Commemorating Korean veterans

In Australia we sometimes call the Korean War the 'Forgotten War' …

In the country where it was fought, the Korean War is by no means 'the forgotten war'. In both North Korea and South Korea, there are numerous memorials to the more than one million Koreans who died.

The War Memorial of Korea stands in Yongsan, Seoul. It remembers all of Korea's wars, with a special focus on the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. In the Memorial Hall, a Wall of Remembrance lists the names of the dead, including those who served with the United Nations (UN). Every Anzac Day, a dawn service is held in front of the plaque containing the names of the Australian dead.

AWM P05776.047

As part of the 60th anniversary commemorations of the start of the war, the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-Bak, sent a letter to all surviving Australian Korean War veterans, expressing the Korean people's gratitude for their service.

The national days to remember the war dead are:

• 6 June in the Republic of Korea (South Korea)
• 27 July in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).

In Australia, on 25 April (Anzac Day) and 11 November (Remembrance Day), we pause to think of over 103,000 of our service personnel who have died in war.

The special day of remembrance for those who died in Korea is 24 October, United Nations Day. An annual service is held at the Australian National Korean War Memorial on Anzac Parade in Canberra. Services are also held in state capitals, but every year a dozen small, unreported gatherings of Australians remember the Korean War. They are held at places like the Bundaberg Korean War Memorial in Lions Remembrance Park, and the Launceston Returned and Services League building, where Tasmanian Korea veterans meet for a Kapyong Day service.

There are 358 Australians we pay tribute to on 24 October: the 340 who died during the war and 18 who died while serving in Korea after the war. The majority, 281 of them, rest at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan (Pusan), Korea.

In Busan is also a memorial to the missing, and the names of 44 Australians appear there.

The remaining 39 are buried in Japan in the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Hodogaya (where an Anzac Day ceremony is also held) and the Kasugano European Cemetery at Kobe.

United Nations Memorial Cemetery, Busan

During the Korean War, Busan was known as Pusan. A cemetery was established there during the war, and 2,300 United Nations soldiers, sailors and airmen, including 281 Australians, rest there.

The South Korean government granted the land to the United Nations in perpetuity as ‘a permanent tribute to all those who gave up their lives in resisting aggression in Korea and in upholding the cause of peace and freedom from 1950-53’.

Missing in action

There are 44 Australian servicemen listed as 'missing in action' in the Korean War...

AWM MELJ0911

They are now presumed to be dead. Those who were seen to be killed at the time, but whose bodies were never recovered, are included in this category. The Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy try to recover the remains of their war dead when possible, but in Korea this task seems unlikely to be successful. All but one of those on the list below went missing or were killed in North Korea, or at sea. The North Korean Government is not at present co-operating in the recovery of the remains of the dead.

The exception is Corporal William Kevin Murphy. Murphy was a 30-year-old tin miner from Ireland with service in the British Army in WWII. He joined the Australian Army in 1950 and was killed serving with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment during the Battle of Kapyong. His body was not recovered at the time and has not been located since.

Another whose name appears on the Memorial Wall is Sub-Lieutenant Richard Roslyn Sinclair of the Royal Australian Navy. In the years since the war, it has emerged that Sub-Lieutenant Sinclair was buried at sea and is therefore no longer considered missing in action.

For these reasons, we use a figure of 43 for those listed as missing in action from the Korean War.