An ugly, forbidding building whose designers
ignored the fact that people would need to walk to it. The
National Museum might be ugly but this one is uglier. (The
museum opened in 1994, but the building looks like something
designed in Communist China or the Soviet Union, doesn't
it?)
On the other hand, the exhibits inside were interesting,
informative. Nearly the entire museum is devoted to the
Korean War. I am not enough of an historian to know
whether the exhibits had any particular spin, though I did
notice that there was significant space devoted to showing that
the war was Kim Il-sung's idea.
I suspect most Americans, even those who lived through the
Korean War years, know little about it. I knew the basics,
but the details -- including one act of what in hindsight was
American military genius and at least two of incredible
foolhardiness -- were new to me.
Obviously, US forces are mentioned everywhere. The museum
also devotes some space to highlighting that UN (primarily US
troops) were fighting and dying far from home to reverse the
Communist invasion.
Many find history boring, but the Korean War
is worth knowing about. It's fair to say that the Korean
War played a very large role in shaping the country we have
today.
