Life in South Korea

"Even though we made it to South Korea, your grandmother endured much hardship," Grandpa continued. As Grandpa's wife, she not only took care of her husband and her mother-in-law, but also her brothers-in-law. When they married, Grandpa was 18, and his brothers were 9 and 6 years old. She made sure they got their education even through their time in refuge.

What kind of work did you do in South Korea?

Grandma: "I sold dduk, traditional Korean rice cake, in Pusan." I told Grandma that I remembered her making us rice cake when we were younger and she said her experience in Korea is why she used to make such good dduk.

Grandpa: "I did a lot of manual labor." Grandpa worked at the harbor, moving large cargo from ships. A teacher friend of his from North Korea walked out the first day of work because it was so rough. Grandpa prided himself in his work ethic. When everyone was on break, he would work even harder, and he became very favored at work. There was one man who worked as a "counter"; his sole job was to count the cargo from the ship. One day, the man didn't make it to work, so Grandpa took over his job and as he was counting, he even helped unloading cargo from the ships. His co-workers liked him to the point of replacing the other "counter" with Grandpa.

Another part of Grandpa's work history was taking (actually, stealing) army supplies and selling them. Grandma reminded us that at this time there really was no law after the emancipation of Korea from Japan - almost like a national wide free for all. He would raid army storage areas and go around selling the supplies. He then got caught by the military intelligence agency (CIC). He continued to do this business dressed as a newspaper reporter - wearing a military uniform with a special newspaper reporter logo. He said nobody touched him once he had this uniform. I believe he had some sort of inside deal to keep on working.

He worked as a rice dealer at one point too.


What were your living conditions?

Grandma described their impoverished living conditions. They lived in tents at one point, and at another they crammed seven family members into one bedroom together. "You are living in very good conditions now," says Grandpa. "With no food or shelter worries. You probably have no idea of what poverty is... you don't know poverty," reflected Grandma.