Lost family | Teen Ink

Lost family

September 6, 2023
By valeriec0926 BRONZE, Pasadena, Texas
valeriec0926 BRONZE, Pasadena, Texas
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The year was 1987, the Korean Government was very nefarious in this era with how things were going.They had to go his way or he would bring out his soldiers and punish the people involved in the situation.All the kids had to go to from Monday through Thursday.Parents or any adult over 18 had to work farming crops day and night, with no breaks unless the Government would allow it.

Soon comes around a Wednesday where as normal the kids went to recess for a bit,but something felt off. Jhon, one of  the students in the school was just about the age of 12. He was new to the school because his parents are originally from Japan.If in any case the Government were to find anyone on that behalf that they're from Japan, the Government would get his soldiers decease of them in an instant. So Jhons family decided to keep in private, but not for long enough.

Jhon was playing with his friends at the playground. He noticed that something smelled  off, he was new there so he didn't know if he just had to get used to it.It wasn't until one one of  the classmates that Jhon was  playing with, pointed out a weird smell. They described it as gunpowder or like something was tickling their nose, almost like a feather. Before they could bring it to the teacher's attention, the floor started trembling as if there was an earthquake. Everyone looked over to the East where the adults were farming the crops. It only took about five minutes, in the blink of  an eye, till those explosions hit the school. The Korean Government made an announcement that Japan was invading and had planted explosives underground.

In under 20 seconds, half of  Korea was tear down. 700,000 people lost their lives due to these explosions underground. Some people found some shelter and safety, but others could not. Jhan and his family thankfully all found shelter on time. The Korean Government declared war against Japan.They had to move to different places barefoot so the people who still had homes had to gather belongings that were still left from the explosions and travel with them. Everyone was pretty scared, especially Jhans family knowing they were from Japan.

Everyone stood on the side of  the dirt road as the military trucks passed by with big machine guns. As people walked by in a line to the Government so the soldiers could check where everyone was from and to check their luggage. As the line was moving Jhons family wasn't far from being next to being checked. Jhons dad,Able, was talking to his kids and his wife,Ana. “If the soldiers find all of  our passports, we'll die,” said Able. Ana started tearing up knowing she was going to lose her kids as well as her husband. “Lose the passports, we’ll figure it out, we can't die here.” said Ana. The kids looked abstracted and confused not knowing what would happen next. “It's fine, burn everyone's passport, and make sure the kids are okay,” said Able. Able agreed that the kids would stay with their mom and he would turn himself in. “No.” said Ana and the kids. Before they could discuss any further, they were next in line. As the dad walked up to the soldiers, he looked back to his kids and wife and blew a kiss with his eyes tearing up. Ana hugged her kids tightly and covered their  ears as the sound of  a bullet hit. Everyone was in shock, later than Ana and her kids were up. Ana asked the oldest child, Vy, to take care of  her siblings well, Ana threw the kids passport in a dent that was made from the explosion as she was being called up next. Vy hugged her siblings tight as another bullet hit. Soon enough the kids passed by with no passports.

As they passed they continued to travel for a couple miles till they found a place to build houses out of the materials they could gather, bamboo, leafs, clothes, ect. The soldiers set up a new procedure, since the kids no longer went to school, every kid was handed a weapon to train. And the older kids had to go out and get crops from morning to afternoon then come back to what they called “base” during night so they could train more. It wasn't long enough before they separated Jhon and his siblings. The Government wanted everyone separated by intelligence and age. Jhon, Vy, and Elen were pretty far apart considering Vy was 14, Jhon was 11, and Elen was 9. They were all uncomfortable with being so far away from each other, but there was nothing they could do about it. Vy and Jhon were closer because of  their age, so they would see each other here and there but could not contact each other or the Government would punish them.

When they were well trained they decided to go to war against Japan, everything they worked on, houses, building buckets so they could use them to shower, everything was destroyed within seconds when that war began. Mostly everyone was slaughtered, Korea ended up outnumbering them with their soldiers and people who trained day and night.


The author's comments:

its interesting 


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