INDEPENDANCE HALL

Here is a brief blog about the amazing place I went this weekend – basically I have some nifty pictures and want to show them off.

This the called "The Grand Hall of the Nation" and grand it is. The largest tile roof in Asia

This weekend my friend, the original Kyle Miyauchi, came up to visit me and see what a paradise I am surrounded by. Kyle came to korea about six weeks ago and teaches in Mokpo which is about 4 hours south on the west coast of Korea. Being a lover of all things historical, as is Kyle, at least he should be as a history major, I decided to revisit Independence Hall. Independence Hall is the national museum for independence and it is located right here in Cheonan. 

Part of the 1000 Korean flags the surround the compound

The museum is phenomenal and I would compare it to the level of sophistication and technology that you see at the Smithsonian, except this museum is dedicated to one purpose: telling the story of how Korea came to be Korea from about 2000 B.C. To 1950 A.D. It moves through the first four thousand years rather quickly, only one building of seven being wholly devoted to it, but the last hundred or so years take the last six. Like I said earlier, one of the great things about this particular culture experience is much of it is in Korean and English so you can actually get some info out of the displays. 

Blood-stained flag from the March 1st uprising against Japan.

This Museum is a bit gruesome as it contains numerous models that reenact the horrifying instances of torture and war that Korean's suffered at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation periods. Even so I find this place to be a wonderful blend of state-of-the-art technology, period artifacts, and models. The seven buldings and many outposts surrounding this enormous compound tell in extreme detail -and in English! - the complicated and turbulent history surrounding Korea.

Korean "turtle" ship, used in ancient times as a type of battle ship

Letter from Buddha to Jesus