Osan UN Forces Battle Memorial Museum Receives Official Donation of Korean War U.S. M1 Bayonet from Osan Resident

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Chan-hyuk Reporter] Osan City announced on the 15th that it has decided to officially receive as a collection artifact the M1 rifle bayonet (U.S. M1 Rifle Bayonet), a U.S. military equipment from the Korean War that has been in the possession of an Osan resident, for the Osan UN Forces Battle Memorial Museum.

The M1 bayonet decided to be donated was equipment used by U.S. infantry soldiers during the Korean War, mounted on the M1 Garand rifle and used for close-quarters combat and defense purposes. It is an identical type of artifact to those actually carried by soldiers of the U.S. Army's 24th Division deployed in the Jukmi-ryeong Battle.

It is being evaluated as having significant historical value as a physical historical record that directly testifies to early-war combat circumstances.

Particularly given that the Jukmi-ryeong Battle has been transmitted through written documents and records, the confirmation of equipment actually used during the battle as a physical artifact is assessed as a historical source that presents the reality of the battle in a more three-dimensional way.

Given that it was a weapon directly linked to the survival of soldiers on the battlefield, it is expected to be utilized as an artifact capable of directly conveying the urgent circumstances of the early Korean War to museum visitors.

The bayonet was possessed by Yu Chang-beom (born 1981), originally from Won-dong, Osan, and is known to have been collected by his maternal grandmother in the Won-dong area of Osan and passed down through the family. With a war artifact that had remained in personal and family memory being incorporated into public historical assets, it has become a precedent for preserving regional and national war history together.

The city confirmed the official donation on December 10th through deliberation by the Osan UN Forces Battle Memorial Museum Operating Committee, reviewing the artifact's historical value and necessity for preservation.

An official from the Osan UN Forces Battle Memorial Museum stated, "This M1 bayonet donation is a case of a war artifact held by a citizen being converted into a public record," and added, "The artifact will undergo systematic research and preservation processes and is planned to be utilized as exhibition and educational material."

Mayor Lee Gwon-jae stated, "The artifact held by the citizen has become an important historical record demonstrating the historical significance of the Jukmi-ryeong Battle," and added, "Moving forward, we will continue to expand Osan's historical and cultural assets through citizen participation."