Horace Grant Underwood, II

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US Boarder Crossing

Together Horace and Joan were the parents of Horace H. Underwood, William D. Underwood, and Peter Alexander Underwood
Educated at Hamilton College and New York University. In 1939, Underwood returned to Seoul and taught English at Chosen Christian College (Yonsei University). In July 1941, he married Joan Vida Davidson, the daughter of a British businessman.

They was interned by the Japanese in 1941 and repatriated to the United States in 1942, when he joined the U.S. Navy and served as a Korean and Japanese language officer in the Pacific.

At the end of WWII, he was assigned to the U.S. Military Government in Korea, and was instrumental in forming Seoul National University out of a multitude of of existing Japanese institutions. In 1947, he resigned his commission and returned to Yonsei University, where he served until the North Korean attack in June 1950. Underwood rejoined the U.S. Navy and served throughout the Korean War. He served as a key interpretor in the Korean War armistice talks.