The Korean War Legacy Foundation (KWLF) has a primary mission to provide resources for teachers, students, and the public about the origins and legacies of the Korean War. The Foundation's interview archive consists of nearly 1,500 interviews, offering a wealth of primary sources such as personal stories, photographs, letters, and official documents. 

Interactive elements and multimedia components in the archive offer teachers an excellent opportunity to create engaging lessons for their students. Interviews have been analyzed by KWLF teacher fellows who are responsible for identifying tags, writing bios, and selecting short interview clips that are useful for classroom instruction.  The search feature in the interview archive allows users to narrow their search based on metadata tags such as country, battles, branches of service, social experiences, and geographic locations. Through the analysis of the interviews, by trained teacher fellows, short 2-4 minute video clips have been selected and tagged so users can engage with specific material or topics. The clips are systematically organized, summarized, and tagged according to the topics the veteran discusses. Along with each clip, the profile includes a summary of the major discussion points the veteran addresses. The tagging system allows easy navigation and quick access to topics of interest. Incorporating clips or entire interviews from the interview archive can offer valuable context for comprehending the complexities of the Korean War, including its political, social, and military aspects.  

A key strength of the archive is its versatility, allowing resources to be seamlessly incorporated into a broad range of subjects beyond history, including literature, art, and social studies. The digital nature of the content enables teachers to easily integrate the materials into various teaching formats, whether in-class presentations, homework assignments, or online discussions. This flexibility can help accommodate different learning styles and classroom needs. While interacting with the historical chapters section of the Korean War Legacy Foundation’s resources, students and teachers will find clips from veterans linked to the material pages. The educational materials are designed to give students and teachers an in-depth understanding of various aspects and time periods of the Korean War. The history chapters include links to interviews with veterans, providing personal insights into their experiences during the war. Educators can use these resources to help students make connections between the Korean War and other significant historical events, such as the Cold War, and to explore its long-term impact on global politics.

Since the interview archive includes interviews from veterans of all twenty countries involved in the Korean War, students gain a comprehensive view of the shared experiences and challenges across different countries. These diverse accounts reveal commonalities in the bravery exhibited and the human cost of the war, regardless of national affiliation. Teachers can create lessons that enable students to listen to veteran interviews or clips, follow along with provided transcripts, or search the transcripts themselves. This global perspective helps students appreciate how, despite varying backgrounds and allegiances, the fundamental experiences of courage, sacrifice, and hardship were strikingly similar for veterans from different nations. 

The digital interview archive from the Korean War Legacy Foundation is a valuable tool that can enrich classroom instruction, provide diverse and engaging learning materials, and support the development of students’ critical thinking skills. Using these stories allows teachers to connect the events of the war and broader historical context to understand the challenges the soldiers faced and the legacy of their service and sacrifice.

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By Jaime Jarvis, KWLF Fellowship Director