The Korean War:The lesson that we need to keep teaching ourselves

General Discussion
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Below is the text of a post I made this afternoon (my time) on Facebook because this weekend marks another anniversary of the Korean War’s end.

I am not sharing this at all because I want to start fights. I absolutely do not want anyone to suggest that. I have written what I have written out of profound admiration and sorrow because EVERYONE involved in the Korean War was a human being, and EVERYONE suffered, and EVERYONE lost family and friends and hope and a future to an extent that I simply cannot imagine.

Human suffering is human suffering. No matter who we are, or where we come from or what our national flag looks like, it is a profound love–of family, of homeland, of ideals–that leads people to willingly die in the worst imaginable ways so that elders and babies can be safe, so that young love can grow, so that mature love can sit peacefully, so that the sun can shine quietly over quiet fields and streets.

I just want to say to those who are no longer here, whoever they are, wherever they rest, “I am alive and free because you sacrificed everything. I sleep at night because you didn’t sleep. I eat well because you starved. I owe you everything and can never hope to live a life worthy of what you have given me. I am sorry. All I can say is thank you.”

https://www.facebook.com/SheSeesUSoClearly/posts/1280300325701515

#FallenAndForgottenNoNotYet
#TheHillsNobodyShouldHaveDiedOn
#ThereIsAHoleInHeavenThatWillNeverBeFilled

On July 28, 1953, the Korean War came to an uneasy end sixty-nine days before I was born. Its origins were murky; its time line, from 1950 to 1953, was short and brutal; it destroyed alliances formed in World War II that many assumed were impregnable; it devastated families on both sides of the conflict to an extent that may never be known.

The Korean War was technically a conflict, not a war. Not officially declared by anyone, not officially brought to a conclusion. Since June 25, 1950, hundreds of thousands of Asian families–Chinese, Korean, Japanese and others–have lived with a kind of human brokenness on a scale that can be captured in statistics but that is impossible to imagine.

I am ashamed to say that the conflict which officially ushered in the modern world (the Cold War, shuttle diplomacy, the arms race, the space race, modern germ warfare, modern chemical warfare, modern genocide by mass starvation . . .) almost passed me by this weekend.

Many people of my generation, particularly those in the United States, are not fond of thinking or talking about it.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Russia, China, and the northern provinces of Korea, with the city of Pyonyang as their focal point, strengthened alliances that had been in place for centuries in order to bring postwar order out of chaos.

The southern provinces of Korea, with Seoul as their focal point, feared being overwhelmed by an invasion; they did not have the military or financial resources necessary for an adequate defense. They sought help from the UN and received what turned out to be completely inadequate economic assistance.

On June 25, 1950, Chinese-led northern troops crossed the 38th Parellel, the point on the Korean Peninsula that the UN had designated as a temporary dividing point between factions struggling to decide how Korea would begin recovery from World War II. They caught southern troops off guard and advanced to Seoul which promptly fell and was taken over.

On June 27, U.S. President Harry Truman authorized sending troops to aid United Nations forces in pushing back the invaders. On June 28, General Douglas MacArthur was named Commander of the UN forces.

For three years, what was publicly deemed a “police action” ate up the lives and hopes of millions. According to History.com, the total number of all casualties was five million people, with ten percent being civilians. Forty thousand Americans lost their lives.

Finally, on July 4, 1953, a cease-fire was declared, and 24 days later both sides signed what is called an armistice agreement that ended the fighting but brought no justice for either side, caused no acknowledgement of grievances on either side, and proposed no solutions that would enable both sides to build political, social, and economic trust.

If it is true that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, then certainly we must talk MORE about the Korean War as time goes by, not less.

I can think of no more potent reminder of what happens when people speak but are not heard, stand under the sun but are not seen, and cry aloud about the pain of injustice but are not believed.

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Ditto. Amen. RIP.

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Hey! @jadecloud88, long time no see!! :raising_hand_woman:t5:‍♀

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Maybe because in Germany we are kind of used to the “new tradition” of “coping with the past” (And yes we are by far not perfect and still have a long way to go.) I am sensitive about these topics. Maybe especially since my own country was divided in two parts until I was almost 20, maybe because I sincerely wished North- and South-Korea could find a better way for their people to communicate, I don’t even want to talk about the “leaders” in politics here, because the big stage in politics sometimes doesn’t seem too different from the stage of a theater, what you see might not be what it is.
I won’t talk about the phase the politics are at now, I am only here to express my hope that one day the people once painfully separated can meet again, but just like in Germany the witnesses are getting fewer and sometimes badly needed voices are no longer there to continue talking about what happened - so we will not forget.

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This was wonderful!
The war technically ended in 1953, but it hasn’t officially ended. They’re still in an uneasy truce. That’s why there’s so much news about both countries stockpiling weapons.

This is such a beautiful line. Have you watched A Taxi Driver or Youth of May? Though I didn’t like Youth of May’s main storyline, the setting itself was very thought-provoking. In my review I said:
“This is happening all over the world right now, and I’m glad South Korea as a democracy is using its own history to show how terrible it is when a government turns on its own people.”

We hear about these things all over the world, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It’s so tragic to know that there are people fighting and killing their own people, destroying the peace of their own countries.

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Yeah. I was logged out for a long time, and just gave up trying, till now. Got in this time. YAY!
How have you been? I see you’ve been having tons of fun here hehe. Stay safe!:sunglasses:

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Yea, we all had logging in problems after that update, two updates ago. :smile::smile::smile: These threads :rocket: take off like a rocket sometimes :joy:

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:thinking: Actually, I ask myself the question here,
Are these events that should happen?
Wars, accidents, pandemics, everything that is worthy of being recorded in the history book at some point, as tragic as all of this is, I don’t believe that it could have been stopped :worried:
The only thing that is important for you is how you feel about these events, how you take them in, and how you act or live according to them.

Is this a learning process for all of us?
I dont know

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Maybe it is a learning process for all of us. We learn what goes wrong with certain types of governments or ideals, so we try to change them for the better.

I think we also tend to band together in the face of disaster. It brings us closer to each other, and we feel and empathize with people who we’ll never meet in real life. Disasters also feel like wake-up calls. For example, this pandemic has alerted all of India to the pitiful, incompetent state of the healthcare system. I think a lot has improved now, more oxygen plants are being set up, we’re boosting the system a little. Who knows how many unnamed people have died because of these little things that no one pays attention to? Only when something really big happens do we seem to actually DO something.

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Whew! :sweat_smile: Found it! :camera_flash:This guy! I thought of him when I first read your thread.
https://youtu.be/g_RaHYThlMM
Screenshot_20210817-144030_YouTube

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This “police action” influenced my American generation immensely. The sixties and the seventies, the anti-war movement and Kent State, the Beatles and Transcendental Meditation, hippies and the Mamas and the Papas, Woodstock and the Jesus Freaks–I think all these were a response to growing up with the Korean war and its aftermath as part of the cultural air we all breathed.

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