Taek Min kim / Chapter 5 / Narrative Composition 11am

My grandfather and the Korean War

  

I made an interview with my grandfather because I wanted to know how he survived the Korean War. I was curious about the difference between history book I studied and the reality which my grandfather had experienced.

 

Face filled with wrinkles, he always welcomes me with a pleasant smile. My grandfather is about 5 and a half feet tall, slightly stooped with age. I haven't tried to talk about when he was at my age. However, when I had to seek an interviewee for my essay I thought about him; I came up with the idea of writing a paper of him in his twenties. Thinking about his twenties to make some questions for him to answer in the interview Korean War brought up to my mind. I supposed, since he was born in the 1930's, one of the most important incident in his twenties would be the 6-2-5 Upheaval. Finally I was getting the image of my Interview.

My grandfather takes residence in Duksan, Chungcheongbuk-do which takes hours to go by car and since I don't have a car I had to call him and have an interview on the phone. It was quite frustrating to call him and start asking about the war. Our talk started with greetings.

"Oh, grandson, It is so good to hear your voice after a long time!" my grandfather said with a glad voice. It was the reason I felt so awkward to call him for an interview. I hadn't made a call for him often and it was embarrassing for me to tell him that I called him for an interview.

"Well, actually grandpa, I need an interview about your experience during the Korean War, for my homework." I said with a carful voice. However, he was still welcoming my call with his bright voice.

"You don't need to get frustrated grandson, I'm glad that I could help your work."  

"Thank you, then I will start the questions, what was your first thought when you heard that a war broke out?"

"I was 16 when the war broke out. On the first day of the war our government told us that it is not a big deal and they were handling the problem so we don't have to worry about it. I first believed it because there often were some small engagements on the 38^th parallel that time." He continued. "Soon it turned out that it wasn't like what they first said, our army kept losing to the North Korean army and my family and I needed to evacuate from our home town."

"The evacuation from your home, I can't imagine how hard it was to flee from war, how was it like?"

"It was tragic my father carried piles of baggage on his back and my mother also carrying some stuffs from home had my youngest sister on her back. I carried some too and held my younger brothers hand while we were heading for my uncle's house in Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk-do. It was a long way evacuating because we only moved by walking, it took more because we were loaded with necessaries. We were starving we couldn't find much to eat. I still remember the feeling of starvation and the terrible pain on my foot and body by the long walk."

"I want to know more about your experience of starvation not only when you were evacuating but during the war, how was the food situation like?" I asked.

"The starvation, it is very tragic. I am glad that my son and you didn't experience that agony. Peoples swarmed to safe places and Daegu was also filled with starving peoples. Some people even died from the starvation. We maintained life with poor and little food. We even ate what we called pig's gruel which is made with food wastes from the US Army camps. It was very filthy but we had to live. We had to filter out trashes like cigarette butt and other trashes in it and boil it with some potatoes in the house."