big william's world

Went to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) between North and South yesterday

The version of a little boy who hated history at school:
After World War 2 which Germany and Japan lost - they were punished by having land taken off them. Germany lost half of Germany to the Communists (who helped the allies win the war) and half of Korea (which Japan had invaded and colonised in 1905) was taken off Japan. A struggle between communists in the north and Koreans became the Korean war in the early 50's when the communists almost took over the whole Korean peninsula.
The solution was to divide the county with a line from coast to coast and install 1.5 million land mines and fences and lookouts. Not a thought seems to have been given to the people of Korea.

Panmunjom is a small area controlled by the UN - not North OR South Korea - where meetings take place in the slow slow quest for unification. Went in the room under strict orders - do not point at anything, to not talk to soldiers or pass in front of or behind them. Do not wear sneakers or jeans or short sleeves or open shoes. The last incident in the area occurred in 1994 which suddenly seemed quite recent. Not much sign of this larger size equivalent of the Berlin Wall coming down any time soon.
It has been in place and guarded by soldiers from both sides for over 50 years. The most constructive thing that has happened is that a wonderful nature reserve has created itself in the no-mans-land.

There are some aspects of the human race that I just have to hide from. I can remember as a child telling my parents that I would never want to be a soldier and fight wars and kill people. They told me if the need arose then I would stand up and fight for my country but I still feel the same even now.

I cannot understand the constant need man has to fight with men. If I was dying in the road in North Korea - I think people would stop and help me (maybe not in Baghdad) there is an instinct not to hit the body in the road be it rabbit or man. But when two or three are gathered together in the name of capitalism or communism - a killing instinct takes over.

We crawled in tunnels under the DMZ which the North Koreans had dug - reckoning that they could get 30,000 armed troops per hour through them in an invasion of the south.

I could ramble on all day about this but I can hear the snoring already - even though I am a day ahead of my readers - it is Thursday here.