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 shown in Hwang Sun-won's short story “Cranes. The first aspect of a Korean citizen's life during this war was fear. The constant fear of being killed 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 the other side's brother or friend . Families were divided due to the different beliefs of communists and democrats. The third aspect of life during the Korean War was homelessness. People wandered around the country homeless because they had been taken away, destroyed on one side, or had to flee their homeland. 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 horror during the war: "They told my 17-year-old sister to take off her clothes," said Choi Jae-sang, now 70, describing what he witnessed when he 12 years. “When she hesitated, an officer shot her in the head with a rifle, in front of me and my parents.”' Massacre, massacre and death were always in the air. Korean citizens walked on their own bloody land, “Their faces marked with fear,” Sunwon writes in his book Cranes (p.585). Many people have been chased, or dragged, out of their homes to be killed because of the side they chose or did not choose. Fear was a common feeling during the Korean War. Another aspect of living for... middle of paper ......losing your family was constantly present and inevitable. The next aspect of a Korean citizen's life during the Korean War was hatred between friends or family. Friends and relatives were forced to choose between two sides (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 unfamiliar lands, roads, and villages. All in all, the Korean War was a brutal war (totaling around five million deaths), and Sunwon allows us to see a glimpse of its cruelty in “Cranes.” Works Cited • “A Korea Village Torn Apart From Within Mends Itself” The 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 Beyond. 2002.