A banner strung across Namdaemun, or the Great South Gate, welcomes sailors from the USS Boxer to Seoul on April 7, 1950, about two months before the start of the Korean War. The ship had stopped near Seoul for a three-day visit, and one of the ship's photographers shot the photograph. The U.S. Navy attache at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul found the photo after a fire destroyed Namdaemun in February. (Courtesy of U.S. Navy)
SEOUL — The night after the Great South Gate burned down, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jim Kim and his wife got on the Internet to look for video clips of the early morning arson fire that destroyed the 610-year-old gate in downtown Seoul.
What flashed by in one video surprised them: A clear black-and-white photo of the gate, known as Namdaemun, dated 1945, with a large banner welcoming the U.S. Navy to Seoul strung across the top.
“She and I looked at each other and said, ‘We have to find that picture,’” said Kim, naval attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. “She felt that it’s part of not only Korean history, but also of U.S. naval history.”
The next morning, Megan Kim, a second-generation Korean-American, found the photo on the Web site of Washington, D.C.’s Naval Historical Foundation. They learned the photo was dated incorrectly online, and was taken in April 1950, two months before North Korea invaded the South and started the Korean War.
The photo shows a banner that says “Welcome U.S. Navy!” flanked by small American and South Korean flags. Pedestrians, some in traditional Korean dress, and an ox-drawn cart pass in front of the gate, the tallest structure in the picture.
The photo was taken by a photographer from the USS Boxer, which had docked near Seoul for a three-day visit. The ship later was stationed off the country’s east coast during the Korean War.
“[South Korea] was a new, independent country, and we probably wanted to show the flag,” Jim Kim said of the ship’s visit.
He sent a copy of the picture to Commander Naval Forces Korea Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, who sent the photo and a condolence letter Feb. 25 to South Korea’s Adm. Song Young-moo, chief of naval operations.
Jim Kim, who was born near Seoul and moved to the United States when he was 12 years old, said he remembers seeing Namdaemun when he was a child. After the fire, he sent photos of the gate to friends in the United States, including retired military people previously stationed in South Korea.
All of them remembered the gate and were saddened by the fire, he said.
“Anybody who’d been to Korea, they’d been to Namdaemun. They could relate to Namdaemun,” he said. “That’s one thing that everybody sees.”
South Korea navy spokesman Capt. Jung Won-ju said navy officials haven’t decided what to do with the photo.
Police said 69-year-old Chae Jong-gi has admitted to setting the fire Feb. 10 because he was angry at the government over a land dispute. He has been charged with arson and with destroying a national treasure.
