Seoul City Unveils Over 100 Items Including First Domestic Screening of 6.25 Yongsan Bombing Footage... Urban Recovery and Reconstruction Process

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is revealing for the first time in Korea the vivid scenes of Yongsan, which was reduced to ruins during the Yongsan bombing in the Korean War. Footage showing the U.S. Air Force dropping bombs and the Yongsan Railroad Maintenance Depot area turning into ashes in an instant will be unveiled for the first time. Videos and photos documenting the sweat and tears of citizens who embarked on urban reconstruction after the pain of war will also be released.

The materials being disclosed this time include 17 edited videos and 80 photos based on the original documents preserved by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), focusing on the lives of citizens in Seoul and the Yongsan area immediately after the Korean War in the 1950s.

From footage of the U.S. military’s heavy bombing of the Yongsan Railroad Maintenance Depot and Yongsan Base area on July 16, 1950, to scenes of citizens around Yongsan and Seoul Station after the January 4th retreat in 1951, and the process of Seoul restoring urban infrastructure such as roads, water supply, and hospitals with the aid of the United Nations and U.S. military after the armistice agreement in 1953, visitors can experience these events in chronological order.

To mark the anniversary of the Yongsan bombing on the 16th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will hold a special exhibition titled "July 16, Yongsan" at the Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall starting from the 17th. To strictly comply with social distancing and quarantine guidelines, the exhibition will operate on a 100% reservation basis, limiting the number of visitors to fewer than 10 per hour.

The exhibition will be newly organized in the first-floor "Memory Room" of the Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall and will be structured around four themes: Bombing, Return, Recovery, and Reconstruction. Lee Jeong-hwa, Director of the Seoul City Urban Planning Bureau, said, “This special exhibition offers a concentrated opportunity to see how Seoul and Yongsan have developed and grown through the process triggered by the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.” She added, “We hope this will be a good chance for many citizens to explore how the direction of Yongsan’s urban development and the creation of Yongsan Park should be well coordinated moving forward.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.