Jan. 30, 1941 - Manchuria: A major disaster befell upon the Korean partisans. Chon Kwang (alias O Song Yun), political commissar of the 1st Route Army - the ranking Korean partisan, surrendered to the Japanese and disclosed secret hideouts of several guerrilla commanders. This eventually led to the end of the 1st Route Army and increased anti-Korean sentiment among the Chinese partisans. Chon Kwang was well-known for his attempt to kill Gen. Tanaka and for the founding of the Fatherland Restoration Association, an underground guerrilla support network in Korea and Manchuria.
Photo: Chon Kwan (alisa O Song Yun, the hero of Shanghai
Feb 1. 1941 - I became six years old. The normal school age was seven, but my father decided that I was ready to get started one year ahead of my peers. He donated large sums of money to the school (he had two sons already attending the school) and the Japanese principal was more than willing to let me in - provided that I participated in a new experimental (voluntary) program. It was the first coeducational class in Korea! Although elementary schools were coeducational, classes were strictly segregated into boys and girls classes: the only thing shared common was the school building.
The school had been trying to integrate classes but the parents were dead against it. The majority of the parents didn't want their sons studying in the same room with the girls. Apparently, the girls' parents did not mind their daughters sitting by the boys. My father offered to help out and volunteered his spoiled brat (me). He enlisted some of his cronies and finally, 40 girls and 12 boys signed up for the new venture. We the sissy boys had to endure endless teasing by the normal boys. To make the matter worse, our female classmates bossed us around in front of other boys!
March 8, 1941 - The Japanese bandit eradication campaign of Gen. Nozoe finally succeeded. Kim Ilsung and other partisans were cut off from local supporters. No one would risk an arrest and torture by the Japanese police. Another Korean partisan, Park Tuk Bom, completed the destruction of the United Army. Japanese offers of money and pardon, and the Chinese hostility toward Koreans, induced many partisans to surrender and to work for the Japanese.
Photo: Partisan leaders beheaded by the Japanese police
Most of the partisan leaders - including Kim Kwang Hak, Kim Chae Bom, and the senior Korean commander Chu Chin - were betrayed by their own people and killed off The Japanese displayed severed heads of dead partisans in order to intimidate the populace into submission.
March 10, 1941 - Kim Il Sung was about the only surviving partisan leader of the Anti-Japanese United Army still active in Manchuria. Kim and what remained of the Korean Revolutionary Army vacated their bases and fled to Siberia. Kim was no longer any threat to the Japanese police, but his legend lived on more colorful than ever. People were trying to turn him into a superhuman - sort of like a modern-day Hong Gil Dong (the legendary Korean folk hero).
The Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army had some 30,000 partisans at its peak in mid-1930's. It was made of three route armies. Each route army was made of several armies; an army was made of 1 to 3 divisions each. A division had 200 to 600 men.
Kim Il Sung was commander of the 6th Division, 2nd Army, and 1st Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. Chu Chin was commander of the 2nd Army when he was killed by a Korean traitor. Choe Hyon commanded the 4th Division of the same Army. The 7th Army of the 2nd Route Army was commanded by Yi Hak Man and Choe Yong Gun (later to become Defense Minister of North Korea). Kim Chaek was political commissar of the 3rd Army of the 3rd Route Army (Kim was killed in 1950 - he was the commander in chief of the People's Army in South Korea at the time). All but Yi Hak Nam escaped to Siberia and joined the Soviet Army 88th Guerrilla Unit.
March 15, 1941 - The Soviets detained Kim Il Sung and his band of guerrillas of about 25 men and subjected them to lengthy interrogations. They were forced into the Red Army. Later some of them were to fight the Germans in Stalingrad and beyond until the end of WW2. Kim Il Sung and his partisans were pressed into the 88th Special Independent Guerrilla Brigade of the Soviet Army. The main task of this unit was to gather military intelligence in Manchuria. The 88th was located in a wooded area of Vyachkra near Khabarovsk, Siberia.
Photo: from left, Kim Il Sung, unidentified, Choe Hyon and Ahn Kil at a Soviet camp
March 19, 1941 - Gen. Nozoe declared the end of his war against the anti-Japanese guerrillas in Manchuria and disbanded his unit. Gen. Nozoe had eliminated some 15,000 Chinese and Korean guerrillas from 1932 to 1941.
