TheUnited Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK;Korean: 재한유엔기념공원;RR: Jaehan Yuen ginyeomgongwon),[10] located at Tanggok in theNam District,[11] ofBusan,[nb 1]South Korea, is a burial ground forUnited Nations Command (UNC)casualties of theKorean War.[nb 2] It contains 2,300 graves and is the onlyUnited Nations cemetery in the world. Laid out over 14 hectares (35 acres), the graves are set out in 22 sites designated by the nationalities of the buried servicemembers.[12]
TheKorean War began whenNorth Korean People's Army forces attacked south in June 1950. As the fighting progressed, temporarymilitary cemeteries for battle casualties were established by United Nations forces near the towns ofTaejon (9 July 1950), Kwan-ui (Kwan-ni),[13]Kumchon,[13] andSindong.[14] When the North Korean forces pushed towards Busan, these cemeteries had to be abandoned.[14]
Later, as theBattle of Pusan Perimeter developed, temporary cemeteries were established atMasan,Miryang, andTaegu, with a Busan cemetery being established on 11 July 1950.[15] As the fighting pushed into North Korea, temporary cemeteries were established in or near the towns ofKaesong,[13]Sukehon,Wonsan,Pupchong (Pukchong County),[13]Yudarn-ni and Koto-ri.[16] Some eleven division-level cemeteries were established in the first two months of fighting[17] and later five UN military cemeteries were established in North Korea.[18]
At the beginning of the war, the nearest U.S. Armymortuary affairs unit was the 108th Graves Registration Platoon inYokohama, Japan, which was searching for the remains of missing World War II American airmen.[15][19] The only other Americanactive duty graves registration unit was atFt. Bragg, North Carolina.[20] The 108th was reconfigured as the 114th Graves Registration Company and deployed to establish temporary cemeteries atHungnam,Pyongyang, and Suchon as the fighting continued.[15]
Supporting the2nd Infantry Division was the Graves Registration Section of the second Quartermaster Company, which collected the remains of Allied and American soldiers to be further processed by the 148th Graves Registration Company.[21] When UN forces launched theInchon Invasion in September 1950, a platoon from the 565th Graves Registration Company accompanied them.[15] Other mortuary affairs units included the 293rd Graves Registration Company, activated in April 1951.[15] It was difficult to recover remains and conduct burials in Korea, due to the rugged geography and harsh climate, and the threat ofunexploded ordnance andbooby-traps.[6][22]
A corporal from the 114th Graves Registration Co. fills out a Form 52B, giving information regarding a deceased American soldier at the U.N. Cemetery atTaegu. Nearby are a cross, a triangular unidentified soldier marker, and small bottle containing Form 1042 which is buried with the casualty. US Army Photo, 23 January 1951
Construction of the United Nations Military Cemetery (UNMC) at Tanggok began on 18 January 1951 and was carried out by hand-labor over a 28.2 hectares (70 acres) site.[23] It was dedicated by GeneralMatthew Ridgway on 6 April 1951.[14][23][24] Graves Registration units then concentrated American and allied remains at Tanggok before they were permanently buried or repatriated.[14][19]
Besides burial services, refrigeration units to store remains were added,[23] as were cremation facilities. Casualties from theColombia Battalion were cremated at Tanggok by the American Graves Registration Service and then repatriated to Colombia in 1954.[25] Today the 2,300 graves in the cemetery are set out in 22 sites designated by the nationalities of the buried service members.[12]
Following the signing of theKorean Armistice Agreement in July 1953, the United Nations Command sought to recover bodies interred in North Korean territory.[26] Cemeteries for POWs in North Korea were established at 16 POW camps.[27] From September to October 1954, the resulting exchange of casualties, dubbedOperation Glory, between United Nations forces and the North Koreans resulted in 4,219 remains being recovered, of which 1,275 were non-US casualties.[28] Also exchanged were the remains of approximately 14,000 North Korean and Chinese casualties.[29] From 1950 to 1954, approximately 11,000 casualties were interred at UNMC, which was maintained by the United States Army Graves Registration Agency.[5][30][31]
Foundation as a United Nations cemetery and transfer to CUNMCK
It was officially established as the United Nations Memorial Cemetery on 15 December 1955 with the passage ofUN General Assembly Resolution 977(X).[32] Following the war, the cemetery was funded from the United Nations budget, but the Sino-Soviet world objected to this funding.[33][34] In 1973, the cemetery was transferred from the UN to the Commission for the United Nations Memorial Cemetery (CUNMCK), which is composed of representatives from the 11 countries who have servicemembers buried there.[12][35]
Interfaith memorial chapel – built by the United Nations Command in 1964[12]
Main gate – designed by Korean architectKim Joong-up and built by the city of Busan in 1966.[12][36] The end of the eight pillars supporting the roof was designed as a bowl and a symbol representing the moment and the eternity, expressing a soft and solemn standing for the soldiers.
