the forgotten war

When at the end of the Second World War the United States of America and the Russian Federation divided the Japanese occupied Korea into North and South, the conflict was by no means at an end. North Korea, with the authorisation of Josef Stalin, invaded South Korea to bring the south under communist rule. The United Nations sent forces under General MacArthur to support the south against the north, about one hundred thousand soldiers, seamen and journalists came from the United Kingdom. South Korean forces marched North until blocked the Chinese who would not accept a united Korea under American rule. Three years of war raged in Korea, north and south.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings and Napalm gas attacks. A large number of soldiers lost their lives, too.

The Korean War was fought between 1950 and 1953 and is remembered by few although  236 Scots were killed in action. The Monument built, planted, and finished in 2000 commemorates “the forgotten war” and all those in the United Kingdom who lost their lives.

A tree was planted for every the dead servicemen, two mounds representing Ying and Yang, a Korean style pagoda with boards bearing the names of the fallen men.

Asian tranquillity permeates the The Scottish Korea War memorial, a garden of remembrance, quiet and peaceful in the Bathgate Hills, dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives in a war almost forgotten.

sources and further reading:

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/linlithgow/koreanwarmemorial/index.html

https://www.kosb.co.uk/the-scottish-korean-war-memorial/

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/linlithgow/koreanwarmemorial/index.html