Paintings of American college students who participated in the Korean War in 1951 in their 20s were released for the first time in 70 years.



The Korean War Dairy Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the Dairy Foundation), a non-profit organization in the United States, released a picture drawn on the battlefield by veteran Roger Stringham (93) on its website on the 9th (local time).



Stringham, who majored in painting at the California Institute of the Arts, was drafted into the US Army and joined the headquarters company of the 24th Regiment, 21st Infantry Division, and first set foot on Korean soil in 1951.



While fighting fierce battles, whenever he had spare time, he vividly portrayed the mountains and landscapes of Gangwon-do, as well as the images of his American colleagues.



He said he couldn't get the paper from the wire, so he ripped open the bottom of his supply boxes, including beer, cigarettes, toothpaste, and soap, and painted them with a pencil.



Stringham's works vividly depict scenes of hand-to-hand combat, trench warfare, bombers, crashed fighters, night patrols, and movement of soldiers.



Many of his works also focused on the scenery around the battlefield.



He said, "I was moved by the beauty of Korea's nature and started painting."




He said he still can't forget the memory of walking along the mudflats on the beach where even a single building cannot be seen after landing in Incheon.



It is said that when he was sent to the battle of Hwacheon Lake and Geumseong in Gangwon-do, his colleagues suffered frostbite or even lost their lives due to the harsh cold.



It's been over 70 years, but Stringham said, "I still have nightmares. I have dreams of finding dead companions."



Another reason he painted was because he wanted to tell his parents in his hometown of Berkeley, California, "I'm fine".



The sketches of the Korean War, which are enclosed with each letter, have already exceeded 60, and his mother collected them and held an exhibition at a museum in San Francisco in 1952.




He left Korea in March 1952 when his troops were relocated to Sendai, Japan.



Some of his works include watercolors, which were re-drawn after being relocated to Japan by re-coloring sketches with paint.



After the war, he returned to the United States to change his major to physical chemistry and became an expert in the field of room temperature fusion, writing more than 100 academic papers.



He, who has been invited to conferences in Korea several times, said, "I was so surprised at the scientific and technological development of a country that was completely broken in the past." "I said to myself, 'This is an incredible dream' while looking at Incheon International Airport, Seoul's skyscrapers, and the transportation system." I even admired it.




After an interview with Jong-Woo Han, chairman of the Dairy Foundation, in February, he decided to donate these works to the Dairy Foundation.



Chairman Han, who has been conducting a UN veterans digital archive construction project since 2012 with the support of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, visited Hawaii to produce an educational material book dealing with the activities of the POWs and Missing Persons Identification Agency (DPAA) of the US Department of Defense. I met you for the first time.



Stringham, who was looking for a place to permanently store his paintings, accepted the proposal of the chairman of the Board, saying that putting all of the Korean War sketches and watercolors on the Dairy Foundation website was "the best option."



(Photo = Provided by the Korean War Dairy Foundation, Yonhap News)