Korea: One People, Two Nations 900-year-old porcelain vase given as a gift to President Harry S. Truman in May 1946 as a token of gratitude for America's role in liberating Korea from Japanese occupation during World War II. The vase was discovered in 1912 at the Royal Tomb of the consort of Kin Injong (1123 - 1146 A.D.) Map of the Korean Peninsula Korea, a peninsula of approximately 85,000 square miles (about the size of New York and Pennsylvania combined) jutting down from the vast mainland of Asia, was inhabited at least 20,000 years ago, perhaps much earlier. The peninsula is unified by ethnicity, language, and culture. The three most common surnames in Korea - Kim, Lee, and Park - account for more than 40 percent of the entire population of modern-day South Korea. The surname Kim is associated with the mythical founder of the Silla dynasty. Lee (or Yi, in Korean) is the name of the dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392 to the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910. Only about 250 different surnames are known to exist among Korea's 70 million people. By the fourth century B.C. a tribal kingdom called Choson had emerged near the Chinese border in northern Korea. By 300 A.D. the Koreans had thrown off Chinese rule and had developed three separate kingdoms in the north, southeast, and southwest of the peninsula. In 668 A.D. the Silla kingdom, with Chinese help, overwhelmed the other two and unified nearly all of Korea. From that point on - for nearly 1300 years until the mid-twentieth century, Korea developed as a unified country under a single administration with a distinctive language and strong traditions. It invented its own writing system and the first known movable metal type a century before Gutenberg's invention in Europe. Located in a strategic position between the great powers of China, Japan, and Russia, Korea has suffered nearly 900 invasions in its 2,000 years of recorded history, including five major periods of foreign occupation - by China, the Mongols, Japan, and, after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 20th Century Korea suffered a brutal occupation by Japan for 40 years prior to Japan's defeat in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. The exhibit will be on display at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library from June 25, 2003 through January 5, 2004. Sections within the exhibit include: Exhibit Introduction Korea: One People, Two Nations Korea and the World in 1950 The President's Private War Not Home for Christmas: The GI's in Korea An Uneasy Truce: The Two Koreas, 1953-2003

Week By Week Accounts & Official Documents Week of Decision: June 24 - July 1, 1950 Establishing a Position: July 2 - July 21, 1950 Holding the Line: July 22-September 12, 1950 How Far to Go: September 15-October 6, 1950 Wake Island Photographs Korean War Photographs Educational Activities Banning Letter Oral History and Memorials The Division of Korea Using Korean War documents Sound Clips Address on the situation in Korea. July 19, 1950 Radio Report to the American People on Korea and on U.S. Policy. April 11, 1951 President Truman regarding the firing of General MacArthur, October 21, 1959. Oral Histories Korean War Oral Histories External Links U.S. Forces, Korean War History Web Page U.S. Marine Corps Korean War Commemoration 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Remembering the Korean War U.S. Air Force Museum: Korean War 50th Anniversary