Street Rails in Pusan

Early 1950s, Pusan, Korea.  When PVT Philip Hughes arrived in Korea with a boatload of nearly 2,000 Amreican troops in July 1950, he disembarked at the port of Pusan.  From there, the first order of business for him and his colleagues was to march to a rail station where they would catch a series of trains that took them to the front lines of the Korean War. Pusan (or today, "Busan") was then a dirty, crowded  city that had yet to recover from a generation of Japanese occupation and exploitation. 

Prior to the outbreak of the Korean War, during the late 1940s, a few initial rounds of foreign aid had been injected into the Korean economy.  This included the reciept of second-hand streetcars, pulled from the fleet maintained by Georgia Power in Atlanta.  Among Philip's colleagues were certainly some boys from Atlanta, all of whom would have been surprised - if not nostalgic - to encounter the familiar vehicles as they marched through Pusan.  These cars served through the Korean War and later, until about 1968. A couple examples were preserved as museum pieces.

Lifeline on Rails

Photo courtesy of the Doug Price collection.

C. 1950-51.  In a strategic sense, the rail yard in Pusan was the most valuable real estate in South Korea during the Korean War.  At the time, the nation's road network was insufficient to support the volume and variety of heavy traffic needed to sustain the U.N. forces combatting North Korea's incursion. Transportation was best achieved on the Korean rail network, developed by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea during the first half of the 20th century.  

In 1950, with the advent of the Korean War, U.S. and allied planners immediately recognized the strategic value of these railroads.  For military purposes, the port city of Pusan was the heart of this network, because it was here that maritime cargo would be transshipped to the railroads' rolling stock.

The majority of military personnel introduced to Korea approached the front lines as close as could be practically achieved by rail. Their journeys started in Pusan, which at the same time was the ultimate collection point of Korean refugees displaced by war. These refugees arrived in Pusan with few resources.  To a large extent, they survived by begging, bartering, or scavenging the refuse generated by the American and other U.N. armies.  

Thus is the setting for this photograph. For the thousands of Americans who served in Korea, their first encounter with the Korean people was achieved in this manner.

Port of Pusan

August 6, 1950.  Pusan, Korea. The U.S. 23rd Infantry Regiment has just arrived at Pusan, having sailed directly from Bremerton, Washington. This was the first Army unit committed to Korea directly from the continental U.S. The port infrastructure at Pusan was of Japanese construction, providing berths for up to 24 sea-going ships at once.  Even that was not enough to serve the U.S. Eighth Army's needs in a timely fashion.  Because port space was limited during the summer of 1950, Philip Hughes and other troops drawn from occupation forces in Japan fought to delay opposing North Korean forces long enough for ships to cycle through the port to bring in additional supplies and manpower.