Promotional material for the special commentary program at the War Memorial of Korea. The phrase ‘Korean War’ and ‘Resist America, Aid Korea,’ a term glorifying the Chinese Communist Party's intervention, are placed side-by-side with characters symbolizing Korean and Chinese children at the top of the illustration. The post was deleted on the morning of the 9th following a flood of complaints. [Screenshot from the War Memorial of Korea website]

As the greenery of June deepens, the scent of this land becomes heavy and brackish. It is because of the immense weight of blood that soaked the mountains and rivers of the Korean Peninsula for three years, starting in the summer of 1950.

To defend a foreign ideology called liberal democracy, young people from all over the world gathered in a small country in the Far East they had never even heard of. More than 36,000 American soldiers lost their lives on this soil, and over 100,000 suffered the loss of limbs. 

The War Memorial of Korea: A Sacred Place Remembering the Noble Sacrifice

Over 1,000 British soldiers, 740 Turkish soldiers, 310 Canadian soldiers, along with combat troops from 16 countries and medical support teams from 6 countries. A total of over 150,000 UN forces casualties and 140,000 ROK soldiers were tragically sacrificed. We have miraculously built a tower of prosperity on the barren foundation of their crushed bones and flesh.

The War Memorial of Korea is a national sanctuary built to remember and commemorate that noble shedding of blood. Yet, in the very midst of this solemn month of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, a devastating and bizarre initiative has emerged, making one question their ears.

The War Memorial of Korea announced that it would be conducting a special commentary program from June 13th to 25th, under the title ‘Another Interpretation of the Korean War.’ The reality of this ‘another interpretation’ is shockingly the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party: ‘Resist America, Aid Korea (抗美援朝·Helping Korea against American Imperialism).’

They intend to disseminate the invasion logic of a war criminal state that claimed millions of lives to visitors, cloaked in the flimsy guise of ‘diversity of interpretation,’ right in the heart of the War Memorial of Korea, a symbol of South Korea's security.

A chilling sadness, beyond anger, flows down my spine.

Some may lecture me, posing as enlightened intellectuals. “Isn't it narrow-mindedness to judge a lecture by its title alone, without even hearing its content?” they might say. They would apply the standard of tolerance, asking, “What’s wrong with cross-examining diverse perspectives in the academic sphere?”

This is truly an idle and sickening intellectual vanity.

Of course, historical events can have various perspectives. However, this is an intellectual luxury permitted only when the boundaries between good and evil are blurred. The Korean War was a clear and unilateral illegal invasion orchestrated by Kim Il-sung, approved by Stalin, and supported by Mao Zedong.

Against American Imperialism to Aid Korea: Whose Perspective Is This?

The so-called ‘Resist America, Aid Korea’ intervention by China was nothing more than an imperialistic military intervention that brutally crushed the Republic of Korea, which was on the verge of unification, and has driven the North Korean populace into a 70-year-long hell of starvation.

We know a chalice of poison is poisonous without needing to drink it. The sophistry of a murderer should be soberly examined in the defendant’s dock in court, not presented as a ‘perspective’ for cultured appreciation on an altar of remembrance where the victims’ blood has not yet dried.

There is no madman at Israel's Holocaust Memorial who would hand a microphone to someone to present ‘another interpretation’ of the Auschwitz massacre from ‘the Nazi perspective.’

The moment the political propaganda of war criminals from a clear war of aggression, the very weapons that massacred millions of their own citizens and allied youths, are brought into a national sanctuary as ‘another perspective,’ the most fatal insult to the patriotic spirits is already complete. It is constitutional terrorism that is not even worth listening to.

There is an old saying that one should not take in beasts with black hair. I keenly recall this old adage, which warns against the chilling ingratitude of humans who so easily betray the life-risking kindness of others, in the current reality.

If that ungrateful beast were to be reborn as one colossal nation, it would surely be the current Republic of Korea. Though rescued by the self-sacrifice of unrelated foreign youths standing at the brink of ruin, this surviving nation now has its own state institutions leading the charge in placing the propaganda of the enemy that sought to massacre them on an altar of ‘diversity.’

Looking at this horrific act of self-harm, where the benefactor is insulted and the murderer's sophistry is given a microphone, what would the 36,000 fallen American soldiers and the patriotic spirits of the UN forces buried underground want to say to this traitorous nation?

That chilling hypocrisy, where the nation’s very soul has been surrendered at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party, intoxicated by ideology. Faced with the sordid face of a nation that has become a beast with black hair, the deep green of June feels dreadfully brutal today.

◆ Author Park Ju-hyun

Composer, music director, columnist, and essayist. Actively expresses opinions on political, current affairs, and social issues on Facebook, gaining the empathy of many. Authored the essay collection ‘Crossing the Stormy Sea.’