Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun (center) shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert (right) during the opening ceremony of the Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History on Sept. 12. Pictured next to the minister is former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens.
It’s already been 50 years now since a group of 100 people from the U.S. set foot on South Korean territory for the first time. They were part of the Peace Corps which continued a variety of volunteer activities in Korea for 15 years, until 1981, with the aim of helping to develop the nation.
A special exhibition opened on Sept. 12 at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in honor of the contributions that the U.S. volunteer force made to the country over the years.
The Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition makes public more than 1,200 records through which museum-goers can see first-hand the activities of the volunteers and what life was like back then in Korea.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens (left) and Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun browse the exhibits on display at the Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition on Sept. 12.
Among the exhibits on display are images of volunteers teaching English at middle and high schools in 30 or so rural and fishing villages across the nation, and working as assistant nurses at health centers. There are documents that record “friendship” between the volunteers and their Korean counterparts, too, such as letters they exchanged, photos of a volunteer attending a 60th birthday party of his landlord, and a calendar that a volunteer made for a Korean teacher.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens was one of the volunteers. She taught English in Yesan-gun County, Chungcheongnam-do Province, in 1975. “I think the U.S. Peace Corps made contributions to the development of the nation to some degree,” said the former ambassador. “Our time in this country has since made a difference to our lives. What we experienced here became the seeds for the friendship between Korea and the U.S. Hopefully, the two nations will continue to work together and to march together on this endless journey,” she said.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun (fifth from left), U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert (sixth from left) and other representatives participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening ceremony of the Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition on Sept. 12.
“Sept. 15 marks the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Incheon (인천상륙작전). Prior to that, Sept. 14 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Corps treaty between the two nations,” said Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun.
The minister expressed her gratitude to all those who were part of the Peace Corps, as she quoted a line from a well-known poem by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
The Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition continues until Nov. 20.
More information about this exhibit is available at the website below.
http://www.much.go.kr/
By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Heo Manjin, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
jiae5853@korea.kr
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun (left) and former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens ring a bell during the opening ceremony of the Beautiful Journey, Endless Friendship exhibition. The bell was used at a school where members of the Peace Corps volunteered.
