Love in Korean War: Wartime bride's son traces mother's journey from Wonju to America

Sep 23, 2026

On the wooden veranda of a traditional Korean house, its lattice doors covered in paper, a young couple sits facing each other and smiling. The American husband, hair cropped short, has lather on his face and is about to shave. His younger Korean wife holds up a mirror for him. Last summer, their granddaughter shared 10 of the black-and-white photographs on Reddit, the American online forum. They were taken in the early 1950s in Wonju, Gangwon Province, at the height of the Korean War, and the couple in them is Park Yoo-sun and Ralph Smith. The photos drew widespread attention from users in both countries. The marriage carried a price. Women in Korea who married American servicemen in that era were labeled "yanggongju," literally "Western princess," a derogatory label used against women associated with U.S. troops. By the granddaughter's account, the couple settled in the United States in the 1960s. Their son, Charley Smith, now 74, published "Yoo-sun and Ralph" through the Korean publisher Positive Thinking. The book traces a family history intertwined with the turbulent course of mode

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