It was July 27th 1953. Along with about a hundred other men, I was glad to be boarding a plane that was to take me on the first leg of a journey back to the United States.
I was leaving Korea with a raw mix of emotions. For one thing, I was leaving my war dog, Bodo, who had protected me, saved my life many times on countless night patrols at the edge of enemy territory. I was also leaving a group of children in
an orphanage I had something to do with establishing with the assistance of my family back in California.
Woody and Bodo
In my time in Korea I had encountered extreme brutality, which found an echo in my own nature, to my shame. But then I found a very generous human spirit in the shape of a little boy who led me to an old farming couple who were taking in wandering children they could not afford to support. After helping me build and supply the orphanage, this little boy and these old people restored my humanity.
I was traveling in China with a group of railroaders in 1983 when I met a man who had fought in the Chinese Army in Korea all those years ago. He, like me, had experienced great distress over the children who had been orphaned by war in that country. He also spoke English, thanks to an education he received during World War II from a Methodist missionary.
We became fast friends. He visited me in the States. I last saw him in the year 2000 in Chengdu China. He was a much diminished man, having attempted suicide after the Cultural Revolution. I met his children, including his daughter, Zhou Ying, who wanted to improve her English. Together we found a Chinese-English dictionary which I bought for her. A 23-year correspondence has ensued. When her father died in 2002, she declared herself my daughter. I have introduced her to my own children and the familial bonds were established.
I write all this because it is a story of the essential humanity that exists between peoples all over the globe. It is this essential humanity that needs to be recognized by our leaders. If they could feel what I feel for the people of Korea and China, perhaps they would reach out a hand of peace, and be less inclined to rattle their weapons, engage in their war games, and provoke and challenge, risking one more war.
Seventy years ago, because of an irrational fear of communism that led to an unnecessary belligerence, we lost the opportunity to make peace. Where is the will to regain it today?
Wilson (“Woody”) Powell served in the 58th Air Police, U.S. Air Force, 1953. He is the former Executive Director of the Veterans For Peace and lives close to St. Louis, Missouri.