Late Belgian vet buried in Korea 'fell in love with the country and the people'

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Late Belgian vet buried in Korea 'fell in love with the country and the people'

Published: 03 Dec. 2023, 14:55

Leon Bosquet, far left in front row, with the other Belgian soldiers who served in the 1950-53 Korean War. [LEON BOSQUET]

Leon Bosquet became the first Belgian veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War to be buried on Korean soil recently.

Although more than 70 years had passed since he served in the war, the country never left his heart, said his daughter Daniele Bosquet, who traveled to Korea with his remains.

“I believe he fell in love with the country and the people,” she said, speaking with the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul on Nov. 7.

Bosquet, who died at the age of 95 this year, kept a meticulous recording of his time in Korea, both in journal entries that detail the day-to-day of his time here — like an entry in May 1954 which reads, “We saw a big parade with General Taylor and Syngman Rhee — nothing to declare,” and in the photos he took with a camera he won in a lottery at a U.S. base in Japan.

In keeping with his dying wish, Bosquet was buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery of Korea in Busan on Nov. 15. He died on April 2 at the age of 95 and is survived by his wife, six of their children and 16 grandchildren.

Leon Bosquet's burial at the UN Memorial Cemetery of Korea in Busan on Nov. 15. [NEWS1]

Even in his last weeks at the hospital, Bosquet would ask for “my leaflets of Korea,” which contain photos and records of his and his Belgian comrades’ weeks and months spent together.

Some memories from the war would be too painful to share. But from time to time, Bosquet would point to the all-too-familiar faces in the photos and tell his children that “that was the last time we had together before he was killed in action.”

“He told me that their fear No. 1 was the snipers because it would happen, and they wouldn’t have been able to see it coming,” said Daniele. “There was true brotherhood between them all. They trusted each other with their lives.”

Bosquet first learned the inhumanity of war when he was subjected to forced labor as a teenager across Europe during the Second World War. When the war was over, he and other forced laborers at a camp in Belarus could finally come home.

Alongside other able-bodied men in Belgium, Bosquet was soon conscripted into the military.

However, the decision to serve in Korea, a distant country unbeknown to most Belgians of the era, was voluntary.

Bosquet was one of 3,498 Belgians who served in South Korea between Jan. 31, 1951, and June 15, 1955. Together with 89 soldiers from Luxembourg, the Belgian contingent formed the Bel-Lux Battalion.

Signing his contract in May 1951, just two years after his marriage, Bosquet received six months of training as a paracommando and was sent to Korea. Like other war veterans, he spoke of braving the enemy forces and the deadly winter conditions.

“He said he was lucky to have just one toe frostbitten,” said Daniele.

Between battles, he would write letters to his wife, “often complaining how much she did not write back as much as he did,” said Daniele, or eat with the Katusa soldiers — Korean soldiers who served alongside the American forces.

Upon completing his six-month contract in Korea, Bosquet could come home and stay with his family — Daniele was just born when he returned to Belgium in July 1952.

Daniele Bosquet, daughter of Korean War veteran Leon Bosquet, speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul on Nov. 7. [ESTHER CHUNG]

But he had already signed the contract to return to Korea on the ship that brought him back.

“The poverty that Korean people lived in at the time really struck close to my father’s heart,” Daniele said.

During his second tour in Korea, the war came to a close with an armistice between the UN Command and the Chinese and North Korean forces.

Skirmishes still happened near the battlefronts, and Bosquet and others stayed on to help maintain order through July 1954.

By the end of the war, a total of 101 Belgians and two Luxembourgers were killed. Another 350 of the Bel-Lux Battalion were injured, and five went missing, according to the Belgian Embassy in Seoul.

The war changed many lives — the lives of those who fought at the front lines and witnessed atrocities and the families who lost loved ones to the Korean cause.

But Bosquet and nearly 2 million others who came to the aid of South Korea also changed the course of the history of a nation and its people.

“People in Korea had suffered enough, it was time for them to have a better life, and I am proud of my father for having served in the war,” Daniele said. “It was a big change for them. Today, as I am here in Korea, seeing how unrecognizable it is compared to what my father saw, I can see that.”

South Korean military officials carry the remains of Leon Bosquet at Incheon International Airport on Oct. 27. Bosquet died on April 2 at the age of 95. His last wish was to be buried in Korea alongside the other Korean War veterans. [YONHAP]

BY ESTHER CHUNG [[email protected]]