A video of South Korea’s first President Rhee Syngman (1875-1965), who was visiting the United States as a state guest on Aug. 2, 1954, leading a “Hometown Heroes Ticker Tape Parade” parade in Manhattan has been unearthed after 70 years.
Director Kim Deok-young, a documentary filmmaker, announced on Jan. 11 that he found the 45-second clip at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington in June last year. While some photographs of the parade have survived, this is the first time the video has been known to exist. The footage will be shown to the public in the movie “The Birth of Korea,” which premieres Jan. 12 and hits theaters next month.
The footage shows Rhee driving through a welcoming crowd of New Yorkers in a convertible draped with a flag and an American flag, and the president removing his hat, waving it, and rising from his seat to return the gesture. Bright-faced New Yorkers clap, cheer, and throw confetti from street corners and skyscrapers.
The parade is an official New York City event called the “Hometown Heroes Ticker Tape Parade” which is reserved for those who have made heroic contributions to history, such as Douglas MacArthur. It was the year after the armistice and the Mutual Defense Treaty between the Republic of Korea and the United States of America, and Rhee Syngman, the first foreign head of state to march in the event, was being hailed as the “defender of freedom” in the United States.
