70 years ago — October 9, 1950
“Word has been received here of the almost complete destruction of Chosen Christian University, a Presbyterian institution which, with an enrollment of 1,300 students, was South Korea’s second largest university. The report came from Navy Lieutenant Horace G. Underwood, 33, who until the invasion of South Korea was a teacher at the institution. Mr. Underwood is a grandson of the university’s founder. He asked for and received permission to go on immediate active duty as a naval reservist after the war in Korea began. Lieutenant Underwood, serving with a Marine reconnaissance unit, got within sight of the university’s wrecked buildings, according to an Armed Services report from Seoul. Enemy forces, however, were still in the area and American artillery fire was hitting the school’s ruined buildings. The same report from Korea told of the Marines finding a small ruined Roman Catholic church a short distance from Seoul.”
From the news article, “Chosen University is destroyed” by Religious News Service. A sidebar note by the editor reads: “In the Oct. 2 issue of Time magazine … a graphic story of Horace Underwood’s part in this affair is told. Last year his mother was killed, while entertaining friends at tea, when she was called to the door by two Korean Communists. The son conducted the funeral service.”
