were during the Korea War. Korea being a weak country did not have sufficient arms force so it had to bring in citizens who had no experience in the battlefields. This shows the state of Korea during that time. From interviews we learn and listen to the lives of the people who lived in the time that we could not. Interviews are also oral histories, and it is the duty of the new generation to record the story of their ancestors. For it is our past that make up the world we live in today, and history is a vast variety of opinions upon an event that had occurred. One can never discover and understand the truth of a event that has passed. So the best one can do it gather all the opinions out there and build your own opinion on them.