Overview
This place is the story of William Hamilton Shaw (William Earl Shaw II), the son of American missionary William Earl Shaw (Seo Wi-ryeom), who was born in Pyongyang and grew up with Korean friends, who gave his life to love Korea. While pursuing a doctoral degree at Harvard to work as a missionary to Korea, upon hearing news of the Korean War, he left behind his family's safety and his own bright future and volunteered as a Navy captain. During the Incheon Landing Operation, he contributed to the success of the intelligence mission, and while leading the Seoul recapture force, he was killed at the age of 28 on September 22, 1950, in Nokbeon-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, when heavily armed North Korean troops attacked him. Captain William Hamilton Shaw was posthumously awarded the Eulji Military Merit Medal by our government and the Eunseong Military Merit Medal by the U.S. government. In 2023, Captain William Hamilton Shaw was selected as one of the 'Top 10 Heroes of Korea-U.S. War Veterans' alongside his father William Earl Shaw (founding director and professor of New Testament Studies at the Methodist Daejeon Theological Seminary, the predecessor of Mokwon University), who served as a military chaplain during the Korean War. A monument was erected to widely convey the noble sacrifice.