FIGHT ON THE KOREAN HILLSIDE

identity portfolio

By Seung-Ho Yang

FIGHT ON THE KOREAN HILLSIDE Is  there  anyone  outside?  I  wondered  to  myself.  I  peeked  my  head  out  

from  around  the  rock.  It’s  too  dark  to  see  anything,  I  thought.  Is  it  

safe  to  move  our  location?  Or  should  we  just  stay?  I  think  we  can  take  

a  risk  to  move  our  location  to  that  trench  next  to  us.  “Min-­‐Joon!  

Follow  me,”  I  yelled.  My  heart  pounded  as  I  slipped  into  the  narrow  

gap  in  the  earth.  I  wonder  if  Min-­‐Joon  is  following  me.

I  looked  around  the  dark  hillside  of  Yong  San,  covered  with  

short  grass  that  swayed  in  the  winds.    Huge  craters,  humungous  

boulders  and  dead  trees  blocked  our  vision.  The  trench  we  were  in  

was  big  enough  for  three  people.  

 “Do  you  see  anything?”  I  asked  Min-­‐Joon,  a  16  year  old  kid  I  

befriended  from  the  police  army.  He  was  poking  his  head  out  from  

our  hole.

 “Of  course,  I  can’t  see  anything,”  Min-­‐Joon  yelled  over  the  

gunshots.  “It’s  like,  1  AM!  Can’t  we  just  turn  the  lights  on?”  

  “Don’t  you  remember?”  I  asked.  “If  we  turn  lights  on,  everyone  

will  see  us!  Even  the  North  Koreans!”  But  even  I  thought  not  turning  

the  lights  on  was  unfair.  Maybe  a  little  light  will  do?  I  thought,  but  

that  idea  disappeared  quickly  when  an  explosion  banged  loudly  

from  the  other  side  of  the  hill,  where  I  knew  the  North  Koreans  

were.

  “Why  did  you  join  this  police  army?”  Min–Joon  asked.

“Our  country  needs  to  win.  I  can’t  see  the  North  Koreans  take  our  

country,”  I  answered.  “I  mean  like  this  war  between  north  and  south  

has  been  going  for  months.  This  has  to  be  stopped.”

“Yeah,  you’re  right.  We  can’t  let  them  win,”  Min-­‐Joon  agreed.  “Kim  Il  

Sung  has  to  be  stopped!”then  he  shot  his  gun  once  more.

  “I  wonder  how  all  this  happened  Min-­‐Joon,”  I  said.  “All  I  know  

that  the  Soviet  Union  and  is  providing  materials  to  North  Korea  and  

USA  is  sending  solders  to  help  us.”  

  “Oh,  and  you  should  hear  this,”  Min-­‐Joon  said,  “you  know  tanks  

right?”

  “Yeah,  what  about  them?”  

  “The  North  Koreans  have  them  while  we  don’t!  Isn’t  that  

stupid?  How  are  we  supposed  to  Xight  their  tanks?”  

  “Man,  thats  so  un-­‐”

BANG!  The  loud  gunshot  rang  in  our  ears.  Then  the  noise  

disappeared  as  fast  as  it  was  heard.  Nobody  said  anything.  There  

was  another  horrifying  bang.  Min-­‐Joon  held  his  gun  up  and  hugged  it  

like  a  teddy  bear.  My  heart  pounded  like  a  drum.  It  beat  so  loudly  

even  Min-­‐Joon  could’ve  heard  it.  

I  heaved  my  gun  towards  the  sound  of  the  gunshot.  My  Xingers  

closed  on  the  handle,  the  only  thing  that  would  help  me  defend  

against  an  enemy.  

“That  sounded  like  it  came  from  the  rock,”  I  whispered.  Min-­‐

Joon  nodded.  We  didn’t    need  to  talk.  We  both  held  our  guns  up  and  

busted  out  from  our  trench  without  looking  back.

“Min-­‐Joon,  wait,”  I  yelled.  “We’re  at  our  base.”  We  stopped  and  

leaned  next  to  a  tree.  Home  territory,  I  thought.  I  was  back.

AUTHOR’S  NOTE

I am writing this narrative because I wanted to show everyone how kids felt when they were in war. I also wanted to show he

kinds of landscape the koreans were fighting and a few facts about the korean war. The characters like Min-Joon is not real but

the main character is. He also is my grandfather. Now he lives in Korea, Soul. It has been said that he had joined a police army

instead of a real army because he was to young. So I decided to interview him so I can make a Historical narrative.

My family treemy potential grandfather.

(main character)

Me

RESEARCH  NOTES

1.Chinese were helping North Korea because when the UN army pushed

the North Koreans army all the way to the border of China, they got

scared that the UN army will invade China too so China decided to help

North Korea push back the UN army back to the 38th parallel line.(this

was called the 1.4 retreat)

2.Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, the United

Kingdom, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the

Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey and other countries (21 in

total including USA) helped South Korea. they helped South Korea under

the United Nations Organization.

3.North Korea had 130 thousand armies, airplanes, artilleries and tanks.

South Korea had 95 thousand soldiers a few airplanes, heavy guns and

no tanks. When the UN forces were supporting, the total number of army

was 1.1 million, But the army in North Korea increased to 260 thousand,

plus 780 thousand Chines armies.

4.The war was pushed back and forth during the war (aka 1.4 retreat). first

the North Korea army pushed back the South Koreans all the way to a

city called Pusan, then the UN forces arrived and pushed the North

Koreans all the way back to the Chinese border. Then the chinese

combined forces with North and pushed the UN armies all the way to the

38th parallel line.

5.When the Japanese lost World War II, they retreated from Korea. The

Koreans needed a government so Russia had to take care of North

Korea and USA took South Korea. Russia was a Communist party and

USA was a democracy party. having different thoughts about the

government, both countries were under conflict so the North and South

Koreans had to fight each other with Russia and USA.

6.There where 341 thousand armies that helped south korea, where 88%

were Americans.

Reflection

This helped me learn that my grandfather was in an army when he

was 16. Doing projects like this is important because I can learn about

my family’s history. I enjoyed interviewing my grandfather and doing

the research. The challenge that I had to face was making the

narrative because I have poor grammar skills. I overcame this by

getting help from my teacher. Yes, I have grown as a writer because I

used more proper grammar and added more dialogue than the last

narrative. The advice I will give to the future student is to have a

teacher help you.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/korea_hickey_01.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Warhttp://thehistoyprofessor.us/bin/histprof/misc/korea.html