See Korean War Memorial (Battery Park), Manhattan, NYC

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This monument honors military personnel who served in the Korean War (1950-1953). The memorial, dedicated in 1991, was designed by Welsh-born artist Mac Adams and is notable as one of the first Korean War memorials erected in the United States. In 1987, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee was formed to raise the funds to build a monument to commemorate the fallen heroes and living comrades of the Korean War, which is often referred to as the “Forgotten War.” The memorial features a 15-foot-high black granite stele with the shape of a Korean War soldier cut out of the center. Also known as “The Universal Soldier,” the figure forms a silhouette that allows viewers to see through the monument to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This literal void reinforces the figurative theme of absence and loss, and serves as a metaphor for death. One of the three tiers in the base of the monument is decorated with mosaic flags of countries that participated in the U.N.-sponsored mission. The plaza’s paving blocks are inscribed with the numbers of dead, wounded, and missing in action from each of the 22 countries that participated in the war, which were based on official government statistics provided at the time of the memorial’s placement in 1991. Since the creation of the monument, the original statistics have been dramatically revised and as of 2019 the Republic of Korea’s official count had grown to 137,899 dead, 450,742 wounded, and 24,495 missing. Korean War Veterans are also commemorated in New York with the Brooklyn Korean War Veterans Plaza in Cadman Plaza, the Korean War Veterans Parkway (which was known as the Richmond Parkway until it was renamed in April 1997 by the New York State Legislature), and the Queens Korean War Veterans Memorial in Kissena Park.

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