The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 7 | Issue 28 | Number 3 | Jul 13, 2009

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A Cartoonist at War: “Gobau’s” Korea, 1950

Andrew Salmon

A Cartoonist at War: “Gobau’s” Korea,1950

Andrew Salmon

Next year, 2010, marks the 60th anniversary ofthe outbreak of what is aptly called “TheForgotten War.” While Kim Il-sung’s invasion ofthe Republic of Korea in the early hours of June25th, 1950, ignited the first hot war of the coldwar – and the first and only war in which thetwo superpowers would clash on the battlefield– it is a war that is almost dead to the publicmind and popular culture of the western world.

It was a savage war in a devastated land; a warthat was civil, ideological and even racial innature, a war that sucked in fighting men fromas far afield as Columbia and China, Ethiopiaand Russia. It was a war in which entire USunits were annihilated, an intense war whichgenerated casualties far in excess of thoseincurred in today’s conflicts in Iraq andAfghanistan. Yet despite its many dramaticelements – and despite the fact that it hasnever really ended - Korea never achieved thesame status in the western mind as did thewars that bookmarked it: World War II andVietnam.

There are many reasons for this. World War IIwas the war of tank divisions and bomberfleets, of Churchill’s cigar and Hitler’s salute –and of a relatively clear morality. Vietnam wasthe war of the helicopter and the guerilla, ofanti-war protest and colour TV coverage – andof very opaque, or at least fiercely contested,morality. Korea, on the other hand, lackedbranded images or tactical innovations. Thewar’s ethical rights and wrongs are still

debated – nowhere more so than in SouthKorea, where the shift in the ideologicalcompass during the recent decade of liberal/leftist-nationalist (take your pick) rulesparked renewed interest in old – oftensuppressed - controversies.

With its 60th anniversary imminent, it is fair tosay that the Korean War has generated little ofthe quality literature or film that definedperceptions of World War II or Vietnam.Moreover, those films and photographs thathave made their way into books and museumsare largely of and by Western – predominantlyAmerican – soldiers. Across the bamboocurtain, many Chinese photographs are clearlyposed propaganda shots.

But what of those caught in the middle? Thereis even less visual imagery available thatdepicts the lives of the civilians swept up in thecataclysm.

Kim Sung-hwan, 78, is Korea’s most famousliving cartoonist. For years, his work gracedthis country’s two major newspapers; he wastwice interrogated under the authoritarianregimes and 200 of his strips were expunged.He has been lauded by fellow cartoonistsincluding Malaysia’s “Lat” and Britain’s FrankFinch; films have been made of his output; andPhD dissertations on his work reside atHarvard and Kyoto universities. Today retired,with his collection displayed at South Korea’sNational Museum of Contemporary Art, thischeerful and sprightly little man can rest on hislaurels.

Things were not always so comfortable. Kim’spen name “Gobau” (“Strong Rock”) came to

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him in the summer of 1950, when, as an 18-year-old, he was hiding out from North Koreantroops. A high-school student and part-timemagazine illustrator when North Koreainvaded, he recorded the dramatic events ofthose days in unique style: with that blend ofdelicate Oriental watercolours and the sensitivepen cartoons that would later become histrademark. After Seoul’s September 28th 1950liberation, he was employed as a war artist bythe Ministry of Defence, but it is his earlysketches that capture what it was like to be acivilian on the peninsula in the midst of totalwar. The collection reproduced below is one ofthe few extant galleries of Korean artwork thatdepicts the Korean tragedy; it has had,according to the artist, little or no exposurebeyond South Korean and Japan.

This is “Gobau” at war.

The Holocaust Begins: The war is a day old. In the hills above Gobau’s hometown north ofSeoul, two men watch distant artillery bursts.“We heard on the radio that the North Koreanshad invaded, but were told that the SouthKorean Army had pushed them back,” saidGobau. “Because of that, many people did notflee.”

Joining the Fight: Republic of Korea, or ROK,troops head north to join the fight, some in acommandeered and camouflaged bus. They arewoefully equipped: Gobau remembers thattheir helmets were not even metal, but made ofsome kind of cork. “It was nonsense!” he said.

On the Roads: Refugees, aware that the NorthKorean People’s Army (NKPA) is bearing downon Seoul, flee. Many are carrying theirpossessions in bundles on their head. Tragedywould strike when the Han River bridges wereblown while refugees were crossing. Even so,the summer exodus would not be as terrible asthe winter retreat six months later.

