Online Lesson (Term 2, Week 5): A personal response to War

Task 1: Descriptive Paragraph
After viewing the slideshow from this link, I feel that this picture (below) is one of the most emotional.

It depicts three american soldiers trudging across debris of what seems to be once a house. I believe the soldiers were at war, and after bombing the house, they were searching for survivors to kill. They seem to be in a rush, and the metal plates and wooden poles in the debris seems to portray a sense of sadness. A nauseating stench of death seems to linger in the battlefield as the marines mercilessly step across the remains. This is the result of war, and results in death and destruction. War is death and demolition, and that is why it is avoided by many.


Task 2: Diary entry
Imagine you are a character living through one of the 20th century Wars. You can be either a civilian or a soldier. (Consider the age, gender, social class, occupation etc of the character.) Write a diary entry from the perspective of this person. Entitle your entry: A day in the life of _______ war. You should focus on a particular point in time of the war (eg. during or after a particular battle).

A day in the life of the Japanese war
It was a peaceful night. I gazed at the somber sky as I kept watch by the gate. I was an Indian national who had come to Singapore to work, and a man of fifty years of age, I had my job as a security guard. I was posted to Tengah Airbase to carry out my job, and was paid a minimal fee for my efforts. It was the 8th of December, 1941 when I carried out my daily routine of keeping watch by the guard post. It was nearly dawn, somewhere between 4am to 5 pm, when the droning of aeroplanes hit my ears. At first I thought it was just a passing vehicle, making a rumbling sound, as I could not see the planes in the pitch darkness. However, when I heard the sounds of explosion and the bomb alarm going off, I realised that something was amiss. It was definitely the Japanese, whom had tried to occupy Singapore and rid the British of command. Together with a few other men, I anxiously clambered down to an underground bomb shelter, while we braced ourselves for the onslaught of bombs. By the time it was morning, the bombing had finally stopped. I had gotten out alive with only a few minor abrasions. However, upon returning to higher ground, only did I realise that the buildings were not what they used to be anymore. Debris was all over the place, and the atmosphere lingered with and reeked of death. Blood and bodies were scattered all over the airbase, and my surroundings were unsightly. It was the cruelty of the Japanese. They would not have mercy on anyone, and killed and bombed as they pleased. How I wished the war would be over and there would be peace.War means death, and no one likes death. I believe that a change would come, and the war would be over.