Faced with relentless downpour, I spent my final day in Seoul ensconced in its many wonderful museums. The War Memorial of Korea museum was a clear winner. This colossal complex displays exhibitions covering the peninsula's entire military history, from Palaeolithic stones to the cutting edge of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. If there's one museum to visit in Seoul it's surely this. A personal highlight was the amazing paintings that adorn the museum's corridors, depicting ferocious battle scenes throughout the ages.
"Even if weapons are not needed for use for a hundred years, they should always be in place."
Mok Min Shim Seo, written by Jeong Yak-yong (1762–1836)
My afternoon was spent at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. This provided an excellent overview of the past century's political travails, including Japanese occupation, civil war and military dictatorships that only relented to democratic forces in 1987. Accounts of the latter were noticeably more measured than in Taiwan. I suspect this is because the failure of them and their acolytes to retain influence in the democratic age has reduced the expediency of vilifying them – not to mention that any suffering they inflicted was so patently overshadowed by what preceded them.