Kim Il Sung commanded the 1st Battalion (about 200 Chinese, Koreans and Russians) of the 88th Brigade. The Brigade had about 60 Korean partisans from Manchuria - including Yi Don Wha, Kang Gun (Commander of the 4th Battalion), Kim Chaik, Choe Yong Gun, and Ahn Kil.
Photo: from left to right - Ahn Kil, Kim Il Sun and Choe Hyon - at a Soviet camp.
Chiang Kai Sek's forces attacked the headquarters unit of the New Fourth Army and killed 6,000 including nurses and medical doctors. This started the 2nd Civil War in China. Chen Yi took over the New Forth and built it into an army of over one million men.
April 13, 1941 - Moscow: Stalin signed a neutrality pact with Japan.
Kapsan: One of the major events in Kapsan was the arrival of a Japanese propaganda team. The team visited remote towns such as Kapsan and brought a little bit of culture. The team consisted of 2 to 3 people traveling in a truck. They showed samurai motion pictures using the truck's electric power (no electricity in Kapsan). The team normally included a guy who walked on broken glasses and swallowed huge knives.
Nov. 27, 1941 - Manila: The US War Dept. warned MacArthur of an impending invasion by the Japanese but the "Field Marshall of the Philippines" believed that the War Dept. was all wet and went on partying.
Dec. 7, 1941 - Japan raided Pearl Harbor and destroyed the American Pacific Fleet. Our school principal read aloud Emperor Hirohito's War Declaration to the student assembly. The emperor wrote in the ancient Japanese court language and used a bunch of funny words that we did not understand. For example, he said Jin for I, omo wu for think and so on. His words sounded really weird. The Japanese believed that the Emperor was a God and they tried very hard to make him act abnormal - the poor guy spoke in ancient tongues, wore funny clothed and lived in an old house. We were not sure what this war business meant for us.
All Korean men were required to wear Japanese civil defense uniforms and a sentobo. My brother told me that the origin of this cap was Korean. Many years ago, so goes the story, a delegation of Japanese nobles came to see our king. Somehow, the Japanese made the king lose his temper and the king kicked one of the Japanese. His sock flew off and landed on the poor Jap's head, who thoght that the king wanted him to wear it like a hat. All women were required to wear baggy pants - called mon pey. All school kids wore dark uniforms and school caps.
Dec. 8, 1941 - Japan attacked MacArthur's army in the Philippines. US war planes and war ships were destroyed in Japanese "surprise" attacks. Hong Kong fell.
The Pearl Harbor opened Uncle Sam's purse wider to Chiang Kai Sek. The Americans agreed to pour in half billion dollars in cash and virtually unlimited supplies of war materiel. Gen. Joseph Stilwell (Vinegar Joe) was appointed Commander of the American Forces in China, Burma and India. His mission was to shore up Chiang's troops and to force Chiang to spend more time fighting the Japanese.
But Gen. Stilwell found Chiang's army a loose confederation of feudal warlords of dubious loyalty and capability. Gen. Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers (to become a CIA asset, CAT, a few years later) began to chip away the Japanese mastery of the China skies.
The war news was unbelievably good. Tens of thousands of Yankees killed; the American Pacific Fleet gone; the entire Hawaiian Islands chain smoldering, etc. We had new war heroes; the Nine Military Heroes (Gu-Gun-Sin) who sneaked into Honolulu and sank American battleships in midget submarines (notes: I learned after the WWII that none of them actually made it.
Two of the "heroes" were captured alive after beaching their sub and the rest simply perished due to mechanical problems). Their spirits were enshrined in our school Shinto shrine. Every morning, we gathered in the schoolyard, rain or shine, and bowed to the Emperor first and then to the Shrine. After which, we did exercises and listened to the Japanese principal's sermon of the day.
Dec. 10, 1941 - Japanese subs sank the Prince of Wales and the Repulse - the crown jewels of the British Navy.
Japan occupied most of the Southeast Asia. Each student received a rubber ball and a rice cake - compliments of the Emperor. The War had not affected us at all so far. Everything was going very well for Japan and the war would end soon in Japanese victory, so said our principal. Every time a local man was killed in action, we would go through a Yasukuni ceremony. The dead man's ashes came in a small cardboard or wooden box painted white. The box was handed over to the grieving family while the school kids sang the Japanese anthem (ki-mi-yu-ka-ba,,,,). This anthem was more like a funeral dirge and it put you in a sad mood even without any box of ashes. A piece of paper with the dead guy's name was placed inside our school's Shinto shrine.
