Having had my fair dose of the atrocities of war, the Sell Your Seoul people really wanted to hammer the point home. Next stop? The War Memorial Museum of Korea. Displaying over 8,500 war related artifacts, the museum is a giant and modern complex with a beautiful front plaza and a plethora of exhibits in English. As I arrived, a musical procession was taking place in front of the building. In a weird way, it reminded me of the plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Except more Korean, and with less marble. I was met by Scotty and a docent named Mr. Chang, who would together guide me through an intricately detailed display of the Korean war. And I mean detailed. Everything from military fatigues and weapons to interactive maps and a lost in combat memorial. Sobering indeed.
I studied the Korean War in a course at the Fletcher School, but to see the artifacts was a useful addition to my pre-existing knowledge. I got the most out of this experience by speaking to Scotty and Mr. Chang directly. Did you know Korean men are required to serve in the military for two years? Scotty was deployed to Iraq during his service and Mr. Chang was an interpreter in the military. When we started talking about North Korea and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), things really got interesting. The DMZ was actually drawn by world leaders in thirty minutes based on topographical features. It stretches across the entire Korean peninsula at 155 miles and is under continuous military observance. Every 200 meters is a large white post marked as a "Military Demarcation Line." A tall and ominous barbed wire stretches the entire length. The DMZ is four kilometers wide, with the two kilometers on the South belonging to South Korea and the two kilometers on the North marked as North Korean territory. This is a real life no man's land. You get caught in here? You are shot. And it happens, more often than one would think. I kept on putting myself in the Koreans' shoes. Families are separated for decades. It would be as if a line were drawn down the center of the United States. West coast goes one way, East coast another. The thought was just a little too much for me to handle.
Then, Scotty and Mr. Chang told me about the tunnels. Between 1974 and 1990, the South Koreans have discovered four "infiltration tunnels" beneath the DMZ. A violation of the Armistice Agreement, one tunnel can bring more than 100,000 North Korean troops into the South in just a few hours. "So wait," I ask, "these aren't for spies?" Um, no Sandy. You see, this war is still going on. It is just in a phase of cease fire. The South Koreans have sealed the tunnels but I get the feeling that more tunnels are indeed in existence and are yet to be discovered. Enter spooked chills.
I'm fascinated and yet sobered by all of this. It's one thing to read about history in a book. It's quite another to speak to the people who are still effected by it. I began to think of Mort, my old neighbor from my year living in Santa Monica, California. A Korean War Veteran, it was all he would ever talk about to me and my roommates Kristy & Vanessa. And now - I understand why. To be involved in something of this magnitude, a war that shakes the core of ones beliefs and questions the goodness of humanity. It was all too overwhelming. Mort, I finally can begin to understand.
Needing some fresh air and the happiness brought by sunshine, I walked outside into a field of helicopters, old school war aircraft, and tanks. Boys' stuff, I think to myself. Might as well drive a tank while I have the chance! Inner tomboy - release! I climb up the metal stairs and then - CLONK. My head whacked so hard into the metal doorway. So hard. These tanks were not built for big European mutts like me. Realizing that I was indeed not bleeding from the head, I tucked myself into a ball and gingerly stepped through the tiny doorway.
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