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    Korean Soldier in Normandy

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    Manuel Santos
    Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought under three different armed forces during WWII: the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army, and the German Wehrmacht. He was conscripted into the Japanese army at age 18 and fought Russians in Manchuria and China. After being captured by Soviets, he was forced to fight for Russia, but was later captured by Germans and forced to serve in the Eastern Battalion in Normandy. He was eventually captured by American paratroopers and detained in the UK as a POW before immigrating to the US, where he died in 1992.

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    Korean Soldier in Normandy

    Uploaded by

    Manuel Santos
    24 views2 pages
    Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought under three different armed forces during WWII: the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army, and the German Wehrmacht. He was conscripted into the Japanese army at age 18 and fought Russians in Manchuria and China. After being captured by Soviets, he was forced to fight for Russia, but was later captured by Germans and forced to serve in the Eastern Battalion in Normandy. He was eventually captured by American paratroopers and detained in the UK as a POW before immigrating to the US, where he died in 1992.

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    Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought under three different armed forces during WWII: the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army, and the German Wehrmacht. He was conscripted into the Japanese army at age 18 and fought Russians in Manchuria and China. After being captured by Soviets, he was forced to fight for Russia, but was later captured by Germans and forced to serve in the Eastern Battalion in Normandy. He was eventually captured by American paratroopers and detained in the UK as a POW before immigrating to the US, where he died in 1992.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    24 views2 pages

    Korean Soldier in Normandy

    Uploaded by

    Manuel Santos
    Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who fought under three different armed forces during WWII: the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army, and the German Wehrmacht. He was conscripted into the Japanese army at age 18 and fought Russians in Manchuria and China. After being captured by Soviets, he was forced to fight for Russia, but was later captured by Germans and forced to serve in the Eastern Battalion in Normandy. He was eventually captured by American paratroopers and detained in the UK as a POW before immigrating to the US, where he died in 1992.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Korean Soldier in Normandy

    Yang Kyoungjong was known as a Korean soldier who fought during WW II under three
    different armed forces: the Japanese Army, the Soviet Army, and the German
    Wehrmacht. At the young age of 18, he was drafted or conscripted (enlisted into armed
    services) for the Kwantung army of the Japanese Imperial army in 1938. Korea was
    captured by Japan, and the Japanese needed manpower thus Yang was sent to the
    military in Manchuria, located in northeast China. The following year, he fought the
    Russians at the battle of Khalkhin Gol. Since they were outnumbered, they were
    eventually captured as POWs or Prisoners of War.

    After being in the Soviet labor camp for years, Yang was once again forced into war.
    However, he was placed on Russia’s side in 1942. Desperate for additional manpower,
    prisoners like Yang were sent to the battle of Kharkov in Ukraine as military forces to
    fight against Germany. In 1943, he was captured by Wehrmacht soldiers in Ukraine
    during the Third Battle of Kharkov, and was then forced to fight for Germany. He was
    then sent to Occupied France to fight in a military unit of Soviet prisoners of war known
    as the "Eastern Battalion", serving in a battalion located on the Cotentin peninsula in
    Normandy, located close to Utah Beach.

    On the 10th of November, year 1942, German troops occupied Vichy France, where
    they were assigned to defend the port of Cherbourg in Normandy. After the D-Day,
    where the Allied forces have successfully taken over, Yang was captured by
    paratroopers of the American Army in June 1944. The Americans confused him for a
    Japanese in a German uniform, and he was placed in a POW camp in the UK. Yang
    later migrated to the States, where he lived, and died in Illinois in 1992.

    In Beevor’s book called “The Second World War”, historian Antony Beevor said, “Yang
    remains perhaps the most striking illustration of the helplessness of most ordinary
    mortals in the face of what appeared to be overwhelming historical forces.”

    The story of Yang Kyoungjong took the world by storm because what he went through
    was fascinating and historical. A young boy who may have just wanted to live a normal
    and simple life was forced into war and was forced again several times for years just to
    survive. Despite the incredible story, a documentary by SBS concluded that this man did
    not exist at all since there was no convincing evidence left by the so-called Yang
    Kyoungjong.

    Even though I am not that knowledgeable, or at least tried to deeply understand history,
    it was clear to say that wars start because of disagreements, betrayals, wanting to
    survive, and hunger for power. The nations saw that treaties agreed on were broken
    and were of no use anymore and thus opted for war instead. It was basically a war for
    wealth and power because the economy was down and every country wanted to restore
    what they had lost in order to survive.

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