Comments on: Places In Korea: Yanghwajin Foreigners Cemetery

By: kangaji

kangaji — Mon, 16 May 2011 00:59:02 +0000

I was at Seoul Union Church the Sunday after Underwood passed away. One thing that you don’t really get from the whole memorial church vs. seoul union church foreigners vs. Koreans narrative is that SuCH had English speaking Koreans, mixed Koreans, overseas Koreans, and foreigners. I kind of want to go back to the memorial church and play dumb next time I’m in Korea to see what these guys say when I show up again.

By: Harold Shaw

Harold Shaw — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:05:29 +0000

I was following the life of William Hamilton Shaw who was killed after the Inchon landing. He also served in PT Squadron 35, PT Boat 518 during the Normandy invasion. My wife's uncle was also in Squadron 35 at Normandy.

By: guitard

guitard — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:34:14 +0000

Besides the missionaries some other foreigners that would end up being buried in Yanghwajin were ex-servicemembers that married local Korean women and made Korea their permanent home.

Many of those who died in the late-60s / early-70s (those whose grave markers are shown above) weren't ex-service members – they were active duty combat casualties in Vietnam.

I assume they had Korean wives who stayed in Korea while they were deployed to Vietnam – they got killed in Vietnam – and the decision regarding the disposition of their remains was left to their spouses – who opted to have them brought to Korea for internment.

There is a fairly large section of US military graves there with dates of death during the Vietnam era.

I work with someone whose father was killed in Vietnam while he and his Korean mother were living in Seoul. Even after his father was killed, he was allowed to continue attending school on base for several years until he graduated from SAHS.