Hulver's site || Comments || Washington, D. C. Diaries, Days 2 thru N

Have you seen the Korean memorial? by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #6 Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 07:39:40 AM EST

It looks like they took the disconnected ideas from the 'Nam memorial and combined them - the reflective wall + traditional statues, but rearranged them so that the wall reflects the soldiers.

Very evocative, even during the day. At night it must be quite eerie.

--
You're no good to me dead. Even half-alive would be socially awkward. - Hugh MacLeod
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Never been to the Korean War memorial by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #8 Thu Apr 13, 2006 at 12:50:00 PM EST

Don't know anyone who fought in it. Only went to the Viet Nam memorial that night because a couple of sergeants in my outfit in Korea asked me to look up some names for them while I was on leave. So I got pictures of the memorial at night, with close up of the names of interest.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
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Korean war memorial by cam (2.00 / 0) #9 Fri Apr 14, 2006 at 11:29:05 PM EST

is the best of the lot of them IMO. The others can be too grand and dehumanising. You can feel the mud and cold on the Korean War soldier sculptures. The Vietnam wall is too abstract. It is important to remember that war involves hardship and bloodshed of humans.

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
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I think you're right - for us, and those who by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #10 Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 12:02:36 AM EST

come after us, the Vietnam Memorial will have little meaning; but for those with a personal connection to those names on the wall, it obviously has a powerful impact.

The Korean memorial, though, works on so many levels - right down to the complaint that Korea is the "forgotten war" - even the memorial is made of insubstantial "ghosts" as it were.

That really struck me the next day when I went into the museum of American history and entered the "Americans at War" exhibit - a big chunk of it was Vietnam, but I never did find anything on Korea - and a lot more people died there than in Vietnam.

--
You're no good to me dead. Even half-alive would be socially awkward. - Hugh MacLeod
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Korea tends to get forgotten in Australia by cam (2.00 / 0) #11 Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 09:48:38 AM EST

too as it was all regulars. Vietnam had conscripts so it filtered down more into the citizens conscience. Yet Australia committed squadrons, aircraft carriers, ships, infantry etc. It also did that while it committed assets to the Malayan Emergency.

Konfrontasi is a forgotten war in Australia too. Its effects still continue despite Indonesia democratising, Yudhoyono is playing Konfrontasi like politics at the moment with Australia. It doesnt help that Australia has been inconsistent on its position of refugees opening them up to criticism, but even so, this is classic Au-Indonesia Konfrontasi style politics.

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic
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: Yes. If you had posted that a week ago by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #12 Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 11:26:10 AM EST

I would have been astonished; I consider myself well-read, but I had no idea that total UN casualties in Korea were 10x what the American casualties were till I saw the monument.
Then I realized most of what I "knew" about Korea came from M.A.S.H.

--
You're no good to me dead. Even half-alive would be socially awkward. - Hugh MacLeod
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