Quotes

 

1. Talking to the Korean War veterans, the second man I talked to said something that really stood out. “I was a general and me and 50 men were heading towards this place to relieve another 50 men in the middle of the night. When we arrived, we heard nothing and assumed we were under an ambush, but nothing happened as the night pressed on. Morning came and as we were walking, we ended up finding our 50 missing men. They were all lying on the ground with their hands and feet tied up and a bullet through the back of each one if their heads. They had been shot and killed. That’s not war. That’s murder. They murdered 50 men” (Korean War Veteran). This stood out to me because it shows the horrors of war and made me realize how unaware most Americans are of what happened in the Korean War and how underappreciated its veterans are.

2. I talked with a friend after the Korean veterans interview session, and she told me something that her veteran said that also hit home. “We saw a child in the middle of the road walking towards us. She was crying out for help. We knew she had a bomb strapped to her, but we didn’t know what to do. What do you do? Do you shoot her?” (Korean War Veteran). His eyes then welled up with tears. This struck me because it truly captures what the soldiers in Korea endured and the unnerving decisions they should have never been forced to make.

3. My grandfather and I spoke after I told him about our interview session with the Korean War veterans and I asked him what he had thought about it at the time since he was alive. “Kayla, war is hell. No matter what you’re fighting for or against, it’s hell. I’ve never fought in a war and I can tell you that much” (Henry Winslow). I think this perfectly captures the Korean War. Though it ended in a stalemate and is an often overlooked or forgotten war, it was still just like any other; people lost their lives and the people involved still endured horrors that have left an everlasting mark.

4. I asked my grandmother as well what she had thought of the Korean War and just communism in general at the time. She said, “Well, we were taught to be afraid. We lived in fear that the communists would take over and America would fall. It was instilled in our minds and we to this day haven’t forgotten that fear” (Bonita Winslow). I think this explains well about what happened on the home front when communism was on the rise. People were taught to be afraid of communism and lived in constant fear, giving an interesting perspective on how the enemy was portrayed to the United States public.

 

This is a chart summary of the casualties that took place in the Korean War. Thousands of people lost their lives in this war. They should never be forgotten.