William Hamilton Shaw Statue

This place holds the story of William Hamilton Shaw (Seo Wi-ryeom II), the son of American missionary William Earl Shaw (Seo Wi-ryeom), who was born in Pyongyang and grew up with Korean friends, and who loved Korea to the point of sacrificing his life. While pursuing a doctoral degree at Harvard to work as a missionary in Korea, he heard news of the Korean War and, setting aside his family's safety and his own bright future, volunteered as a Navy lieutenant. As an intelligence officer during the Incheon Landing Operation, he contributed to its success. While leading the advance to recapture Seoul, he was attacked by heavily armed North Korean forces with machine guns in Nokbeon-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, on September 22, 1950, and died at the age of 28. Lieutenant William Hamilton Shaw was posthumously awarded the Eulji Military Merit Medal by the Korean government and the Silver Star Medal by the U.S. government. In 2023, Lieutenant William Hamilton Shaw and his father, William Earl Shaw (a founding director and New Testament professor at the Methodist Daejeon Theological Seminary, the predecessor of Mokwon University), who served as a military chaplain during the Korean War, were selected as 'Top 10 Korean-American War Veterans Heroes.' This monument was erected to widely commemorate his noble sacrifice.