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The Fighting Draws Closer: Not everyonefled. Near East Gate, curious onlookers(including Gobau, in foreground) watch as theNKPA approachs, while nervous Republic ofKorea (ROK) troops take up firing positionsoverlooking the gate and its nearby market.

The Collapse: It is three days into the war andthe ROK Army, outgunned and outfought, is

breaking. Some ROK troops fought tenaciously:Men of General Paik Sun-yup’s crack 1stInfantry Division, defending the “MunsanCorridor” north of Seoul, strapped explosives totheir bodies and, in an eerie echo of the WorldWar II Imperial Japanese Army tactics thatPaik, an IJA veteran, was intimately familiarwith , hurled themselves under tanks. Suchheroism was rare, however; these men aregetting out. “They came into my father’s friendhouse so they could change their clothes,” saidGobau. “Note that some have blisters on theirfeet from the retreat. Looking back, though,they were calmer than most: Many ROKsoldiers had no idea what to do.”

Hide the Guns! Civilians collect ROK troops’rifles to bury them as the NKPA approaches.“The soldiers scattered after chancing intocivilian clothes,” said Gobay. “The could seetanks coming, and they knew their rifles wereno good against tanks; They were as pale asdead men!”

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All Hail, Kim’s Men! It is June 28th. The waris less than three days old, but Seoul has fallen.The NKPA, mounted on Russian T34s, marchtriumphantly through the streets. “Someworkers welcomed them – they thought itwould be a different world – but not as many asI thought,” said Gobau. “There were NKPAgoing by in jeeps saying ‘Give them a big hand!’but it was only some workers and children whodid.” Sophisticated Seoulites would soon bechuckling to hear of the thirsty NKPA troopswho mistook the Chosun Hotel’s toilets fordrinking fountains.

The Men from the North: Gobau got a muchcloser look at the NKPA than any Westerncorrespondent. Here he sketches theconquerors and their equipment. Note the

Soviet Shpagin PPSH “burp guns” (so namedfor he brrrpp noise they make) and the tanksand scout cars – the ROK Army had noresponse to this mobile and armoured foe. Note the staring eyes of two of the subjects:The ‘1000 yard star’ is a common symptom ofbattle shock.

Tactical Bullock Cart: While photos andnewsreels focussed on the NKPA’s formidableT34s, behind the armoured spearhead, theechelons relied on more tradtional transport –such as this well-camouflaged bullock cart.These methods were not alien to the “GreatLeader” himself: Kim Il-sung had learned hiswarcraft in the Red Army, which, during WorldWar II, had made effective use of horse-drawnPanje carts in the rough terrain of the EasternFront.

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The Naked and the Dead: Abandoned by hisretreating comrades, a ROK soldier lies in apool of blood. “Although there were twohospitals nearby, all the doctors had fled,” saidGobau. The man had been screaming andcrying so much, local civilians had stripped himto find his wounds, then attempted to bandagehim. The attempts were in vain: by the timeGobau sketched him, he was dead.

Killed in Action. Dead ROK soldiers lie on thebattlefield, covered in the ubiquitous riceweave sacking. “There were flies everywhere,’said Gobau. “Some bodies attracted more thanothers – maybe the flies liked fresh blood…”

Desolation: Bodies and mourners in the ricefields. The war is still in its early stages but the“collateral damage” is already mounting. Much

greater destruction is soon to come.

Crimson Harvest: The fighting has passed. Astretcher is cleansed of blood.

The Pale Man: NKPA root out potentialenemies in Gobau’s neighbourhood. Gobau( looking on from around the corner)remembered how very pale the South Koreanlooked as he was surrounded by the NorthKorean squad; he has no idea what the man’seventual fate was.

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The Americans Join the Fight: TheAmericans have landed in the south, but theirearly attempts to stem the advancing NKPAmeet with no more success than those of theirROK allies. The US Army is no longer theformidable fighting force it was at the end ofWorld War II; the men sent to Korea are ill-trained, under-motivated and softened byoccupation duties in Japan. However, the USAir Force is to be reckoned with: Within a weekof its deployment, it has hacked the NorthKorean air force from the sky. With desperatecombat underway down south, NKPAadministration in Seoul begins to break down;food runs short. Gobau decides to travel northto his aunt in Gaesong. On the way he sketchesthis scene: NKPA troops take cover and openfire on USAF aircraft dominating the skies.“They had little chance of hitting anything, butthey fired anyway,” he said.

