25 June 1950 – Present...

Jaclyn can sometimes read my mind. She really wanted to go to The War Memorial of Korea (albiet for a different piece of history than I am interested in) and I enjoyed it just as much as she did. Maybe my love of history has rubbed off on her a bit? ;)

She was really intersted in seeing a full size model of a Turtle Ship because she had to teach a lesson on them and knew all about them. They were large warships that were used by the Koreans to fight against the Japanease in the Joesan dynasty (15th - 19th century).



There were 5 different kinds of cannons on the ship, on every side and on each end there was a big dragon head that could launch cannons or shoot flames out of its mouth. On the top of the boat, there were metal spikes sticking up on the roof. Since the Japanease were very adept at hand to hand combat, they would often jump on ships and take them over that way. However, when they jumped onto a turtle ship, thier feet would be impaled. Preeeeeety smart, Korea!

The museum also had a lot of things from the Joesan Dynasty and ancient fighting tactics, but the part that I was interseted in was the Korea War section. Obviously, this is a huge part of thier history - considering it is still going on - and they had an entire floor dedicated to it. I surprisngly know very little about this war, even though my favourite part of history to study is 20th century American history! I learned all about the timeline of events, US/UN involvement (including the name of a fallen Canadian solider - Andrew George Howse - hmmm... any relation??), and the creation of the DMZ (which we will be touring later this week!).

They had a "modern" warfare section with displays on the current South Korean military and tensions with North Korea. Mom and I even went on a simulation flight of a Korean fighter jet (but unfortuently, was not very good...). Around the outside of the museum, while under construction (of course), there were a lot of really beautiful and touching statues and memorials. My favourite one was the Peace Clock Tower. There were two girls in this staute holding up two clocks.


One clock displays the current time whlie the other has the date and time of when the Korean War began. There is a "bullet" hole on the glass and the clock is frozen. There is a separate clock located on the ground beside the statue and a sign saying that whenever Korea reunifies and the war is over, then this clock will go up and replace the stopped clock. I thought it was such a thought provoking and beautiful scuplture.