War Memorial Exhibition Turns to Daily Life in Korean War

A special exhibition tracing the lives of people who lived through the Korean War opened on the 3rd at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul's Yongsan District. Titled "That Day, My Daily Life Became War," the exhibition runs through November 29 in the special exhibition hall on the second floor and focuses on records of ordinary life during the war rather than on battles and military events.

About 200 items are on display, including photographs, letters, diaries and household goods that show the lives of soldiers, refugees and communities after the war. The artifacts range from notebooks and records that soldiers left on the battlefield to diaries written while fleeing and materials related to schools set up for refugee children, offering a concrete look at how people lived at the time.

Previously unreleased photographs, letters and documents telling the story of a Korean woman named Yu Seon and an American serviceman named Ralph are also on view. The exhibition is arranged so that visitors can look into life at the time through the meetings and partings, the family ties and the traces of daily routine that one individual experienced amid the vast events of the war.

Throughout the hall, materials show how the war transformed the spaces of everyday life. Records of matters that seemed removed from the fighting — homes, schools, families, and questions of food and clothing — convey how close a reality the war was for the people of that time.

The exhibition looks at the concrete lives of those who endured the period rather than at victories, defeats or accounts of combat. Through personal records long obscured by grand history, it shows how the war 76 years ago changed the daily lives of ordinary people.

Related events are also planned. On September 12, the memorial will host a talk with Charlie Smith, a bereaved family member of an American Korean War veteran who donated the "Yu Seon and Ralph" materials. He will share with visitors the stories behind the materials and how they came to be donated. The exhibition is open free of charge from Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays, from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.