Comment : The Other Korea Memorial

American veterans of the Korean conflict are honored by a new memorial in Washington, but backers of a West Coast memorial want to see all the nations that fought or aided the United Nations-led effort remembered. STEVE BONG YUB CHO, a Korean immigrant businessman and South Korean Army veteran, is one of the local activists behind plans for a Korean War Memorial in San Pedro’s Peace Park. He talked with JIM BLAIR.

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The Korean War changed my life completely.

I grew up about three miles south of the 38th Parallel. In 1950 I was 15 and going to a junior high school located in another town that I got to by train. On the morning of Sunday, June 25, I was on my way to the station when I heard cannon fire and saw a large number of refugees. Soon, I found myself fleeing on foot and living underground to avoid being drafted by North Korean forces.

My hometown, which was part of the South before the war, is in North Korea now. I haven’t seen or heard anything from my family since then. I don’t think I will ever see them again.

Like many of my young generation, I volunteered as an auxiliary, hauling supplies for the South Korean Army. At 17 I was lucky enough to get a job as a laborer for an American engineer battalion near Seoul. A group of American soldiers formed a committee to help send me to school and every payday they set aside some money. In Korea at the time you had to pay tuition in high school. If you didn’t have enough money, you were just stuck. I began to learn English and American culture.

I completed my education and was drafted into the South Korean Army three years after the war. They needed men who could speak English, and over the next 15 years they sent me to U.S. Army training schools. In 1973 my wife and I emigrated to the United States. I opened my own business and we became citizens. I wanted to do some service to the community and joined the Korean Veterans’ Assn. as a board member. As president of the Western region, my policy was to visit American vets and veterans’ hospitals and show our thanks for their sacrifice.

In December, 1985, I was asked to speak to a San Diego gathering of the Chosin Few, veterans of the U.S. Marine 1stDivision who were finalizing plans for a long-overdue Korean War Memorial [on the West Coast]. I recommended a site near the Korean-American Friendship Bell in San Pedro.

My personal interest in this is gratitude. I was a war orphan. If I hadn’t found a job with the American forces, my life would have gone in a completely different direction. And, from a national point of view, there is gratitude for help from the United Nations and continued American support for Korea and the help we got rebuilding the economy from the ashes of war.

It’s taken years of meetings and design changes to get final approval from government and residents, but we didn’t give up. We have everything ready to go as soon as all the funds can be raised. And we wanted to wait until the Washington national memorial was completed.

The Washington memorial, which was the idea of another combat memorial veterans committee, commemorates American soldiers who died during the Korean War. The one we’re planning is for all the 22 nations--the 17 countries, including the Republic of Korea, that actually sent troops and five others that supported medical teams.

Korea is not a forgotten war. More than 3 million people died during that three-year period, including more than 50,000 young American men and women. They fought to save our freedom and peace.