I was 10 years old then and remember every moment in Seoul and the next few years during 6.25.

I guess this boy is about the same age as our Dr. Kwan-Ho Chung*63.

Dr. Ohn is like my younger sister who is 6 years younger than me.

She was on the top of our hand-pulled cart (구루마) and I was following the cart

during the escape from Seoul to hide in a countryside about 400-ri (160 km) away.

However, my sister, only 4 years old then, hardly remembers 6.25

and she seemed to have a leftist's idea during Keun-Hye Park's impeachment.

The actual war experience made such a difference in a person's idea in politics.

 

I guess I could write the same or similar story about 6.25 war like this boy above.

I remember so many sad, fearful, and miserable events.

The whole thing could make a book easily. But I am tired of those memories.

I probably will take all those to my grave and let them be forgotten.

 

As Dr. Ohn said above, history failed us or, if not, we will fail history.

Only 70 years later now, it really doesn't seem to matter after all.

I and my family had paid so much then, but why and what were those sufferings for?

It makes me so sad. Well, just let it be...

요새의 젊은이 들에게는 내 옛날이야기는 그냥 "한 늙은이의 푸념"일 뿐이겠지.

그러나 겪어보지 못한세대가 알아야 할 일이 아닐까요? 실제로 겪은 사람들의 이야기 

는 그 어떤 역사적인 기록보다 심금을 울립니다. 저도 보통사람들이 6.25 부터 9.28일 

까지 어떻게 살았는 가가 궁금해서 찾아보다가 발견한 글을 포스팅했습니다. 

Hi, Doc, you had a good idea. Thank you for that.

I feel that "a common person" who was at the bottom of history has to tell the story.

We are tired of hearing the version of the story from the fxxxing distinguished historians or politicians.

The article above was #1. That means the story comes in a series.

If you can, please continue on at our website.

Maybe, I can remember a few things that I might have forgotten.

https://mnews.joins.com/article/23537656?cloc=joongang%7Chome%7Cnewslist1

(채인덕의 글로벌 줌업: 한반도포기, 제주갈수도, 51년 트루만 전문 미국속내 드러내다)

 

국가간의 조약은 강대국의 국익이 맞아 떨어질때는 유효해도 국익에 도움이 안되면 강대국 

은 언제 그랬냐는 듯이 파기한다. 동맹도 마찬가지이다. 동맹군이 점령군 노릇을 해도 

약소국은 꼼짝 못한다. 수필의 제목이 너무 나약하게 들려온다. 남한의 국익을 지키는 것은 

남한의 국력이 가장 중요하다. 동맹도 강력한 국력을 기반으로 해야 한다.  

Of course, who would not have a memorable story along 6.25? 

But I was on the 6^th grade with a fresh young untattered brain like all other kids' so that its memory

is still embedded deep in my brain despite I am reaching (or perhaps already in) to the senile demented

status sooner or later!

 

Anyhow, yes, I do have a vivid memory on its Sunday afternoon watching the soldiers on the truck,

singing some patriotic songs loudly, toward the north, MIARI on the DONAMDONG street–

I was visiting one of my classmate’s house-. But its reality ‘the War started’ really didn’t get on my skin

till early next morning.

 

We got a telephone call to our house early in the morning from my mother’s elder brother, Cho Huon-Young,

who was house speaker equivalent congressman of the Parliament (GOOKWHE)- he is the father

of poet Cho JiHoon and kidnapped by NK and subsequently, Kim Il-sung used him as a propaganda tool

for the NK-SK reunification through radio broadcasts for decades till he passed away-, alarming us

to leave Seoul immediately.

 

He told my parents that he spent the whole evening at GOOKWHE to debate what to do and finally he himself

decided to remain in Seoul to defend(?) Seoul – SASOO?- with a few more senior congressmen

including Cho SoAng, the chairman of GOOKWHE although SeungMan Rhee decided to escape from Seoul

to Busan. He claimed 'he has a responsibility for the country so that he has to stay in Seoul

but we have no obligation as he has as parliament representative'.

 

Besides, he warned my father that my father will be one of the few in Seoul, NK will go after/look for

to take back to NK because my father was one of 3 former members of the communist-supporting

anti-Japanese resistance group, he joined while he was in Kyoto during the college before WWII,

who refused to come up to NK to join to the rest of 44 ML party after WWII.

