How do Americans today recognize the Korean War?

Americans’ Perspective of the Korean War

 

There is the misconception that the Korean War was a proxy war, between the USA and the USSR, with Korea only being a pawn in their more significant conflict, but this is not entirely correct. This war was an ideological war. The North Korean regime attempted to unify the two Koreas by force and overthrow South Korea’s capitalism and democracy system to establish a unified constitutional state instead. This invasion sparked a war that tore through the peninsula and left destruction in its wake.

 

In America, the older generations’ knowledge of Korea is relatively small and usually limited to only the Korean War. Also, the information about the war that people know is that it was a war, and a couple of tv shows and movies made of the war. These tv shows and movies cause many misconceptions of the Korean War.

 

Through the older generations, younger generations learn the history of the past. So, much of the information in History textbooks are either incorrect or lacking. For example, many of the textbooks in the 1990s blamed the Soviet Union for initiating the war or that the United States helped prevent the spread of communism, attaching a heroic tone to the United States’ involvement. This information does not give precedent to Korean people fighting the war and makes it seem like other countries were more involved than the Korean peninsula itself. Today there is much wrong information, such as the USA or USSR starting the war or ending when it has not. This information is being corrected but is still lacking in many ways.

 

Even now that the world is changing, people’s knowledge about Korea is in the entertainment industry. The knowledge learned is not a bad thing. However, I think it is sad that people do not know about the history of a war that multiple countries have participated in. Even in school textbooks, the only information about the Korean War is a small section that does not convey the experience of the Korean people or the people who participated in the war. To remember the hardships and sacrifices of these people is to respect their memories.

 

Many people have family members who participated in the war. These are the people who have never forgotten the sacrifices of the past. Through those who have lived and lost, we learn from the past to make the future better. So, I hope that many people will learn of the past and use the knowledge to make our future a better place.

 

 

Written by : Mariah Abdelfattah
From Southern California, United States. Currently a senior B.A Candidate in Korean Language Flagship at the University of Hawaii Mānoa. Attending Korea University as an exchange student and a Intern at VANK(Voluntary Agency Network of Korea).