REDEMPTION IN RESILIENCE?

APRIL 29, 2019 – Yesterday evening I watched on Netflix, a PBS documentary about the horrific Battle of Chosin Reservoir fought in the Korean War. The battle started the day after Thanksgiving, 1950 and extended well into December. I’d heard and read about it, but the extensive interviews with American veterans—the “Chosin Few,” as they became known—along with horrifying film clips left what will likely be a more lasting impression.

For the reader less well acquainted with the Korean War, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir was one of the most horrific ever fought by U.S. troops. Encircled and outnumbered by Chinese forces, the marines and soldiers fought for 17 days in mountainous terrain blasted by the harshest of winter conditions—heavy snow, bitter winds, temperatures dropping as low as minus 36F and ground frozen so deep the defenders had to use explosives to dig foxholes. For both sides, the killer cold was as much an enemy as the enemy was. The suffering was unimaginable, and for those in the thick of the struggle, it was the darkest part of hell on earth.

The battle had a profound effect on the outcome of the larger conflict over control of the Korean peninsula—a conflict that ended (July 27, 1953) where it had begun (June 25, 1950): a nation divided at roughly the 38^th parallel.   The “Forgotten War,” as it’s sometimes called, was the tragic consequence of military and political miscalculation and maneuvering among the major post-WW II powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China. In the crosshairs were the Koreans. A million civilians died in South Korea, and over 600,000 civilians perished in North Korea. Korean military deaths totaled over 200,00 in the South and 400,000 in the North.

As I peel back the pages of history to see what bloody havoc was visited upon Korea, I can’t avoid feelings of great sorrow and outrage; I wish it hadn’t been and want to say it wasn’t.

But then I catch myself. My two sons are Korean-born, who were in the waves of infant adoptees who came to the United States (the majority to our home state of Minnesota) in the 1980s. The Korean War had ended over 30 years earlier, but the well-blazed adoption trail from Seoul to St. Paul had had its genesis in the aftermath of that terrible conflict.

So, as angry as I am over such a colossal inhumanity to humankind, I must acknowledge that out of all that devastating cruelty eventually came two sons who have given their adoptive parents great purpose, meaning, fulfillment and happiness. How do I reconcile those gifts, personal to my wife and me, with the deep suffering of millions? I can’t. However, perhaps in humankind’s resilience is a measure of humankind’s redemption.

© 2019 Eric Nilsson