 

We were all shaken and hidden/tore away all his photos on the album to make sure NK would not

use them to track down my father and rushed to leave home at MyungyoonDong to move to my father’s

company building right across ChoHeung Bank on ChongRo first. We, then, couldn’t figure out

what to do and remained at the building till dusk.

 

Meanwhile, my father’s younger brother, Lee Ho, then CHIAN-GOOKJANG (= Chief Commissioner

of National Police?) stopped over at the company building to take my father to the corner room-

I sneaked in to listen- and handed over one pistol with a set of the bullets asking my father to shoot

two daughters (=my elder sisters) in the case when we were caught and the NK police should try to take

two girls away because he knows what they would do to the young girls.

 

I informed to my mother what I heard/saw to alarm such serious status and my mother begged to my father

to abandon the company building in the center of the city to move to one of his employee’s house located

to MAPO near to ‘SAET-GANG at least overnight to see what will happen, planning to move to the south

next day if needed.

 

We had to walk down to MAPO through drenching rains -we used to have two jeeps belonging to the company

for private use but the government took/drafted them overnight-, carrying only the cash in the bags as much as

we could accommodate, which the company withdrew/cashed out from the bank in the morning to give/hand

over the stockholders for such emergency situation.

 

Soon after we arrived at MAPO late night, we heard HanGang Bridge was cut off/destroyed so that no longer

possible to cross. Through the night we desperately looked for the boat to cross the river and in the late morning,

we were lucky enough to get one small fishing boat to cross SAET-GANG and safely crossed the river.

Not many minutes after we crossed, walking away from the riverbank, we saw the NK soldiers showed up

on the opposite/MAPO-side riverbank we just crossed, shooting away the peoples to deter the crossing.

 

So we narrowly escaped the disaster and then walked all the way to SUWON to my father’s friend Judge Hong’s

residence to stop over to recharge for another long walk to PyongTaek through the countryside roads to avoid

the NK soldiers on the main road for the next two days, and finally we were able to get on the flatbed train

from CHONAN to DAEGU.

 

Indeed, we were lucky we were able to escape from Seoul avoiding the arrest and stayed at Daegu

and then Busan till we got back to Seoul after 9.28. But we lost quite a few family members through the war,

leaving many scars in my psychology like others to give an extra motivation to settle here in the U.S. 

No more war for my own children!  

BB Lee

We, Koreans, are gladly talking about the tragedies, atrocities, and other unfortunate events in our past,

such as 임진왜란, 병자호란, 6.25 and etc.

No matter how bad they might have been, they fostered some kind of basic spirits and determinations to us.

And to this day, those characters we carry may be the best blessings God gave us.

My personal experiences in 6.25 are what made me so strong, undefeatable, and courageous.

God takes away something from us and then he giveth us some other stuff at the same time.

And, in the end, the disasters turn into blessings in disguise.

Without 6.25, I may not be what I am today.

The fact that I had lived through the 6.25 is something I would never give up for anything.

https://youtu.be/kZaq-x-tUlo

(전쟁고아의 피난)

http://theme.library.kr/korean-war/saup.html

(경기도민 한국전쟁 실향민 이야기)

 

박정희 시대에 한강의 기적의 기초를 다진세대가 6.25전쟁 때 유년기를 

보낸 사람들이었다. 서독 광부와 간호원, 월남전 참전 등에 참여 했던 

세대가 사라져 가고있다. 이들의 아들, 딸들에게 이들의 경험담을 알려 

주어야 한다. 다행히 많은 자치 단체에서 그들의 이야기를 보존하려고 

노력하고 있다. 

“Perhaps the values that comprise a decent civilization and those needed to defend 

it abroad will always be at odds. A complete triumph for either faction would probably 

result in disaster” ( quote from the book “ This Kind of War)

 

We cannot make the world perfect as much as life is not perfect.

Dr. 온: 뒤늦게 문의합니다. 

제목이 14세 소년이 겪은 한국전쟁이라고 썼는데, 그 분이 바로 민병설씨인가요.

민병설씨가 역사가인가요?

대단히 전문적인 재료로 엮었는데, 그 14세 소년이 직접 무얼하였는지는 기록되어있지 않습니다. 

그 소년의 이야기는 전혀 없어요.

차라리 민병설씨가 연재한 육이오 전쟁사라고 하는게 좋을 듯싶군요.