My eldest brother Ung Sik was the number-one student in our school. He was the president of the student body and the favorite of the Japanese teachers. Ung Sik spoke perfect Japanese, no Korean accent at all, and easily passed for a Japanese. He was often invited to the living quarters of the Japanese army officers (actually, the school custodian's office converted into a living quarter) - an unheard of event, since the Japanese did not socialize with the Koreans - including my father.
The Japanese officers spent much time on lice eradication campaigns (all of us did). They sat right next to a wood-burning stove and took their clothes off. They picked lice fat with Japanese blood and dropped them on the red-hot top of the stove. The poor lice literally popped open and evaporated! After the louse hunting was over, the officers placed frozen rice cakes on the same spot. Ung Sik almost puked.
Jan. 15, 1942 - Two Koreans who worked for the Japanese police came to our house to arrest my father. My father knew both men and they engaged in lengthy friendly chit-chats. When the socializing was over, they led my father away in handcuffs. He was accused of secretly providing funds and dynamites to Kim Il Sung's guerrillas. My father obtained dynamites from the Japanese to build irrigation canals. The police claimed that some of the explosives were diverted to the guerrillas. Apparently, a captured guerrilla fingered my father after getting the famous Japanese water torture. My father freely and willingly confessed.
My mother wailed as if her husband was already dead and all the kids (me, my two brothers and my sister) also cried without really knowing what was happening. My father was crying, too. This was the first time I saw him cry. The police officers gave my mother instructions on where (the Hamhung prison) and what (warm clothing and dry foods) to send. They were very deferential to my mother - saying that they were just doing their job - these Japanese collaborators! Of course, there was no trial or self defense. If a cop says you are guilty, you ARE guilty - that's all.
My world turned upside down. My father's arrest was the biggest news to hit the town since Kim Il Sung's raid of the police station a few years back. There were all sorts of gossips going around on my father's arrest: 1) His third wife was a girl friend of a Japanese cop, 2) He had three wives illegally (not true - it was legal to have up to 3 wives provided the first wife consented; 3) He was a communist. The truth of the matter is that he helped one too many communist who turned him in. Even though he was not a card carrying communist, he was sympathetic to their cause. His library was full of books on communism - which by itself was punishable by law.
Feb. 8, 1942 - Japan attacked Singapore with 15,000 troops. Within a week, Malaya and Singapore fell. British Gen. Percival surrendered to Gen. Yamashita on Feb. 15, 1942. British Gen. Percival was asked - "Yes or No?".
My mother was in charge of the family finance. She was responsible for taking care of her children as well as my father's #2 and #3 wives and their children. This new job was way over her head. She enlisted our male relatives. My cousin Kim Jung Sik and his wife were brought from Chongjin to manage our farm.
My uncle Park and his son Chong Sik helped out with minor chores. Uncle Park was an alcoholic, illiterate, superstitious farmer - typical of the peasants in Kapsan: hard drinking, hard working and short-lived beasts of burden. Uncle Park lost most of his fingers to frostbite. During one of his drinking binges, he laid down and went to sleep on a frozen river. The next morning, the police had to cut him off the ice, but somehow, he survived.
Feb. 16, 1942 - Siberia: Kim Chong Suk, 2nd wife of Kim Il Sung, gave birth to their first son, Kim Jong Il. She joined Kim Il Sung's army in 1935 at the age of 16. She worked as a cook, seamstress, spy, food gatherer, fighter and close comrade of Kim Il Sung. She was captured by the Japanese in 1937 but was released a year later. She died in bed in September 1949.
March 11, 1942 - MacArthur fled to Australia. The American and Filipino forces surrendered on May 6, 1942. The bulk of MacArthur's' American and Filipino forces surrendered.
May 7, 1942 - The Battle of the Coral Sea stopped the Japanese expansion. Japan lost 121 planes and 1 carrier. America lost 76 planes and 2 carriers.
June 4, 1942 - The Battle of Midway virtually wiped out the Japanese Navy.
Aug. 3, 1942 - Ho Yong Sik, Chief-of-Staff, 3rd Army, chief of the Korean resistance in Manchuria, was killed. Kim Chaek was sent back to Manchuria and reorganized the shattered resistance network.
Aug. 7, 1942 - US recaptured Guadalcanal with 7,000 Marines.
