I was walking in downtown Seoul last week and outside the Seoul Financial Center I saw a number of Korean War photographs on display:

I was surprised to see the pictures on display and enjoyed checking them out. I have seen a number of these type of photographic displays before over at the War Memorial but never on a busy pedestrian sidewalk in downtown Seoul. I’m assuming the city put the photographs on display in honor of Liberation Day but I don’t know for sure. Below the fold are some of the more interesting photos from the war that were on display.

This photo from only the early months of the war is quite possibly the most famous photograph taken during the war of a US soldier comforting one of his fellow soldiers after his buddy has been killed:

The picture really does capture the horror of the early months of the Korean War that the US veterans had to fight through.

However, the war would change completely with the success of Operation Chromite which is most famously captured in this image of US Marines storming the shores of Wolmi-do Island in Incheon Harbor:

The Marine on the top of the ladder is Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez of the Marine Corps landing on Red Beach. Minutes after this photo was taken, Lopez was killed when smothering a live grenade with his body. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

This next picture is of the landing ships dropping off supplies later on in the day at Incheon:

This next picture is of General MacArthur conferring with his commanders after the success of the operation:

There was actually quite a few pictures of MacArthur on display and despite the attempts from the usual suspects to tarnish General MacArthur’s image in Korea, most Koreans I talk to still hold MacArthur in high regard.

The Incheon Landing Operation would lead to the defeat of the North Korean army in South Korea and opened the way for the allied forces to march into North Korea to reunify the country:

Some US units would reach all the way the Chinese border:

As the allied units moved into North Korea more United Nations units such as the 1st Turkish Brigade began to arrive and participate in operations during the war:

As the allies advanced into North Korea, the US air power continued to level the North Korean industrial capacities:

As allied forces marched into North Korea, others landed by sea such as these Marines landing at the port of Wonsan:

Many North Koreans welcomed liberation for the allied forces such as the people who composed the congregation of this Presbyterian church in North Korea:

However, as the allies advanced on North Korea, the Chinese Army was slowly infiltrating into the country in order to launch their own attack that would completely change the complexion of the war:

The Chinese trap was launched in November of 1950 obliterating many US Army units and trapping US Marines and the US Army’s 7th Infantry Division at the Chosen Reservoir in North Korea:

The horror of what these guys went through is evident by the frozen bodies of their comrades they had to cart off the battlefield:

The US soldiers and Marines fought through the Chinese trap at the Chosen Reservoir down lonely windy road in the North Korean mountains:

The US military eventually escaped the trap and evacuated by sea from North Korea and took with them thousands of North Korean refugees:

And that is where the display ended which is fairly typical of Korean War photographic displays which tend to only focus on the first year of the war and less on the two years of hill top warfare that followed that featured many battles just as heroic as what happened in that first year.

Overall though it was a good display to see out on the streets of Seoul although only older Koreans appeared interested in it while everyone else seemed to walk by it without a second thought. It is not called the Forgotten War without reason I suppose.

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