The scene was August 1950. Bullets and cannon balls showered the banks of the Nakdong River. South and North Korean forces were fiercely fighting each other to defend and break the Nakdong Maginot Line. One day, a South Korean platoon leader got hit and fell down to the ground, shouting Water, water, water! A soldier next to the fallen officer grabbed his helmet and ran down to the river, zig-zagging to dodge the enemy fire. He came back with the helmet full of water, and handed it over to the officer. The officer gulped down the water and then finished his last breath. His comrades had already withdrawn from the position, however, and he had to crawl to pass through the enemy lines. Then, he heard a thunder ball exploding and lost consciousness.
Awakening, he noticed his right arm riddled with shrapnel. He threw away his gear, including his dog tags, rifle, helmet, and ammo. Then, he started crawling across the field. Fortunately, he reached friendly lines and was evacuated for medical treatment. Later released from the hospital, he came back to duty and marched up to the northern tip of the Korean Peninsula with his right hand still wrapped in cast until the Chinese army counterattacked and pushed the UN forces back.
In the meanwhile, the Defense Minister had mistakenly delivered a letter to his family, notifying them that he had been killed in action. The army believed he was killed in action based on the dog tags and other pieces of evidence left along the Nakdong River. Shocked at the news, his mother slipped on an icy road and broke her arm.
This is the story of a Korean War veteran that I heard in elementary school.
A water container was recently discovered in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. An army excavation team concluded that the canteen, on which a serial number 0167621 was inscribed, belonged to Private Min Tae-shik. Unfortunately, all of his kin have passed away, leaving the canteen unclaimed again.
A similar episode occurred last year when a military team excavated a container with the name Jang Bok-dong inscribed in Chinese characters. A surviving family member was found to take it back.
South Korea had done nothing for forgotten soldiers such as these for 47 years. Only in 2000 did it begin to make efforts to reclaim the remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War. So far, 1,797 bodies have been excavated. 53 out of them have been identified and 24 of them have been returned to the families. If only we had started earlier! Administration after administration, the South Korean government closed its eyes to the soldiers killed or missing in action. One week from today, we will commemorate the 57th anniversary of the Korean War. Our army hospitals are still treating inpatient soldiers wounded in the war. But they grieve not for their wounds, but for the lost memory of the war among Koreans.