Korean War Memorial ‘Too Bellicose’ for Park : Panel, Veterans at Odds Over Design

In a crucial decision for the future of a controversial monument to Korean War veterans, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission Thursday ordered dramatic--although unspecified--design alterations if the memorial is to be built next to the Korean Friendship Bell at a city park in San Pedro.

The veterans, meanwhile, declared for the first time that they are unwilling to have their monument at any other site in Angels Gate Park--or on any other piece of public land in Los Angeles.

But they also said they are not certain they can agree to the design changes the commission wants, and are therefore unsure whether their memorial will be built at Angels Gate Park.

“I think it’s probably a 50-50 shot at this point,” said the veterans’ spokesman, Jack Stites.

Stites said his group, the Chosin Few--so named because they are survivors of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir--is considering two offers to build the monument on private land in Los Angeles, and is also thinking of taking the monument proposal to another city.

But Adolfo Nodal, general manager of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the chairman of a task force that proposed the design changes, said he is confident that the project will go forward.

“I think we can resolve it,” Nodal said, adding that he intends to work with the veterans to come up with a new proposal to submit to the commission, possibly as early as June 22.

‘Non-Aggressive Image’

In ordering the design changes, the commission, by a 5-2 vote, adopted a 28-page report released Wednesday by Nodal’s task force. The vote came after nearly two hours of discussion during a standing-room-only meeting.

The main sticking point in the report seems to be its recommendation that if the monument is to be placed next to the bell, it must reflect a “non-aggressive image of war instead of a bellicose and threatening image.”

Those phrases are not defined in the report, but Nodal, who wrote the report, said he interprets them to call for a design “that isn’t soldiers in the heat of battle.”

At Thursday’s meeting, Nodal said: “I think the main point that the proponents are missing is (that) we’re recommending (that there not be) a combat image for the bell site.”

But the monument as currently proposed would feature a bronze sculpture of a dozen soldiers engaged in battle, and Stites said he does not know if veterans are willing to abandon that theme.

The monument has generated considerable controversy in San Pedro, where some residents say it will project a violent image and destroy the peaceful setting of the Korean Friendship Bell. The bell, a gift to the city from the South Korean government, sits on a wind-swept slope overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Los Angeles Harbor.

Both during and after the meeting, monument opponents complained that the task force did not examine sites elsewhere in the city and said the report does not go far enough toward protecting the bell and the peaceful setting of the park.

The dissenting commissioners, Alan Sieroty and Betty Cox, seemed to agree.

Guns at Issue

Cox, who did not explain her dissent, asked Stites during the meeting if the veterans felt that the monument must include guns.

“To answer you as briefly as I can, yes,” Stites replied. “It must have weapons on it because we want it to reflect what we were, what we did, what we accomplished.”

But Sieroty said he would like to see a memorial that educates people about how to achieve peace, rather than one that simply commemorates the sacrifice of veterans.

Commissioner David Simon said he worried that the commission was forcing the veterans to make too many concessions. But he voted for the report nonetheless.

“I understand the desire for a statue that’s not very bellicose,” he said. “On the other hand, whether we like it or not, that’s what war is. . . . We don’t want it to look like a Boy Scout jamboree.”

Intense Feelings

Debate over the monument proposal has generated intense feelings in San Pedro, and this was evident Thursday as veterans and residents jammed into the commissioner’s meeting room on the 15th floor of City Hall.

Commission President Merry Norris kept a tight rein on the public comments, particularly when the meeting seemed on the verge of deteriorating into a shouting match.

After the commissioners voted, a shouting match did occur as monument proponents and opponents spilled into the hallway. Norris later commented that “there was just too much hysteria” over the project.