Aug. 16, 1942 - Kim Tu Bong formed the Korean Independence League in Yanan that was to become the New Democratic Party (my father was a member) and then the Yanan group after the Party's merger with the Korean Workers Party in 1947. Kim Tu Bong (alias Kim Paik Yon and Kim Son) was born on March 16, 1886 in Kyonsang Namdo. He fled to Shanghai in 1919 after participating in the March 1st (Samil) Movement. He held a number of high positions including Kim Il Sung University presidency. He was purged in 1958.
Photo: Kim Tu Bong in China circa 1938 and tu-bong.jpg in Pyongyang in 1946.
Jan. 4, 1943 - The Soviets sent Soviet-trained Korean and Chinese guerrillas into Manchuria. Most of these were partisans who fled to Siberia early in 1940. Their missions ended in one disaster after another. The Soviets had three training camps in Siberia - (1) Okeanskaya Field School near Vladivostok, (2) Voroshilov Camp near Nikolayevsk, and (3) the 88th Special Independent Guerrilla Brigade of the Soviet Army in a wooded area near Khabarovsk. The Soviets planned to use these units as vanguards of their planned attack on Manchuria and Korea.
Aug. 12. 1943 - Park Kil Song, a native of Kapsan and a major in the Soviet Army, entered Manchuria from Siberia leading a detachment of Soviet-trained partisans. Park was arrested soon after and spilled on the Soviet training programs in Siberia. Han Hung Son and Kim Chun Sop, both Soviet captains, were also arrested and executed.
1943: Teheran: Pres. Roosevelt told Stalin - "Koreans are not yet capable of exercising and maintaining independent government and...they should be placed under a forty-year tutelage." Stalin did not object. US, USSR, Great Britain and China issued a joint statement - "Mindful of the enslavement of the Korean people, the aforementioned Great Powers are determined that Korea shall, in due course, be free and independent."
June 7, 1943 - Kapsan: Cholera epidemic hit our town. My younger brother Su Sik and I came down with the disease. My grandma said the God was punishing us for the baby cow my mother had butchered the day before for the meat. She said the animal was a reincarnation of a distant relative. I remained unconscious for five days delirious with fever. My brother Su Sik dies but I survived on account of a special home remedy concocted by my grandma - my own feces boiled with toads (and God knows what else)!.
June 14, 1943 - My brother's little body was placed in a pine wood coffin. My relatives and neighbors gathered in our house and did the right thing for my dead brother by wailing and eating more or less at the same time. The coffin started to drip liquid in the summer heat and all those people in the house. My uncle Park placed the coffin in his ox cart and headed to our family burial ground. My mother packed up all of Su Sik's belongings and asked my uncle to bury them with Su Sik's body. A few days later, my mother learned that my uncle sold Su Sik's belongings instead of burying them.
The Japanese grabbed whatever food raised by our farmers for her soldiers, and food was scarce for the Korean civilians. We managed to survive by finding new sources of food and new ways of preparing foods. Homemade bean curds were popular. Japanese extracted oil from soy beans and the residual were given to pigs and Koreans. The stuff was steamed for a couple of hours until it turned white and floated to the surface; it was then scooped into a wooden box and pressed into brick-size cakes. Bean cakes (tofu in Japanese) were tasteless but contained precious proteins and substitute for meats.
Bean cakes were eaten "as is" or cooked in many ways - steamed, fried, souped, dried, etc. My favorite was a fish-cake - a bean-curd cake was placed in a boiling water into which live minnows were thrown in. The poor fish burrowed into the bean-curd trying to escape the hot water and were cooked inside it pudding-like.
Soy beans were made into bean sprouts - an excellent way to stretch what you had. Beans were placed in a wooden box with a porous base and watered daily for a week or two until the box became a mini-soy bean farm. Bean sprouts were eaten raw or cooked in thousands of ways. Bean sprout soups were popular with poor people.
Some genius found that certain tree roots were edible - sort of Polynesian poys. We went into mountains and dug up these roots. They were cleaned and pounded into whitish powders that could be made into noodles or breads. Buddhist priests were vegetarians and lived off the land. They were consulted for a list of edible plants and instructions on how to take out poison from certain "edible" plants.
All sorts of animals were eaten as well. Field mice were hunted down relentlessly and eaten. Mice's nests were easy targets for juicy baby mice. Sparrows were caught in nets atrung over grain fields. Every body of water - ponds, streams and rivers - was searched for fish, crayfish, fresh water clams, snails, eels,, etc. Mountains were scoured for any form of animal that was still around - snakes, bears, tigers, wolves, foxes, and whatever which crawled, crept or flow.
