The Violence of War

A few years ago, James Brady, a Korean War veteran, published an article that may express in part why so many veterans continue to be seriously troubled by their experiences in violent warfare ~ using his own experience as an example. This is not for pity or for gain. It is just one man's life as he sees it, many years after the slaughter in Korea. The following is his
view:

"...Over the years I tried several times to write of all of this, to try to make sense of Korea. Tried to figure out why we went, and so willingly. I had answers for that: We were the children of the Great Depression. A job was a job. More to the point our elder brothers and fathers had fought the Japanese and the Nazis and beaten them. There freshly remained an honorable tradition of duty. Of Service. Of the corny old chromo, patriotism ...

(After the dedication of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, Brady's daughter telephoned asking how it went. He writes the following)

"...I couldn't answer. But sat there on the bed crying, holding the phone and unable to talk. I hadn't realized the hold Korea still had on me. It was some time before I could call her back and talk. Was it the loss of friends, or of my own youth, that weighed on me? Why should I be so emotional after so long a time ... Occasionally in the mail I receive an offer to make a trip back ... why didn't I go and attempt to ... shake off Korea, to write an end to it? ... I answered that myself ... I knew I would never go back to Korea, never sign up for an old soldiers' tour. I didn't want to see the hills again or feel the cold or hear the wind out of Siberia, moaning. I didn't want to disturb the dead ... "

If you've been there, you know the feeling. The extreme was perhaps called "shell shock" years ago. Today the extreme is called by other terms. This may be partly that but actually something else that is up to each of us to describe or try to bury ... regardless, somehow, sometimes, Korea is an unwelcome, alive, memory.