The Korean War was a terrible war that began in June 1950 and lasted three years. Three aspects of Korean life during the Korean War are presented in the short story “Cranes” by Hwang Sun-won. The first aspect of a Korean citizen's life during this war was fear. The constant fear of being shot or massacred was present in almost every village in North and South Korea. Another aspect of Korean life during the Korean War was hatred towards their brother or friend on the other side. Families were torn apart because of the different beliefs of communists and democrats. The third aspect of life during the Korean War was homelessness. People wandered the country without a home, either because it had been taken away, destroyed by one of the camps, or because they had to flee their native land. So the life of a Korean citizen during the Korean War was harsh, bloody, and terrifying. The first aspect of a Korean citizen's life during this war was fear. The fear of being killed was a daily feeling for Korean citizens. The New York Times interviewed a man who witnessed the horrors of war: “They told my 17-year-old sister to take off her clothes,” said Choi Jae-sang, now 70, describing this which he witnessed when he was 12 years old. “When she hesitated, an officer shot her in the head with a rifle, in front of me and my parents. » Massacres, massacres and death lingered in the air at all times. Korean citizens walked on their own bloodied land, “Their faces marked with fear,” Sunwon wrote in his book Cranes (p. 585). Many people were chased or dragged from their homes to be murdered because of which side they chose or not. Fear was a common feeling during the Korean War. Another aspect of life for ...... middle of paper ...... losing one's family was constantly there, and it was inevitable. The other aspect of life as a Korean citizen during the Korean War was hatred between friends or family. Friends and relatives were forced to choose between two camps (communist or democratic), and most of the time the choice led to the betrayal of friends and relatives. The third aspect of life during the Korean War was homelessness. Abandoning their homes, Korean citizens wandered through unfamiliar lands, streets and villages. All told, the Korean War was a brutal war (totaling around five million deaths) and Sunwon allows us a glimpse of its cruelty in “Cranes.” Works Cited • “A Korean Village Torn From Within Repairs Itself” New York Times. New York Times Company, 2008. • De Haan, Phil. “The Impact of the Korean War on the People of the Peninsula” 50 years and older. 2002.