By Lee Tae-hoon
The Korean War began 61 years ago today when North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, but the peninsula is technically still at war as the brutal fighting only ended in an armistice in 1953.
It has also long been considered the “forgotten war” in people’s memory, overshadowed by World War II and Vietnam.
An 80-year-old American veteran says he also forgot about the war that he risked his life in decades ago.
He said he felt a tinge of triumph when he saw Seoul’s successful hosting of the Summer Olympics in 1988 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
And in 1995, it finally dawned on him that what he did in Korea was something that should be remembered in history.
“We came out of the woodwork when the Korean War Veterans Memorial was erected in Washington, D.C. in 1995,” Bill Mac Swain, national president of the Korean War Veterans Association based in Texas, said in an interview at a hotel in downtown Seoul, Thursday.
He said South Korea was the most backward country he had ever seen in his life when he first arrived here in December 1951. He was 20.
“The country had just come out of being slaves to the Japanese and it was not a highly technical country at all,” he said.
Japan colonized Korea for 35 years until 1945 as part of its imperialist expansion in Asia.
“There was no greenery on the battlefields as we blew all of the hills up.”
When Swain visited Seoul, streets were unpaved and all buildings were damaged or destroyed.
“Seoul was nothing. There were only three buildings that I could see from where I stayed.”
He said he briefly stayed in Seoul for a little rest and relaxation in a four-story hotel, whose two top floors were blown off, before heading back to war.
Nevertheless, Swain claims that the Korean War was not a loss, but a great victory achieved by both Korean and Allied Forces, many of whom were American.
“When I came again in 2007, I was amazed to see greenery and condominiums everywhere,” he said.
“Then I realized that the Korea War was history and the bona fide change of a nation.”
He said the young South Koreans should be proud of their success and never forget the veterans, including Koreans and Americans, who helped to make that happen.
Swain, however, mainly attributed the success to Koreans.
“Above all it was through their own perseverance that Koreans have rebuilt the country,” he said.
“U.S. veterans, including myself, sometimes get embarrassed to be thanked so much for what we did.”
Swain joined the National Guard in Oklahoma when he was only 15 in 1946 without knowing that one day he would fight a war in Asia.
“There was no sign of war following the end of World War II in 1945. In fact, I lied about my age to join the military. I told them I was 17 when I was only 15.”
He said war was not as it is depicted in the movies.
“We were in trenches in mountains without having tents, hot food, warm clothing, heating. I didn’t have a bath for over six weeks,” he recalled. “Luckily, Korean winter was cold enough to walk around on mines. Some of us got killed stepping on the mines as spring came.”
Swain said people who were in combat do not normally talk about what they did or what happened to them as it brings back bad memories.
“I saw an enemy soldier sitting on a stump, while we went to an outpost in December. He was frozen to death.”
Swain cautiously walked toward him and found his guts were lying all over the ground, sticking out of his body, half of his face missing.
Many veterans suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal.
“I was walking into work one day nearly 20 years after the war and saw a guy walking in front of me all of sudden collapsing,” he said.
“I called for a medic as blood started to come out of his mouth and nose. But there were no medics around because I was no longer in the Army anymore.”
He said he had to move away and wipe his tears as the moment brought back memories of the forgotten war.
U.S. history textbooks describe the Korean War as a “protracted stalemate,” during which 36,516 U.S. soldiers were killed in action, 92,134 wounded, 8,176 went missing in action and 7,245 became prisoners of war.
Tensions still remain high along the Demilitarized Zone which separates the two Koreas, especially following North Korea’s two deadly attacks last year which killed 50 South Koreans.