To see all the pictures from this event, go to:
https://www.richardlawrencephotography.ca/rlpgalleries/2024/koreanwar74/
For 35 years Korea had been a Japanese colony and had suffered at the hands of the Japanese all that time and especially during WWII. After WWII, a line was drawn at the 38th parallel making two occupation zones: the North controlled by Russia and the South by U.S. There were plans to eventually create one independent state but political disagreements led to the creation of two Korean governments, each claiming to be the sole legitimate government, which stymied the reunification. The North was led by Kim Il Sung and the South by Syngman Rhee.
On June 25, 1950, the forces of North Korea, with permission of Russia and supported by China, invaded South Korea and started the Korean War which was to last three years plus a month, involve 19 countries (17 with the South and two with the North) and claim millions of lives, including 519 Canadians. The North was supported by Russia and China while the South was supported by the U.S.A. and the United Nations Command.
To observe this event the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Canada (a.k.a. South Korea or the RoK) holds an annual commemoration ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa followed by a reception. However, this year the weather gods did not co-operate and the ceremony was forced indoors to the Chateau Laurier Hotel because of rain. Just as well as it did rain, in torrents.
The ceremony started with seven Korean veterans, led by Mr. Bill Black from the Korea War Veterans Association, Unit #7, marching in front of the assembled audience to their seats. The ceremony followed the standard program of the Act of Remembrance, Commitment to Remember, Last Post, silence, and the Rouse before getting to the laying of the wreaths. This year, there were a lot of wreaths – I think over 20 in all.
The wreaths were laid by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Anita Vandenbeld, for Canada; MGen (ret’d) Seok Jong-gun, Minister of Defence Acquisition Program Administration, along with His Excellency Woongsoon Lim, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Canada, for Korea; Senators Yohan Martin and Rebecca Patterson for the Senate of Canada; MP Michael Kram for the House of Commons; Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre on behalf of the Canadian Armed Forces. At this point I lost track of who was laying wreaths as they started coming up five at a time with embassy representatives, Defence Attachés, and veterans groups until the sole final wreath when Mr. Bill Black, Korean War veteran, came forward with Mr. George Guertin, also a Korean War veteran, to lay the wreath on behalf of Korea Veterans Association of Canada, National Capital Unit 7.
This pretty much concluded the wreath laying ceremony which paved the way for the group pictures with the Korean War veterans. After this, everyone was invited to a reception hosted by the Korean Embassy. This year the walk to the reception was much shorter as it was in the Chateau Laurier Ballroom, just a short walk from the room hosting the ceremony. Usually it entails a walk up Elgin Street from the National War Memorial.
During the reception, Ambassador Lim made remarks thanking all the veterans for their sacrifices, followed by the Honorable Anita Vandenbeld, and Senator Yonah Martin, who came to Canada from Korea with her parents. During Senator Martin’s remarks she noted how she owed her current way of life to the veterans as her parents were in Korea during the war.
Upon introduction by Senator Marin, the next to take the stage were two Korean children, dressed in traditional Korean dress, who read and presented letters from Korean children to the Korean veterans. Mr. Bill Black accepted the letters on behalf of the veterans.
To give everyone a slight reprieve from the ceremony, the Military Wives Choir - Ottawa came forward to present a musical interlude with music from a contingent of the Central Forces Band of the CAF. Not to be outdone, the Korean War veterans all got up to the stage and sang a couple of songs with the choir starting with “Pack up your trouble (in your old kit bag)" and “It’s a long way to Tipperary” to the enjoyment of the assembled host. They ended with a song in Korean. Luckily, I think, the choir drowned out the veterans, who to my knowledge, can’t sing a note.
At this point, Mr. Seok Jong-gun took the stage to make remarks through an interpreter to thank all the veterans and to make a toast to them. The toast was responded to by Mr. Bill Black on behalf of the veterans.
To end the formal portion of the reception, Gen. Wayne Eyre was asked to take the stage and was joined by the Ambassador, His Excellency Lim. Ambassador Lim then presented to Gen. Eyre a folded, encased, Korean Flag “ … in appreciation of your noble service and long-standing friendship”.
After thanking the Ambassador for the gift, Gen. Eyre proceeded with a few remarks, centering mainly on the topic of friends. He noted that in both WWI and WWII, Canada was wholly unprepared to go to war but yet rose to the occasion and became a world military power by the end of WWII. But he also noted that there are “dark clouds on the horizon now” and if any lesson was learned from the Korean War, it’s that “… friends matter, allies matter, and partners matter. … Our competitive advantage is being part of a group of like-minded allies, friends, and partners who see the world through the same lense and act together against adventurers, imperialism, and aggression.”. With that, he ended his remarks and asked everyone to lift their glass and toast “To Friendship”.
This ended the formal part of the reception and the food tables were opened up for service. On service was, of course, Kimchi, but also soy/maple glazed salmon (on a bed of rice), mushroom ravioli, and lemon-thyme chicken with roasted potatoes. Mmm Mmm good.
