Korean War Veterans Seek Compromise on Monument

Nearly a month after a city commission rejected their plans, a group of Korean War veterans say they are willing to change the design of their memorial if they can build it near the Korean Friendship Bell at Angels Gate Park in San Pedro.

“The fact of the matter is the site, to us, is more important than the design,” said Jack Stites, chairman of the memorial committee.

But Stites would not say Thursday how the veterans might alter the most controversial aspect of their proposed monument--a harshly realistic bronze statue that depicts a dozen larger-than-life soldiers fighting off an enemy attack. “I’ve got some thoughts in my mind,” Stites said, “but I can’t share them at this point.”

His comments come as as a four-member task force, appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, wrestles with the future of the proposed monument, which is a memorial to the veterans of 22 Allied nations that participated in the Korean War.

The task force, which is expected to make a final recommendation to the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission on June 8, will meet with Stites on Wednesday to work on a design and site plan that is acceptable to all sides.

Bradley, who in 1986 offered the veterans the site near the bell, appointed the task force in the wake of the commission’s April 27 decision that the monument as designed is inappropriate for that spot in the park.

The bell site commands a spectacular view of Los Angeles Harbor and the Pacific Ocean, and some San Pedro residents have argued that the memorial would glorify violence and destroy the view from the bell, as well as the serene mood it offers visitors.

On Tuesday, the task force came to San Pedro to tour the bell site and three other spots in Angels Gate Park that have been identified as potential homes for the monument. The sites are an overlook above Gaffey Street near West 36th Street, another next to the Marine Exchange observation building and an area near the Osgood-Farley Battery, which houses a military museum.

Following the tour, the panel conducted an informal public hearing in the San Pedro Municipal Building, during which representatives of community groups again aired their views on the memorial plan.

Adolfo Nodal, the chairman of the task force and general manager of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, said after Tuesday’s meeting that the panel is leaning toward keeping the monument in San Pedro.

At this point, he said, the task force is limiting its review to sites at Angels Gate Park, despite requests from monument opponents to look elsewhere in Los Angeles.

And Cultural Affairs Commission President Merry Norris, who serves on the task force, said the monument belongs in the park, given its history as a military base.

“It clearly belongs in San Pedro, especially after seeing Angels Gate Park and seeing the bunkers and this being an exit port” for soldiers leaving for Korea, Norris said. “It makes sense to me.”

Like other public hearings on the proposed International Korean War Memorial, Tuesday’s meeting was marked by impassioned speeches both for and against the veterans’ plans.

Representatives of Friends of the Friendship Bell, the group leading the fight against the memorial, told the task force it “cannot accept weapons, battle images” or any monument that “can be seen from the bell in a 360-degree perspective.”

The group’s spokeswoman, Colleen Clement, also urged the task force not to consider the veterans’ arguments that the project should go forward at the bell site because the veterans have already spent more than $250,000 on that plan: “We cannot sacrifice long-term impact by attempting to justify short-term expenditures of time and money.”

Clement has frequently argued that the area around the bell, which is rugged and unimproved, should be left alone. But Rick Seward, president of the Chosin Few, the national organization of Marine Corps veterans that is backing the memorial, made the opposite argument at the meeting.

Seward called the site “a vacant lot,” adding, “What we can do with this monument is to improve that site and make that area more than a bunch of gopher holes.”

He also urged San Pedro residents to “take the view beyond San Pedro, beyond Los Angeles. You’re talking about a monument that has an international reputation. It is beyond San Pedro, way beyond San Pedro.”