Stockholm, Sweden - It was the first visit of the Little Angels to Sweden, and it is safe to say that the young Korean girls left an indelible impression as they performed in front of a very enthusiastic crowd of 900 spectators in Berwaldhallen, Stockholm.
Besides their performance, the Little Angels visited some of the most prominent tourist attractions of Stockholm. They included the Wasa Museum, which is a Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was lifted from the bottom of the sea in 1961 and then made it to a museum. Other highlights were the visits to Skansen, the zoo of Stockholm, and the Nordic Museum.
Dr. Bo Hi Pak, who is a great admirer of the Swedish spiritualist Emmanuel Swedenborg, made several visits to places connected to Swedenborg. He also visited Uppsala, the university town 50 km north of Stockholm, where he laid bouquets of flowers on the graves of Swedenborg and Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish diplomat who was Secretary-General of the United Nations between 1953 and 1961.
On the day of the event, the Little Angels left early to Berwaldhallen for a rehearsal. The evening started with a reception with more than 400 people invited. Among the guests were diplomats, officials of the Foreign Ministry, and other officials both from the national and local governments.
At the event, Mikael Schöld, the MC for the evening, introduced three speakers. They were Eom Seock-Jeung, Korean ambassador to Sweden; Dr. Åke J. Ek, the president of the Association of the Swedish Field Hospital for Korea; and Dr. Bo Hi Pak, Chairman of the Korean Cultural Foundation.
In his speech Dr. Pak thanked the Swedish nation and the Swedish people for their contribution to Korea during the war. Dr. Pak noted that “in 1950 when the Korean War broke out, Sweden became the first nation to notify the UN that it was sending a mobile Red Cross Hospital unit to Korea, and the unit was the first to arrive, on September 23, 1950.”
Sweden’s mobile field hospital unit initially had 174 doctors and nurses who served and treated over 25,000 UN soldiers and prisoners of war. Ultimately, the Swedish Medical Hospital stayed longer than any other medical unit, and the combined total of military and civilian patients treated at the hospital exceeds two million people.
In 1953 after the Korean War ended, Sweden withdrew its military hospital, yet a civilian medical team remained. Together with Norway and Denmark, Sweden gave Korea a permanent highly sophisticated hospital, which remains even today, as a national medical center.
The performance was a beautiful and colorful introduction to the 5,000-year-old Korean culture, which was exemplified by the beauty, purity, skill and energy of the Little Angels.
The audience was especially moved by their singing of the Swedish national anthem and two other well-known Swedish songs.
The most moving moments came at the end when some 25 Swedish war veterans were called to the stage and received the Little Angels medal of honor from the Korean girls. It was truly spectacular and heart-warming to see the interaction between young and old, two separate generations of peace ambassadors.
On the day after the performance the Little Angels made a courtesy call to Mrs. Margareta Björk, the president of the Stockholm Council at the Town Hall. They were able to walk down the same stairs as the Nobel Prize Winners do when they celebrate their achievements. The Little Angels presented Mrs. Björk with a traditional Korean bowl and they sang several songs for her. She had attended the performance at Berwaldhallen and praised the Little Angels several times for their impressive production.
On the final day in Stockholm, there was a reception at the Korean Embassy. Among those in attendance were 8 of the Swedish war veterans.