Old memories of Yongsan Garrison

By Choe Chong-dae

It has been 50 years since my first visit to Yongsan Garrison in the early 1970s. I was there to attend a welcoming reception in honor of a senior United Nations Command (UNC) official. Arriving at the main gate of the base, I explained to a security guard that I was going to the UNC party at Hartell House, an officers' club on South Post, and showed the invitation.

However, he called the secretary of the general hosting the party and asked him to escort me to Hartell House because I looked so young as a man in his early 20s. I managed to join the reception on time and had the honor of meeting many distinguished guests who were diplomats, Korean government officials and UNC delegates.

Back then, I was unfamiliar with foreign cultures and diplomatic events. That first cross-cultural experience will stay with me forever. Standing in front of Hartell House, I glanced at the signboard with four stars on a flag. Hartell House was a single-story building used as the main club for U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and UNC senior officers and generals. To me, it and other sprawling facilities at Yongsan Garrison were a portal to a mysterious and exotic world.

During the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when Korea was still a developing country, many Korean people felt proud of visiting facilities such as Hartell House, the U.S. Embassy Club and U.S. Officers' Club inside Yongsan Garrison.

Today, Dragon Hill Lodge in the compound continues to be a popular venue to deepen friendships between Koreans and Americans as much as when it was built in 1991.

Even outside Yongsan Garrison, there have been other facilities such as the UNC Officers Mess (Club) in the United Nations Compound in Dongbinggo-dong, the USAF Seoul House in Chungjeongno, and a club in the Naeja Hotel in downtown Seoul for U.S. military personnel. These clubs in Seoul were created to foster cross-cultural understanding and promote international relations between Koreans and Americans as well as other foreigners.

Furthermore, because a considerable number of USFK personnel resided within Yongsan Garrison, the compound played a significant role in creating jobs for many Koreans. It contributed towards the development of modern and post-war Korea by introducing Koreans to a wide range of Western culture such as music, the English language, art, fashion, cuisine, engineering and literature. These remarkable influences on Korean society deserve to be recognized.

Over the past seven decades, Yongsan Garrison in the heart of Seoul has served as the most important strategic U.S. military base for defending against North Korea's threat. It has been home to the headquarters for UNC, USFK and the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC). However, the compound is filled with a sense of shame because it previously housed the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese colonial regime in Korea from 1910 to 1945.

Today the CFC headquarters remain in the compound while the majority of facilities are closed, ever since the USFK moved its headquarters to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek in 2018. Yongsan Garrison is expected to be transformed into an urban park that will require the demolition of a majority of the existing buildings constructed in different periods.

I urge the Korean government to pay special attention to preserving some unique buildings even if they symbolize our shameful past. No matter what, these buildings are cultural gems because they carry colorful memories and valuable lessons for future generations.

Choe Chong-dae is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is president of Dae-kwang International Co., and director of the Korean-Swedish Association. He can be reached at choecd@naver.com