DEAR Blog
Disaster Experiential Activity and Reflection
Project by Noah Hass-Cohen, Psy.D., Alliant International University School of Professional Psychology
Contributors: Jeremy Arzt, M.A.; Joanna Clyde Findley, M.A.; Anya Kavanaugh, B.F.A;
Alliant International University, Couples and Family Therapy, Crisis and Trauma course students
1950-1953: KOREAN WAR
Background
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The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was a war between the Republic of Korea (supported by the United Nations) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (supported by the People's Republic of China, with military and material aid from the Soviet Union). North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950.
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The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.
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The North established a communist government, while the South established a capitalist one. The 38th parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Korean states.
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The active stage of the war ended on 27 July 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed. The agreement restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. Minor outbreaks of fighting continue to the present day.
A Korean War refugee with her baby brother, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KoreanWarRefugee WithBaby.jpg
Life Threatening Toll: Death and Injury
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Estimated total civilian casualties: 2.5 million
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Estimated for South Korea: 990,968 (373,599 killed, 229,625 wounded, 387,744 abducted/missing)
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Estimated deaths/injuries/missing for North Korea: 1,550,000
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The United States: 33,686 battle deaths, 2,830 non-battle deaths, and 8,176 missing in action.
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Civilian massacres:
In occupied areas, North Korean Army political officers purged South Korean society of its intelligentsia by assassinating every educated person—academic, governmental, religious—who might lead resistance against the North.
South Korea also executed as many as 1,200,000 political prisoners – South Koreans who were believed to be pro-North Korea or “leftist.”
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Many accounts of prisoners of war being brutally abused.
Psychological Impact
The psychological impacts of the Korean War are so varied and widespread, that they cannot be summarized here. It is well known that both soldiers and civilians have been long afflicted by their experiences in the war in many different ways, and the societies of both North and South Korea were changed drastically by the war, as well as by the occupation of their nations by foreign powers.