WWII

Food for thought from D-Day: June 6, 1944 (Stephen E. Ambrose):

"At the beach called Utah on the day of the invasion...[the] U.S. Army captured four Asians in Wehrmacht (Germain) uniforms. No one could speak their language; eventually it was learned that they were Koreans. How on earth did Koreans end up fighting for Hitler to defend France against Americans? It seems they had been conscripted into the Japanese army in 1938 -Korea was then a Japanese colony- captured by the Red Army (U.S.S.R) in the border battles with Japan in 1939, forced into the Red Army, captured by the Wehrmacht in December 1941 outside Moscow, forced into the German army, and sent to France."

"...presumably they were sent back to Korea."

"If so, they would almost certainly have been conscripted again, either into the South or the North Korean army. It is possible that in 1950 they ended up fighting once again, either against the U.S. Army, or with it, depending on what part of Korea they came from."

Reread it a few times until it sets in. Some of these guys spent their whole lives fighting but not really knowing why. Cherish the cushy life we have. Also, through my educational experience, it seems Western teaching rarely gives us the fully story of the Asian WWII.