Low Level: The result of USAF intervention issoon apparent. Not only did the skies belong tothe Americans, the NKPA was denied daylightuse of the roads. In the summer of 1950,strafed vehicles became a common sight alongthe dirt tracks of the peninsula.

Burning Bridges: A ROK armoured car and aNKPA tank stand next to a blown bridge..Gobau is unsure how the NKPA armour wasknocked out, given the paucity of firepowermounted by the ROK vehicle. “Maybe it was amine,” he said.

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Attack Run: Dressed as peasants, NorthKorean soldiers collecting the rice harvestscatter as a US F80 Shooting Star screams inon a strafing run. The NKPA ruse of disguisingthemselves as civilians – a ruse that would lateralso be used by the Chinese – would createmajor problems for UN Command units whocould not distinguish friend from enemy, andwould have terrible repurcussions for civilianscaught in the crossfire of an increasingly brutalwar. Family Tragedy: A man sobs; his wife has

been beaten to death, perhaps by the NKPA,but like so many war stories, Gobau is unsureexactly who the assailant was. “He was an oldman, and he was crying so much, I could notfind out what had happened,” he said.

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Shooting Stars over Kaesong: Framed by thetraditional roofs of Kaesong, Korea’s ancientcapital, US F80 Shooting Stars dive into theattack. “The bombing attacks were not thatserious,” said Gobau. “They were aiming mainlyat the rail station.” With the NKPA breaking itsteeth on the stiffening defences of the “PusanPerimeter,” the USAF effectively interdictedsupplies and reinforcements heading for thebattlefront.

Hideout: By late August, the fighting along theNaktong River is reaching its climax. The NKPAis being heavily attrited as it tries desperatelyto break through to Pusan and finish the war.To replace its horrendous casualties, the NKPAresorts to forcible recruiting of southerncivilians. Gobau spent weeks in hiding in hisattic; when he did go out, he carried a stick, tofool NKPA press gangs into thinking that hewas unfit for duty. It was during those long,lonely hours spent reading and sketching thatthe young artist’s pen-name, “Gobau”(”Strong/Stubborn Rock”) came to him.

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Escape Route: A fascinating sketch of theinside of Gobau’s aunt’s Kaesong house –actually, a yogwan, (inn) - during the NKPAoccupation. The guests can escape the NorthKorean recruiting parties in the room piledhigh with ibul (blankets) and out the windowinto the back alley. “The neighbours were in onit – they kept their doors open!” said Gobau.Note the rabbit in his cage in the courtyard – atypical Gobau detail.

Into the Furnace: Gobau is passing throughMunsan Rail Station while North Koreansoldiers – unarmed, such is the parlous state ofthe NKPA supply lines, bombarded by theUSAF – head south. This picture – sketched aday before MacArthur’s men landed at Incheon– strongly indicates what has long beensuspected: The NKPA were aware of theupcoming Incheon assault on 15th September,

around which security was notoriously lax.Why, then, did they not resist the US Marinesmore fiercely at the harbour? The answer isalmost certainly that by this stage of the war,the NKPA lacked any effective maneuverelement. Even so, they would fight hard in thestreets and alleys of Seoul.

Bullock Vs Bike: A furious NKPA officerthreatens a farmer on a bullock cart that hascol l ided with his motorcycle s idecarcombination. “The farmer was begging for hislife,” recalled Gobau. “The NKPA man was outof his mind: Everybody knows how long it takesa bullock to stop or turn. The war was goingbadly for them.”

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Counterattack: It is September. MacArthurhas landed at Inchon, and his finest troops – theUS 1st Marine Division - are fighting for thecapital against North Korean diehards. Hugeswathes of the city are devastated.

A Terrible Beauty: USAF rockets make aspectacular display against the lurid sunset asthe battle for Seoul rages.

Darkness, be my Friend: Not every NKPAsoldier was a fanatic. While Kim Il-sung’sstormtroopers in the early months of the warhad proven – like the Imperial Japanese Armybefore them – to be both valiant and brutalf ighters , by September th ir combateffectiveness had been degraded. Pummelled

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from the air, and caught in a vise between theInchon landing and the breakout from thePusan Perimeter, many units melted away.Here North Korean soldiers – apparentlyunarmed – move out under cover of darkness.

