Alena+Koo+KRW+Interview

 __**Korean War Interview**__  = =

**Interview Questions:**
When did the Korean War break out? How old were you at the time? Who was in your family? Where were you and your family? What was you doing at the time? How did it affect you and his family? How did it affect their jobs? If it did also affect their jobs, wouldn't it also have affected your lives at home? and the financial situations? Was it hard to survive at the time? If so, what did you do to get by? What was it like being in the army? How were you able to stay in touch with your family? When were you able to get out of the army and how was your family all able to come together after the war? Was there anyone that got killed or died because of the war? How did Korea change before and after the war? Do you know how Grandma's life was like during the war? What was your family after the war and what was it like?

**The Interview :) **
media type="file" key="Korean War Interview.mp3"

**Summary of Interview: **
When did the Korean War break out? On 1950, June 25th. It was a Sunday. I was living in Busan at the time and Grandma was at Yi-Bu. My father was at Jin Joo with some of my brothers and I was still in Busan with my Hyeong-Nims doing business. Before the war, I was in the army, so when the war broke out I was still a part of the army.

How old were you at the time? I was born in 1928, so I was about 22 at the time.

Who was in your family? I had 5 other siblings, so including me it would be six. I'm the youngest out of the six people. My parents were still alive back then so in total it would have been 8. I was also with my other relatives.

Where were you and your family? Parents in Jin Joo I was in Busan with my different Hyeong Nims. But the first Hyeong Nim started a business so we followed. For me, I was univ. army

What was you doing at the time? Grandpa and my Hyeong Nims were all born in Jin Joo until high hyeong nim went to busan we all followed and went to school there and then the army

How did it affect you and his family? How did it affect their jobs? If it did also affect their jobs, wouldn't it also have affected your lives at home? and the financial situations? In jin joo we worked with chemicals and then the first Hyeong,, started a business with lotions and factory and it shut down after teh war so we used the money that was saved up.

Was it hard to survive at the time? If so, what did you do to get by? At first we wre in Busan so there was not really a big difference but as teh north came down people started coming for safety it became crowded I was still in the army and the American soldiers acme to help and we went up to the north.

What was it like being in the army? I wasn't really in the front lines, but I was translating between the Korean and American. In those days not a lot of people so from busan to daegu, daejeon cheong ju, seoul after McArthur finished his plan sucee, pyeong yang, gye song, peong yang, and we kept going up and also went near the Chinese border came down so pulled back, Grandpa was in the war but I was in the center where military strategies were made.

How were you able to stay in touch with your family? We kept changing bases and positions. Before there were telephones but after the war, it becanme harder letter ,couldn't deliver we all hoped that we were safe but didn't really have good communication.

out of the war and come together in about 1953, things started coming together but until then translatied aand was finally able to get in touch with family members. but in 1954 we al lgot together

died? Everyone was in Busan so they were mostly safe. We didn't go throught the war directly or we weren't directlyinfluenced by it. But grandma was living in Hwang Hae Do so when she was coming down... But noone really close from us died.

Korea's change: It was colonized in 1945, we didn't have a government we weren't erally well off, things were broken burned, no farming.

Analysis:
1) How does your interviewee's testimony fit in with what you have learned about the experience of civilians? My grandfather's family was in Busan, so they were safer. While everyone else was looking for safety and coming down towards Busan, they were already there. So, they were all pretty safe.

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 war could have affected their lifestyles and financial situations because they were all doing business at the time. And it was during a war, so business could also have not gone so well.

3) Hypothesize or explain how you interviewee was able to stay out of danger. My interviewee, was in the army, so he was also pretty safe. He wasn't stationed at the front lines, but was near the back planning military strategies and translating for the soldiers.

Essay: By having an interview with my grandpa, I was able to learn many different things about the things that had happened during the war. It was interesting because I was able to talk to a person that had gone directly gone through the events. I was also able to learn through a different person's point of view and I was also able to learn more about my grandpa. I think that these stories are very important for the past, present, and future because they are able to tell us the things that really happened and describe the events clearly. By talking to my grandpa, I was able to learn many new things about the Korean War.

Before the interview, I didn’t know that my Grandpa had been a translator in the army. I learned that he was able to go places and was also a real part of the war. I was also able to get to know more about the family. I found out about their business and what it was like for a family during that time. I thought that it was both good and interesting to be hearing about the history/war from a person who was really there at the time, but I was also able to learn more about the family and the things they went through during the war. I also learned that by having people tell stories like this, we would be able to get the real information and the real facts and details about the things that happened. After having the interview, I finally realized how nice it was that we still have people that are able to tell us the things that happened.

By doing the interview, I learned many new things about my family and grandpa. I learned so many things about the war, and many of the things he had said matched with the things we learned in class. I thought that it was interesting to see everything come together in the end.