Sunday, November 01, 2009

Did anyone die?


We just got back from a trip to the DMZ which separates North and South Korea. There was much to see.

An amusement park near the tourist hotel (FYI, it strikes me as strange too)

A tour which included the Peace Bridge. A train that was shot up


A tunnel which the North Koreans had set up to eventually invade South Korea where photographs were not permitted. Why not allow pictures of a tunnel that thousands of people travel through a day?

We saw the Peace Bell, which at 21 tons is enormous.




We saw exhibits and all sorts of good stuff about the partnership that is building between the North and South. The fact that they are technically still at war was somehow forgotten.

Somehow there was no remembrance of all the men who died in the war. I asked the tour guide and she said there was none. There is one small sign saying 6 million casualties... not sure where the number comes from.

Wikipedia says that 58,121 Korean soldiers, 36,503 American soldiers and about 5,000 men from other countries gave their lives to protect Korea. How can they not be remembered at the DMZ? I am sure they must have a memorial somewhere (I have written the US Embassy to find out if they know of anywhere). It seems to me that a memorial would be set up in a prominent place to remember these men.

When I was back in the US, my father and I always stopped everything when the names of the men who recently died in war rolled across the screen on TV. It seems like the least we could do. I guess I am old fashioned, but I wanted to take a minute and pay respect to those who died. Shocking to me that there wasn't any place to do it here.

1 comment:

Diane said...

I agree...