Korean War was the most tragic event in Korean history. So many people lost their homes, families, and friends. The generation that experienced the war is still suffering from the trauma of seeing their neighbors getting killed without any reason during the war.
I think it’s best to start the story of this tragic event with some story of people who actually experienced the war from its start to end.
My grandparents have experienced Korean War during their teenage years and they’ve told me a lot about it.
Here’s a story of my grandmother.
She used to live in Pyongyang until the independence of Korea from Japan. Right after the independence, her family took a big step crossing over to the capitalist side of the Korean Peninsula. 5 years later, Korean War started, and her family had to move around all over the place. The women in the family ended up at Suwon, which is located just south of Seoul. The men went all the way to Busan, which is at the southeast tip of Korea. Living in Suwon, she saw people getting killed just because their ideological thoughts were slightly different. Since she was from the North, she spoke the North Korean dialect. If she got caught speaking such dialect by a South Korean soldier, she says she could’ve been killed.
At the same time, there was a big event in Seoul, that if it didn’t happen, it could’ve saved lives of millions of South Koreans. South Korean government bombed the only bridge that civilians could cross to go south. This happened without a public notice, so according to my grandmother’s grandparents who crossed the bridge right before it demolished, the scene of people falling into the Han River was like a sudden rainstorm that came out of nowhere.
From this atrocity called “Hangang Bridge Bombing,” more than 800 people died with people in the north of river having nowhere to go but to get captured by the North Koreans.
Massacres frequently occurred as many towns came under control of the North one day and the South the other day.
Among the several atrocities committed by both sides, I’ll start with what the North did.
First, The Hill 303 Massacre. About two months after the war started, a group of 26 American soldiers were captured by North Koreans. The second day after capture, several other American prisoners joined their group, bringing the total number to approximately 45. On the third day, all of the prisoners were led to a deep narrow gorge, and without warning, were shot in cold blood with only four surviving.
Through similar process, one hundred and thirty-eight American soldiers lost their lives during Sunchon Tunnel Massacre. The soldiers were at the end of Seoul-Pyongyang death march trying to get food.
These are just part of so many massacres that North Korea committed.
In the newly occupied territories, they publicly executed innocent civilians declaring them as reactionaries.
3 days after the war started, the North committed massacre in Seoul National University Hospital, killing 900 people, including South Korean patients, and doctors.
There were also some atrocities that South Koreans committed. Many of the known events are about South Korean soldiers killing South Korean civilians, making them really tragic.
In Busan, about 1,500 prisoners and members of the “Bodo League” (National Guidance Alliance), whose members were classified as communists, were killed. It was later revealed that many of its members were innocent farmers and civilians who lacked knowledge of ideological conflicts but were forced to register. They were reportedly dragged to nearby hills or valleys to be shot or were thrown into sea without any legal procedure.
The massacres that I just listed were just part of the many atrocities Korean War had to face.
Cultural heritages like the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon and Gwanghwamun in Seoul were destroyed. Hospitals like the Severance Hospital in Seoul were destroyed too. Some cities like Wonsan became a pile of ashes.
As the war extended, South Korean government decided to mobilize young students to the army. As a result, 27,700 students were mobilized. Most of them weren’t able to return home and had to live their life with trauma of the war.
My grandmother’s brother was one of the students who fought during the Korean War. He was a high school student back then and few months after the war began, he was mobilized to the army. Only thing he received from the army was a gun and a badge for identification. Luckily, he was able to return home, but with a wound by a gunshot that lasted forever.
The tragic event that lasted for 3 years turned the whole Korean peninsula into the field of ruins and brought massive casualties of innocent civilians.
Before the Korean War began, the total population of the North and South Korea together was approximately 30 million people. 15% of the total population were killed or injured due to the war.
80% of industrial infrastructures were destroyed completely, leading to severe poverty. So many people lost their family and friends and some were separated forever.
The war deepened the mistrust between the two Koreas and left a deep wound to both sides.
Such kind of cruelty shouldn’t happen again, and I really hope the North and South could be unified peacefully one day.
LAON:::라온 