Operation Counterpunch

Foreword

Foreword

All people given the choice, a true choice, no intimidation; will choose to be free. History is replete with examples of peoples being subjugated under varying degrees of tyranny, by both foreign or domestic tyrants and their collaborators, then eventually rising up and challenging their oppressors in pursuit of freedom.

At the beginning of World War II, the Allied Forces (except Russia at that point) saw their own freedom threatened by the violent aggressive behavior of Hitler’s Germany and the other Axis powers. They met the challenge and defeated Hitler’s doctrine of hate, fear, intimidation, and death. However, as history has sometimes indicated the true freedom loving people, in the case of World War II the original members of the Allied Forces, find they must align themselves with a less than ideal partner, in this case Stalin’s Russia, in order to finally defeat the enemy at the gate, in this case Germany and Japan.

One of the results of this seemingly necessary alliance, and the backdrop to this story, is the division of the Korean peninsula. The people of Korea have a long history. Like many older civilizations, up until the late 19th century, government on the Korean peninsula was one monarchy or another. Often the Korean monarchs would find themselves under the sway of China or Japan depending upon which neighbor had the upper hand during a particular period in history. In 1895 Japan had the upper hand with the defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War. Seeing an opening, Russia sought to expand its influence in Manchuria and Korea, which led to war between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire. The Empire of Japan won the war in 1905 setting up the complete Japanese occupation of Korea in 1910, which lasted until 1945.

In May of 1945 the Allied Forces, at that point including Russia, defeated Germany followed by the defeat of Japan in September 1945. After experiencing the deaths of perhaps sixty million souls the world was ready for the war to be over. But just as the original Allied Forces eventually found they needed to include Russia in the alliance, a less than best partner, less than best decisions had to be made at the end of the war to mollify Russia, such as the division of Germany and other parts of Europe, and the division of the Korean Peninsula.

The end of World War II was a good thing. Many people of the world since the end of World War II have enjoyed a relatively peaceful and prosperous existence, free to pursue their happiness. However, since the end of World War II many other people in the world have had to endure tyranny, and in some instances crushing tyranny. One of the worst examples of tyranny ever imposed on a people is the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea also known as North Korea. A country formed in the crucible of the end of World War II.

This is a story of one boy’s pursuit of happiness who was born in 1997 but had the misfortune of being born north of the 38th Parallel on the Korean Peninsula.