When I was in Wales in August 2019 I thought it’d be the last country I’d visit to honor Korean War veterans—apparently I was wrong.
I learned that Suriname, a former Dutch colony during the Korean War, also sent 115 men to fight; two were killed and never returned home. So I decided to go and pay tribute.
I also found two last remaining Surinamese Korean War veterans! There were three but one passed away a month ago. So I booked all my flights.
There were no direct flights from NYC so I had to be creative with the itinerary. I traveled 2762 miles to get to Suriname and 3065 to return home.
Not too bad —compared to the 63,200 miles I trekked around the world, then 20,700 more around the US, 34,700 across the Pacific, and 7,500 to Ireland and Wales!
It was extra special because I visited during Thanksgiving week 2019 in the United States. And I couldn’t be more grateful for the honor of meeting the two veterans in Suriname.
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Hannah Y Kim’s devoted activism to honor Korean War Veterans began in 2008 when she established Remember727 at the age of 24. Kim lobbied Congress to enact legislation, signed by President Barack Obama in 2009, which established July 27 as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day in the United States. In addition to visiting 27 countries that participated in the Korean War, she also traveled to all 50 US states and four US territories to visit more than 100 Korean War Memorials and thank 1000 American Korean War Veterans.
