I made a crazy mad dash to Incheon this morning - no small feat - to meet Brian who was on his way home and return a duffel bag of extraneous items he didn't want to tote around the mainland for his last two weeks in the country. Generous guy that I am, I offered to do this to save him the hassle of yet another long train ride. What should have been a mere six hour round trip circuit on trains and subways grew to eight hours by the end because of a missed train in the morning and a wrong subway line taken from Seoul to Suwon instead of Incheon. Subsequently I missed two hours of class in the afternoon but the director was understanding and helpful enough to find a substitute and I returned in the nick of time to teach my remaining two hours.
In Incheon we had time for a Koreanized Chinese meal in Chinatown across the street from the subway station - bokum-bop, mandu, and chow mein. We then wound our way up the steep granite steps on the hillside to two stunning monuments. The first was the Korea USA Centennial Monument dedicated in 1982 to commorate 100 of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries. Six flying steeples, angled inward and encased in steel shingles, sheltered the square, and two enormous, bronze circular abstractions, looped together stood in the center. Built overlooking the Incheon harbor, they seemed a fitting complement to the better known monument ensconced further up the hill, about ten minutes by foot: the statue of General Douglas MacArthur.
After a bit of trouble we found the small park that serves as the grounds for this flattering monument. I failed to notice the dedication date of the site but the grounds were well kept and we encountered a small crowd of local old men under a small pavilion, likely engaged in a game of "badook" as they sought shelter from the steady rain that was pestering us with our one umbrella.
The simple 12 foot granite column upon which the simple bronze statue of MacArthur stood, dressed casually in a windbreaker and hat and sporting binoculars, belies the grand language in the plaque at the base in which is explained the reason for this tribute to America's five star general and Korean War hero. Words like "genius," "inspired," and "eternal gratitude" described the man and the invasion he led at Incheon which led to the eventual liberation of South Korea as well as the way Koreans feel or should feel about the role the United States and other UN forces played in defending their liberties. Phrases like "the malignant scourge of Communism" and "the eventual reunification of Korea" offer commentary on the still existing division and hoped for resolution of atrocities that senselessly divided this small peninsula. Quite an approbation to a leader and his country.
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