FROM MOTHER'S ARMS TO KOREA
By the Louvin Brothers
In this tragic tale, we hear not one but four interwoven narratives, told through the notes written in a diary and the circuitous journey of the little book itself.
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There is the mother who gave a diary to her son just before he sets sail for Korea. In the diary, the first entry is "from mother's arms to Korea."
The second second entry was written by the son, while preparing for a looming battle: "Tomorrow I'll face the front lines."
The third entry is written by a different hand. After finding his dead body, the son's "buddy" writes: "from a foxhole to a mansion on high."
The "unfinished diary" is returned to the grieving mother, and a voice also begs someone to "tell [her son's] sweetheart who's waiting" the terrible news, and to encourage her to move on with her life.
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From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high
They sent her an unfinished diary
That she once gave her darling son
It starts the day when he left her
And ends 'neath the enemy's gun
From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high
Last night I saw mother kneeling
By the old hearthstone to pray
In my dream I thought I was with her
And that's all my darling could say
(Chorus)
Please tell his sweetheart who's waiting
For his ship to anchor at shore
To change her plans and forget him
Her lips he'll kiss no more
(Chorus)
*Originally recorded in June 1953, just weeks before the Korean Armistice Agreement which marked a "complete cessation of hostilities" but did not officially end the Korean War itself. 7 decades later and the Korean peninsula and thousands of families remain divided.
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In a 2019 Ask A Korean blog article titled "How to End a Forever War", T.K. writes beautifully and powerfully about the "normalization" of war in Korea and the US, and what it means for all of us today. The article is excellent and worthy of several close reads. I have posted highlights below.
"North Korea and South Korea were never not at war, practically speaking. Less than two years after two governments were officially established in the Korean Peninsula, the two Koreas began the internecine Korean War in 1950. The war technically never ended, as the armed conflict only ended in a cease-fire in 1953 rather than a peace treaty. A Korean born in 1950 is 69 years old today. That means most Koreans—51 million in South Korea, 25 million in North, and 7.5 million scattered around the world—have never spent a moment of their lives not at war.
"Shortly after the end of World War II in 1945, two young colonels in the US military—Dean Rusk (the future Secretary of State) and Charles Bonesteel—grabbed a National Geographic map lying around them, and simply drew a line through the 38th Parallel. The Soviets would occupy north of the line, Americans the south. Rusk later would recall that the line “made no sense economically or geographically.” By late 1948, what appeared to be an informal and temporary division of the Peninsula became official and indefinite. North Korea’s Kim Il Sung invaded the South in 1950, and three years of hellish war ensued, killing millions. The United States came to the aid of South Korea; China did the same for North Korea. After the fighting ended, the Peninsula remained divided along the Armistice Line, which roughly tracked the 38th Parallel—the arbitrary line of division that never made any sense."
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"The term “forever war” came to be in common usage as it became evident that the US-led war in Afghanistan and Iraq had no realistic end in sight. Ordinarily, a war ends by defeating the opponent, who evidences its surrender through a document of some sort—as Imperial Japan did with the Treaty of San Francisco following World War II, for example. In contrast, the post-9/11 War on Terror was not declared against a country, per se. The Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by Congress on September 14, 2001, authorized the US president to “use all necessary and appropriate force . . . in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States”. Some have argued that this authorization has led to the longest war in US history, nearly 18 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"Koreans, however, would scoff at the idea that 18 years is “forever.” As of 2019, the United States has been at war in the Korean Peninsula for 69 years...."
(https://askakorean.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-end-forever-war.html)
Seth Martin (aka Seth Mountain or 이산), is a roots musician originally from the Pacific Northwest
(US).
Continuing in the radical tradition of artists like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Utah Phillips, Martin has been living in Seoul since 2015. He regularly performs with Korean and foreign folk, indie and rock acts.
"Quite possibly the closest thing we have to Woody Guthrie."
--Bill Mallonee...more
supported by 5 fans who also own “From Mother's Arms to Korea”
So glad this is here!!
I loved this album so much when it first came out, and it has really stood the test of time.
I can't really pick a favourite track, as it is so good from beginning to end, but if you pressed me, the last track just stays with you. So "Take me to Your Leader" it is... david_af
