Korean War Webquest
People of the Korean War
Welcome Group One!
This week your group will learn about Korea, and the people of the Korean War. This will include researching information about the different people who were affected by the Korean War including:
- Canadian soldiers
- Canadian Families
- Korean civilians (children and their parents, orphans and refugees);
- Canadian doctors and nurses
You may also find other people who were affected by the Korean War. When you are researching about these people try to find evidence of their feelings about the war through letters, interviews or photographs. Imagine how these people felt at that time. Were they scared, lonely, homesick, wounded?
Canadian Soldiers:
The war left unforgettable impressions on mind, body and spirit - to an extent that only the Veterans can know. Try to imagine what life would have been like for these young soldiers, one thousand miles from home, with a rifle in their hands burdened with a heavy back pack and an uncertainty that they would make it through the day alive.
Watch an archived report from July 1953, on the daily lives of Canadian Soldiers manning the front lines in the hills of Korea on the CBC web site (Opens a new window).
Stories from the Korean War - A Veteran Recalls the Battle of Kap'Yong - CBC Web site (Opens a new window)
Imagine yourself in a strange land, perhaps sick and wondering if you would ever again see your home town. Try to picture the families of these soldiers. It is a sad fact of war that it is the young who are sent off to shed their blood for their country. So many of them would not get to live a long, full life. Many who did survive came home scarred - in body, mind and spirit. For many of them the war they fought in their youth remains with them to the very end of life. There are 394 Canadians are buried in Korea. These young people shed their blood on foreign soil to help a small nation fight back invasion and occupation. They left families behind and many of them would never see their brothers and sisters grow up and grow old. Many of them would never hold their own children and many would never start a family. But these men gave the children of another country a chance to live in a nation free from tyranny. There are many different places to find stories and pictures about Canadians who fought in Korea.
Courageous Canadian Soldiers
Corporal Douglas was a courageous Canadian soldier. At the battle of Kapyong, when he saw a loose live grenade, he yelled at his men to take cover, and grabbed the grenade to throw it away - and he did. But it blew his hand off. His action, however, saved the lives of those around him and Corporal Douglas was awarded the Military Medal.
Stories from Korean War Veterans
Korean Veterans Remember Friends Lost
CBC web site (Opens a new window)
Pictures of Canadian Soldiers in Action
Picture of Canadian Military in action during the Korean War
Canadian Heritage Gallery (Opens a new window)
Picture of soldiers preparing guns for patrol
Canadian Heritage Gallery (Opens a new window)
Canadian Families:
The Korean War had quite an impact on the families in Canada of soldiers who were serving in Korea. A letter from one young Canadian who fought in Korea will give you a better perspective of what the death of a comrade means. To view this letter, click HERE!
Many young Canadians died in Korea, who never got to live their lives.
Korean Civilians
Koreans:
During the War the Koreans were a frightened civilian population. The country was also burdened with the plight of many homeless children.
Adoption of Orphans:
War, of course, always exacts a heavy toil on innocent people. But the impact of the Korean War on the civilian population was especially dramatic. Korean civilian casualties - dead, wounded and missing - totalled between three and four million.
Thousands of civilians also fled their homes, and many left not just property and heirlooms, but also close family members were separated.
To read about the experience of one Korean family, visit the Peacebound Trains web site. (Opens a new window)
To see Pablo Picasso's Painting Massacre in Korea, visit David M. Hart's web site (Opens a new window)
Adoption of Orphans
In 1955 Harry Holt, an Oregon farmer, was so moved by the plight of orphans from the Korean War that he and his wife, Bertha, adopted 8 children from South Korea. To read more visit the PBS web site. (Opens a new window)
To view a picture of Canadian soldiers and an injured Korean child, visit the Canadian Heritage Gallery web site. (Opens a new window)
Healthcare Workers at War
This poem was written by Pat O'Connor, a young stretcher bearer with the Royal Canadian Regiment - a young man who tended to the dead and dying, a young man who gave comfort to the wounded before he too was cut down by an enemy machine gun. He was seen writing this poem the night before he was killed:
"Forward they marched into battle
with faces unsmiling and stern
They knew as they charged the hillside
There were some who would never return
Some thought of their wives and mothers
Some thought of their sweethearts so fair
And some as they plodded and stumbled
We're reverentially whispering a prayer
There is blood on the hills of Korea
It's the gift of freedom they love
May their names live in glory forever
And their souls in Heaven above"
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