Gunsan

Sister cities

• Yangzhou
• Yantai
• Jamshedpur
• Tacoma
• Windsor
• Pimpri-Chinchwad

History

Gunsan was a small fishing village on the banks of the Geum River, near where the river spills into the Yellow Sea. It sits on the fertile western Honam plain where much rice is harvested. Gunsan became a port in the late 19th century largely due to pressure from the Japanese on the Koreans to ship rice to Japan. In 1899, Gunsan Port officially opened up to international trade. Gunsan was largely settled by Japanese during the period of the Japanese occupation, and was known as Gunzan. The old (now demolished) City Hall and the Customs House are of Japanese construction. After liberation from the Japanese in 1945, Gunsan began to grow slowly. The Korean War of the 1950s left the Gunsan area relatively unscathed. The initial drive south by the Communist North Koreans pushed the United Nations and South Korean forces toward Busan so quickly that Gunsan was spared from protracted fighting. Nevertheless, a battalion of ROK Marines, entrenched in the hills above Gunsan Port, withheld overwhelming DPRK forces. Their courageous engagement created extra time for the evacuation of the town and port. The action is commemorated with a monument on the ridgeline where the heaviest fighting occurred. () The drive north by the United Nations forces occurred so rapidly that there was little direct confrontation in the area. After the cessation of hostilities, the United States Air Force occupied nearby Kunsan Air Base, which has affected Gunsan. Kunsan Air Base was originally constructed, under Japanese direction, by reclaiming mudflats starting in around 1923. Kunsan Air Base has hosted a variety of USAF combat aircraft. The proximity of US service members to Gunsan has provided some economic growth to Gunsan, but the base's influence has waned since the 1990s as a result of a…