Ho+Joon

I have four grandparents, and out of them, three are from North Korea; in my paternal side, both of my grandparents ran away from North Korea. In my paternal side, my grandfather was a North Korean soldier who had taken part in the Korean War. Thus, I thought it was most interesting to get an idea of how the war was like, the miraculousness with which my grandfather survived the war and how his life was like in the aftermath of the war.

His name is Chi-Gwan Ji, born and raised in Pyongyang until the Korea War. Though people do have stereotypes of North Korea, my granddad denies that: he came from a decent family with a high degree of education level. Then, at the age of 18, he was drafted to serve the North Korean military unit. There, he was trained intensively for around two months since he, and many other high-schoolers at that time, had no experience whatsoever of a war, or even of holding a gun. After that, they left for South Korea to conquer it.

My granddad was fighting for around two weeks near the coastal area of Pusan when his whole army was caught by the US (or UN) forces; they had to surrender as they were ambushed. They were put in prison for a few days before they broke out--and he was one of them. Unfortunately, he was shot by the guard with a machine gun on the stomach. He guessed that the gun was a really powerful one, for when the guards saw my granddad struggling to move, they immediately gave him first-aid treatment. They had to cut the stomach, take out the bullets and sew it back in, which explains the wound he still has on his stomach. In that sense, he was really appreciative of the Americans, and this did influence his decision of staying in Korea. When he was discharged, all the prisoners (him included) that survived were given a choice of either to go back to North Korea or stay here in South Korea. For my grandfather, he told me that it was a hard decision to make: his whole family was there, but he felt no hope of going back, and felt South Korea was safe. The most important reason, however, was fear: his family was an educated family. Since the Communist Party was opposed to the educated, he was fearful of going back and finding his family gone. And true enough, he really could not contact his family even though he had never given up for more than a decade...

“After the whole war ended though,” he told me, “the real pain started.” Although he was officially registered as a South Korean citizen, there was no work, no money for him to live on. He had to count on temporary jobs to earn a living, and he confessed that he ate so much ramen, that he never eats nor touches ramen anymore. That life continued for probably a decade before he married, settled down and got a stable job.

As a conclusion, my grandfather described his life as hard, miserable, but simultaneously, he always feels the gratitude that he was saved and given the chance to live his life.

Reflection: As I listened to the story, I had several thoughts that came up to my mind. First of all, was pride. As a grandchild of a soldier who had fought in the war, I felt overwhelmed and had a new sensation. In addition, I think it teaches us a lesson: A war is only the wild ambition of a politician, but the extent of damage it causes on individuals is huge. I thought the living stories of war veterans and the affected civilians about the war should be published if we were to prevent another war from happening forever. 