Two Brothers

August 18, 2010

After a 24 hour reflection, I would like to share a little about my experience at the Korean War Museum. Yesterday afternoon our group headed off post on this little "field trip" as part of our cultural awareness training. After walking about a minute off of post, we quickly entered a two or three block area that was the grounds of the museum. The first thing that stuck out to me were the giant fighter planes and life size battle ship that you needed to walk around to get to the steps of the museum. We walked the steps and entered a building that was at least five times larger then I had expected. Upon our entrance we were given the option to walk around with a tour guide or by ourselves. Since the extent of my knowledge of the Korean War has been learned through my past obsession with Alan Alda on the TV series MASH and a short two or three hour block on military history I received in Officer Candidate School, I decided to step off with the tour guide hoping for more insight. As we arrived at the first stopping point, our guide, a elderly Korean man with decent English skills, proceeded to give a twenty minute explanation of the beginning of the Korean War. I decided that between still trying to get over my jet lag, the heat and my short attention span that I would part from the tour and lead myself. There was just no other possible way I would have been able to see the entire museum.

As I strolled through the museum, I would stop occasionally to read the historical accounts of the displays but to be honest I was much more intrigued by the artistic factors of the museum then the historical part. Like a museum you might see in the states, there were life size displays of soldiers and civilians in different scenarios that walked you through the pre-war status of the country all the way through the establishment of the armistice in 1953 at the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Different pictures and captions I read reminded me of things I had once learned in history classes but I felt completely detached from any emotion. Even as I walked through the refugee displays, I felt nothing. If you know me well, one of the first things that you learn about me is I am a passionate, bleeding heart, wear my heart on my sleeve kind of person, so going through a museum that walks you through complete destruction of a country in ever fashion, it was a little ironic that I felt nothing. Don't get me wrong it was sobering to see the numbers of casualties that surpassed any estimation I had made in my head and there is a definite stop-in-shoes sculpture shaped as a tear drop made completely of 1300 dog tags to represent the UN soldiers who died during the war, but still I thought it all would have hit me a lot differently then it did. This was my feeling until I went outside to tour the grounds around the museum.

As I began to walk around, I first saw two giant bronze sculptures of soldiers leading civilians in what was hopefully to safety and then I noticed a giant structure off to the side. The previous day I had googled the museum to see what had come up and there was the picture of two soldiers hugging, I had forgotten about it until I saw it in that moment. There was a giant dome and on top two humongous soldiers hugging each other. As I walked closer up to the plaque, I noticed that the artist had named the piece "Two Brothers." It was in recognition of the families, friends and entire nation that was divided in two beyond the control of the people. There was often nothing the people could do being separated from the North and South by two different political ideologies. It is such an atrocity that the world's superpowers after WWII ripped apart this small nation to show their power and political agendas.

This sculpture brings so many thoughts and emotions throughout my mind and heart. I can see it in my mind and I think of hope. Hope that maybe someday these two nations will be reunited in a peaceful way. I think of those who fought and those who died in that struggle beyond their control. As American we look at the casualty numbers and think "how many of our own did we lose?" But I look at the sculpture and remember the figure I saw inside, that millions of Koreans died; military, civilians, North and South, there were so many that lost their lives. I think of those that never got to say goodbye one last time to their loved one before they left to fight for the betterment of their family and nation. I think maybe it even symbolizes how both North and South may still today unite today and mourn over what occurred and how today ripple effects still impact their lives.

I will remember my day at the Korean War Museum, I hope for a very long time to come. And hopefully for those who read this and for myself, the Korean War won't have to be remembered as "The Forgotten War."