Korean Job Discussion Forums

jazzplayer · Joined: 11 Feb 2004

A friend sent this to me, knowing I am interested in old pictures of Seoul. It was taken around 1946. Can you identify the location?

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

Wal-mart ?

ed4444 · Joined: 12 Oct 2004

Is it just north of Jongno on the way to the current location of the blue house?

Lion Brown · Joined: 06 Sep 2005

I'd say that pic is of Samgakji area. The roundabout is where the subway ststion would be, and the big bare patch would probably be the site of the war museum. The road is heading towards Itaewon.

Right?

mithridates · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:28 am Post subject:

Gwanghwamun?

Lion Brown · Joined: 06 Sep 2005

jazzplayer · Joined: 11 Feb 2004

Lion--you got it. The interesting thing (to me, anyway) is that a few of those buildings--esp. the long brick ones on the left--are still there today, on Yongsan Main Post.

I lived there in the early 70s as a kid--Samgakchi then was a big elevated traffic circle. I guess that's gone now. And that field (where the War Museum is now) was a motley collection of shops, alleys, etc....

The Japanese left in '45, right? something's slightly off in the info I was given. At least we can tell it was before the early 50s, because many of those Japanese buildings were destroyed in the war.

mithridates · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:46 am Post subject:

The war officially ended then but everyone didn't just vanish overnight. There were quite a few Japanese in Manchuria and further north and so a lot of Japanese stayed behind to coordinate events to get them back to Japan. Some of them had decided that they wanted to remain in Korea but they were later presented with orders from the American military after it moved in to vacate and go back to Japan without fail.