Member Column-Trauma, Division from Korean War Endures
by Man C. Cho
LW contributor
When I was born, a B-29 bomber was flying over Busan, the southernmost city in Korea. The following year, on Aug. 15, 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the United States, and Korea was liberated from 36 years of Japanese colonial rule. This moment of liberation is unforgettable for all Koreans. However, rather than splitting Japan, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel.
On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded the South in an effort to unify the peninsula. Within three months, South Korea was on the brink of collapse. But on Sept. 15, Gen. MacArthur's Incheon Landing Operation turned the tide, saving the South.
Sixteen countries sent troops to support South Korea. On July 27, 1953, the United Nations and North Korea made an armistice agreement.
During the Korean War, 54,000 U.N. soldiers died, 137,000 South Korean soldiers were killed, along with 520,000 North Korean troops and 200,000 Chinese soldiers. (About 62,000 soldiers died in the American Civil War.)
The trauma of Koreans massacred by North Korean, Soviet, and Chinese forces, as well as those killed by South Korean and U.S. forces, is still vivid today, leaving no era of Korean politics truly at peace.
From November 1964 to April 1975, South Korean troops were deployed to the Vietnam War at the request of the United States. From 1970 to 1973, I served as a medical officer in the Korean Navy. From 1978, I worked for 10 years as a psychiatrist in the U.S. Army.
During those years, I treated many civilians and soldiers suffering from war PTSD. Korea is the only country that is made up of the most homogeneous ethnic group, and citizens have been divided for 75 years as enemies. It remains the world’s only divided nation with heavily fortified borders where even family visits are impossible.
I came across a moving story written by a South Korean soldier who fought in the Vietnam War. He recalled what Bob Hope described as his most moving performance.
At the end of the show, two men in the front row were clapping joyfully—one had lost his right arm, the other his left.
They clapped together by bringing their arms together. Seeing this, Bob Hope later said: “Those two men taught me what true joy is.” America has sacrificed countless lives for the freedom and peace of mankind, and has become the greatest nation, most trusted and respected in the world.
I pray that America negotiates with North Korea to peacefully reunite North and South Korea.