Firepower vs Manpower: US Marines withtank support clear an NKPA roadblock atDaehangno intersection, central Seoul. Gobaudid not witness the actual combat, but deducedwhat had happened by the position and thecondition of the NKPA corpses scattered overthe street the following day.

Aftermath: Seoul has been cleared of enemy,but the city has not yet been cleaned up. Whatlooks like garbage in the foreground is actuallyhuman detritus: An NKPA soldier had beenblown apart with explosives, then squashed flatby tank treads.

The Migooks are Here! Seoul has beenliberated; Gobau sketched these portraits ofGIs in the aftermath of the fighting. “When Ifirst saw American soldiers, I thought theywere all really old, in their 40s or 50s,” Gobaurecalled. “I later found out there were only intheir 20s – it was just that they were so heavilybearded!” Another reason for Kim’s confusionmay have been the men’s facial expressions:Troops suffering from battle stress commonlyappear older than their actual age.

The Defeated: In front of Myong DongCathedral, North Korean prisoners in theirunderwear are marched off to an uncertainfate. The NKPA had behaved brutally in theareas under its occupation – its victimsincluded captured GIs, who were found boundand neckshot - but the atrocities were not all onone side. Both during the retreat down the

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peninsula, and on the fight back up it, ROKparamilitaries had shown little mercy forcaptured communists or traitors - or suspectedcommunists or traitors.

Settling Scores: Not all the dead were victimsof the war - or even of political violence. In thelawless aftermath of the battle, this man, lyingin the Midopa Department Store was killed,Gobau believes, by the notorious Jongnogangsters. By now, the young water colouristhad been hired as a war artist; he got somevery odd looks as he wandered the streetssketching dead bodies.

Children of the Ruins: “This car had noengine, and no wheels, but there were thesetwo children living in it,” recalled Gobau. Inthe days before NGOs such as the Red Crossgot fully active in the South, orphaned orabandoned children had to rely on the kindness

of strangers – including UN troops, many ofwhom temporarily adopted homeless children –or their own wits to survive. But with the NKPAsmashed and UN forces charging North tofinish the war, surely, things would soon returnto something approaching normality?

Streetcar Casevac: It is December. Thefighting in the North has turned – disastrously -against the UN Command. Wounded ROKsoldiers are evacuated to a Seoul Women’sUniversity Hospital by tram. On December30th, Seoul civilians will be ordered to flee thecapital once again.

The Bleakest Midwinter: Catastrophe hasstruck. Out of the freezing north, Chinaattacked. Defeated and demoralized, UN forceshave given up North Korea in hopes that the

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victorious communists will halt at the 38thparallel. The hopes were in vain: Peng Te-huaistormed south on New Year’s Day. Gobau wasembedded with these ROK troops on YeoiudoAirfield as they await evacuation down the HanRiver on tank landing craft, and thence to thesea, and the south. “The troops had transport,”Gobau recalled. “But the civilians…” With theUN Command employing scorched earthtactics, and vengeful NKPA joining the Chinesethrust south, as many as a million civilians –many of them old people, women and children -joined a trek south through a pitiless winter.On the day Gobau sketched this scene, the UNrearguard – Royal Northumberland Fusiliers,Royal Ulster Rifles and 8th Hussars – wereengaged in a desperate battle outside Koyang:“Happy Valley.” In that single day and night ofcombat, the battlegroup lost more men killed ormissing than the British Army lost in eightyears in Afghanistan. Yet by the standards ofthe Korean War, this was considered a smallaction. And the carnage still had two and a halfyears to run.

Seoul-based reporter Andrew Salmon is theauthor of To The Last Round: The Epic BritishStand on the Imjin River, Korea, 1951(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1845134087/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) (Aurum, London, 2009). Heis currently working on a prequel, Year of theTiger: The Commonwealth Versus Communism,Korea, 1950.

This article, prepared for The Asia-PacificJournal, is an expansion of a piece by Salmonthat ran in Seoul’s English-language JoongangDaily newspaper on June 25th, 2008. A galleryof Gobau’s work can be seen on the author’sw e b s i t e(http://tothelastround.wordpress.com/watercolourist-at-war/). All works are held at SouthKorea’s National Museum of Contemporary Art;they are reproduced with the permission of theartist.

Recommended Citation: Andrew Salmon, "ACartoonist at War: 'Gobau's' Korea, 1950" TheAsia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 28-3-09, July 13, 2009.

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1845134087/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)

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