Korean War Memorial

Since my children's Grandpa Charlie served in the Korean War, I made sure to visit the War Memorial here in Seoul. I wished that Matt and Aiden and Cameron were there with me; they would have loved the planes and tanks.

The memorial is very large and very impressive both on the outside and inside. In addition to remembering the Koreans who fought and died in the war, each of the nations who sent troops is honored as well. Not only is each nation recognized, but the names of the people who lost their lives from 15 countries are engraved on the walls. The flower arrangement is placed in the hall with the names of Korean soldiers. As the website says, "This is a place we learned lessons from war and to make a practical determination that we will never experience the tragedy of war again. "

The highlight of my visit to the memorial was my conversation with the man in the picture. He began chatting with me as I walked past the tanks and planes and took pictures. He was a veteran of the war himself; he told me he had loaded ammunition into the anti-aircraft guns. He not only spoke English well, but he told me he had learned Japanese as a school boy, during the time Japan had occupied Korea. Then when the Japanese left at the end of WW II, this man (I never learned his name) was living in Pyongyang, so as a middle school student he learned to speak Russian. He said sometimes all of these languages got mixed up in his head into one mess! He asked me if anyone in my family had served in the war, and I told him about Grandpa Charlie. This man repeated to me several times, "Please thank him for me and for our country. We had no food, no clothes, no money, and the Americans fed and clothed us and fought for us. Please tell him thank you."

There were many groups of school children there; I took a picture of this adorable group.