Highlights Archives
Stories from the "Forgotten War" — Korea
To many Americans, place names like Normandy, Iwo Jima and Hiroshima are burned into our consciousness and loaded with meaning. But what do the Chosin Reservoir, the Yalu River and Taejon mean? For many people, not much — that is why the Korean War is often referred to as the "Forgotten War." Korea was sandwiched between what have become pivotal global events in the popular imagination, beginning five years after World War II and less than a decade prior to the protracted conflict in Vietnam.
But the three-year engagement that ended in a ceasefire is anything but forgotten by Wisconsin Korean War veterans and their families. Those memories are now recounted and preserved in a new two-part documentary, Wisconsin Korean War Stories, airing November 13 at 8 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Television and on WMVS-TV/Milwaukee.
The Korean War began in 1950 when North Korean communist troops invaded South Korea, an American ally. Seeking to protect South Korea and to prevent the spread of communism in Asia, President Harry Truman sent General Douglas MacArthur (son of noted Wisconsin Civil War colonel Arthur MacArthur) to command the United Nations forces. More than 54,000 Americans lost their lives during the war and another 8,000 remain unaccounted for by the military.
Wisconsin Korean War Stories is a project of the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), in association with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. Marrying the skills of Society historians with the production capabilities of WPT, this documentary continues the collaboration that began with a five-part series on World War II and continues today with Wisconsin Hometown Stories, a 10-year effort to tell the history of the state, one town at a time.
One hour of the two-hour program will be previewed on Veterans Day, November 11, at the 2006 Annual Local History Convention at the Society's headquarters. A traveling photo exhibit featuring eight veterans from the program will be at Society headquarters on Friday, November 10, before it moves to other communities around Wisconsin in the coming months. Visit Wisconsin Stories for more information, stories, and photos from the documentary, and to post your own Korean War stories.
:: Posted November 10, 2006
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