Voices from the Korean War

Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers

Richard Peters, Xiaobing Li

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780813191201
  9780813122939
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813145945
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"In three days the number of so-called 'volunteers' reached over three hundred men. Very quickly they organized us into military units. Just like that I became a North Korean soldier and was on the way to some unknown place."—from the book

South Korean Lee Young Ho was seventeen years old when he was forced to serve in the North Korean People's Army during the first year of the Korean War. After a few months, he deserted the NKPA and returned to Seoul where he joined the South Korean Marine Corps. Ho's experience is only one of the many compelling accounts found in Voices from the Korean War.

Unique in gathering war stories from veterans from all sides of the Korean War—American, South Korean, North Korean, and Chinese—this volume creates a vivid and multidimensional portrait of the three-year-long conflict told by those who experienced the ground war firsthand. Richard Peters and Xiaobing Li include a significant introduction that provides a concise history of the Korean conflict, as well as a geographical and a political backdrop for the soldiers' personal stories.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Photographs
• Abbreviations
• Note on Transliteration
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One. The Korean War: A Short History
• Part Two. Many Faces, One War
• Part Three. Chosin Accounts
• Part Four. On the Front Lines
• Part Five. Behind the Front Lines
• Part Six. POW Camps: North and South
• Perspectives on the War
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index