Oregon Korean War Memorial - History

History

Fund raising for the memorial in Oregon began in 1996, forty-three years after the Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War. Designs for the memorial were approved on October 14, 1996, by the city of Wilsonville as part of its Town Center Park. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 8, 1998, for the project that included a visitors' center for the city at the park and memorial. The visitors' center was paid for partly by Clackamas County. Plans called for a tree-lined plaza that honored the 287 soldiers from Oregon that died in the war that lasted from 1950 to 1953, as well as honor the almost one million Koreans who died. Much of the memorial was paid for by fundraising and private donations, with the Oregon Korean War Veterans Association raising $50,000 by the time construction began. The original design was a smaller version of Seoul's East Gate.

Hyundai Semiconductor America donated US$100,000 to the project in January 2000, while other funds for the $450,000 memorial were raised from local companies and residents, including nearly $70,000 from Korean-Americans. A total of $110,000 was raised by donations of individuals, while South Korea donated $50,000. On September 30, 2000, the Oregon Korean War Memorial was officially dedicated in a ceremony attended by a Korean dignitary and Oregon politicians such as state supreme court justice George Van Hoomissen and state senator John Lim. Sixty thousand Oregonians fought in the Korean War, with 287 killed.

In 2002, vandalism at the memorial led to the installation of security cameras. In June 2006, a fifteen-foot extension was added to the granite wall to thank the Korean community for their support in building the monument. Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung visited the memorial in April 2008.