War Memorial

Korean War
Yesterday, Darrell and I visited the War Memorial in Seoul. It was pretty much what one would expect of a war memorial of any country. You play up the heroics of your side while demonizing the enemy. So I got to see some rooms of the evils of "the commies" and the arrival of "the red Chinese," while the attrocities dealt out to the North Koreans and Chinese were glossed over, or looked at in a slightly dishonest light.
For example during the war there were volunteers who "took care of the communist threat in the villages" were portrayed as heros, when in reality they were slightly less heroic, often killing people "for being communist" without any proof, evidence, or a trial...a lot like the Salem witch trials.
I know that no country (with the possible exception of Germany) is going to highlight the misdeeds of their military history, but for a country like Korea who wails so loudly about another country's (Japan) selective memory for wartime attrocities to do esentially the same thing smacks of hypocricy...
This is not to say I did not enjoy my trip. I did learn a lot and it was interesting...especially the area with old school weaponry...

Here's my man Lee Sun-shin (1545 - 1598). He is a legendary hero in Korea, who invented what Koreans refer to as the first armored battleships. He also defeated the Japanese, keeping Korea free from Japanese rule for a period.

The 거북선 (geobukseon "Turtle Ship.") This was the ironclad warship invented by Yi Sun-shin in 1592. Yi Sun-shin used this item to soundly defeat the Japanese. Please note Darrell in front of said turtle ship.

Here we see some iron age armor. I took this picture at the War Memorial of Korea. It's a scale mail type armor. The shield looks almost Roman to me, but it's from the good old Land of Morning Calm.

Here's one of many big ass swords I saw at the War Memorial. It was pretty sweet, but was not the largest of the swords I saw.

Sweet lids! Here are some rockin' hats. I particularly enjoy the hat on the guy in the purple the best. I wish I had such an outstanding cap myself.

This was in the section that displayed uniforms and gear of foreign nations involved in Korea in the late 19th century. For those people who are fools this is samurai armor from Japan.

My favorite of these 19th century shields is the shield made of woven ratton...like a basket. 등패는 겁나게 굉장히 좋아!!

Here's my neighborhood, or a close replica of it. In reality, this is a replica of a Seoul neighborhood during the Korean War.

Gay Army Dudes? This is a statue of a North Korean and South Korean brother embracing on the battlefield. Inside the base of the statue is a mosaic "depicting the spirit of the Korean people." After witnessing this mosaic, I came to the conclusion that the spirit of the Korean people boils down crap and fighting.

Some cudgels. I took this picture at the War Memorial is Seoul, before I saw the sign that prohibited taking pictures of such things. Oh well...they should have posted such signs at the enterance as opposed to 20 feet from the exit (enterance and exit were in different locals).

빨갱이야? (I'm a red?) No. This is me infront of some kind of Soviet truck from the Korean War era. I look really confused for some reason.
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