Memorabilia display hall – built by the UN in 1968[12]
The Wall of Remembrance, completed in 2006, has the names of the 40,896 United Nations casualties (killed and missing) inscribed on 140 marble panels.[42][61]
Between 1951 and 1954 there were about 11,000 burials of UN troops from 21 countries. As of 2012, there are 2,300 wards of eleven countries, including 36 of theRepublic of Korea troops deployed to theUnited Nations military bases. Burials of seven countries' graves were retrieved back to their homeland, including Belgium, Colombia, Ethiopia, Greece, Luxembourg, Philippines and Thailand.[68] The burials ofBritish Commonwealth Forces Korea are located in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery. The numbers are 885 British troops, in accordance with the English customs of the dead.[69]
^As a transliteration from Korean, the city name 부산 (Korean pronunciation:[pusʰan]) was typically spelled "Pusan" inMcCune-Reischauer until 2000. The officialRevised Romanization spells the name Busan. See"Pusan: South Korea".Geographical Names.Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved15 August 2011.
^The Korean War started on 25 June 1950 when North Korean forces pushed south of the38th parallel whichdivided Korea following World War II. With authorization from the United Nations, forces from the United States and other nations pushed the North Koreans back to the north. When these UN forces approached China, Chinese forces intervened and the battlefront eventually stabilized along the 38th parallel. TheKorean Armistice was signed on 27 July 1953 to end the fighting.
^Korean War casualties only. In 2012, the cremated remains of Archie Hearsay were buried with his brother,Joseph, who had died in Korea while both were serving. See:"Ashes of Canadian veteran buried beside brother in S. Korea".TBNewsWatch (Dougall Media). The Canadian Press. 25 April 2012. Archived fromthe original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved19 February 2014.
^Brent, Winston A. (2001).2 Squadron in Korea: Flying Cheetahs 1950–1953. Nelspruit: Freeworld Publications. p. 134.ISBN978-0958388092.OCLC174758735.
^"Turkish Fallen of Korean War Remembered".Diplomatic Observer. Ankara: Över Publishing. 2002. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved16 February 2014.
^abDickon, Chris (2011).The Foreign Burial of American War Dead: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. pp. 138, 141.ISBN978-0786446124.OCLC659753667.
^ab"Korea 2007".Det Norske Kongehus. 28 November 2007.Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved2 February 2014.Among [the soldiers] is Norwegian Second Engineer Reidar George Tveit ...Crown Prince Haakon [also] laid a wreath at the new monument commemorating the Norwegian soldiers ...
^Reportedly of North Koreans who refused to be repatriated following the war because they had criticized the regime. See:Baldwin, R F (2013) [2011].Seven Years in Asia: A Wander's Tale. Booksmango. p. 278.ISBN978-6162450969.OCLC781689455.
^Cannon, Florence (May–June 1952)."Our Honored Dead".The Quartermaster Review. United States Quartermaster Museum & The Memorial Day Foundation.Archived from the original on 1 April 2020. Retrieved22 October 2013.[After July 1950], reports of burials were received from cemeteries in the Miryang, Taegu, Kaesong, Pyongyang, Sukehon, Wonsan, Pupchong, Hungnam, Yudarn, Koto-ri and Tanggok areas.
^Sledge, Michael (2007) [2005].Soldier Dead: How We Recover, Identify, Bury, and Honor Our Military Fallen. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 40–41, 58, 80, 190.ISBN978-0231509374.OCLC60527603.
^"Operation GLORY: Historical Summary".Condensed from Graves Registration Division, Korean Communications Zone. Fort Lee, VA: Army Quartermaster Museum. July–December 2004. Archived fromthe original on 28 December 2007. Retrieved22 October 2013. Note: the calculation of remains comes from Coleman as the "Historical Summary" gives a total of 4,023 UN remains received.
^Nahm, Andrew W.; Hoare, James E. (2004).Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea. Lantham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 173.ISBN0810849496.OCLC54081516.
^Department of External Affairs (1956).Conference Series: Canada and the United Nations. Ottawa. p. 15.
^Hutchinson, Garrie (2006).Pilgrimage: A Traveler's Guide to Australia's Battlefields. Melbourne: Black Inc. p. 384.ISBN978-1863953870.OCLC234310738.
^Hall, Colin Michael (1994).Tourism in the Pacific Rim: Development, Impacts, and Markets. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire. p. 48.ISBN978-0470233757.OCLC258617555.
^"New Zealand Memorial in Korea".National monuments & war graves. NZ Identity & Heritage. 19 February 2013.Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved13 November 2013.
Martz, John D. Jr. (May–June 1954)."Homeward Bound".Quartermaster Review. Fort Lee, VA: US Army Quartermaster Foundation. Archived fromthe original on 2 November 2013. A description of the post-interment processing of casualties undertaken atKokura, Japan, in which they were identified and prepared for repatriation.
United Kingdom
Turkey
Canada
Australia
Netherlands
France
United States
New Zealand
South Africa
Norway
Colombia
Greece
Thailand
Ethiopia
Philippines
Belgium
Luxembourg
Sweden
Denmark
India
Italy
UN Total
South Korea
Media from Commons
Travel information from Wikivoyage
Data from Wikidata
!["POW March Routes and United Nations Cemeteries [map]"](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fweb.archive.org%2fweb%2f20140207204410%2fhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.dtic.mil%2fdpmo%2fkorea%2fmaps%2fimages%2fmap_routes.jpg){kind=link}
!["Major Remains Concentrations in North Korea [map]"](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fweb.archive.org%2fweb%2f20120926090719%2fhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.dtic.mil%2fdpmo%2fkorea%2fmaps%2fimages%2fmap_remains07.jpg){kind=link}
