World War II

Naturally, Grandpa proceeded to tell us his story beginning from the time he got married. "I struggled a lot in my lifetime," he said. Like Jacob, he traveled much and struggled much.

When he was 18 years old, he was arranged to be married to Grandma. Grandma and Grandpa's fathers were drinking buddies. Both their families were well respected, so it was natural for respected families to arrange their children to be married. In that generation, the children immediately obeyed whatever was decided by their fathers. The King's third son had a second family. The son from that second family was Grandma's grandfather (whew! see if you can figure that one out). Grandma didn't say which king, so I'll have to do more research.

Grandma and Grandpa had seen each other before their wedding date. Grandma had a picture of Grandpa that she kept with her and looked at before she went to bed, anticipating her marriage to him.

After they got married, about 1 to 2 years later, Grandpa went to serve for the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. This must have been around 1940 during the occupation of Korea by the Japanese. During his service at the Jinhae Navy Base 진해시 (at the southern tip of South Korea), there was a Japanese drill instructor who treated Grandpa very well. This favoritism was probably because Grandpa's grandfather (Euijeong Park) would frequently meet this drill sergeant and buy him drinks (and give him money). One day, this drill sergeant called him to go out to the field - it must have been after the Pearl Harbor attacks, because the Americans were attacking Japan at this time, according to Grandpa. There had been bombings in Osaka, Japan. His two choices were either to go to war for Japan and die, or to escape and die. If it were a Korean war, he said he would not have tried to escape. But it didn't make sense for him to fight and risk his life for Japan, a country that was not even his.

To escape the Jinhae Navy Base, there was ocean on one side and mountain on the other that was guarded by soldiers. When it was around dusk, he escaped over the mountain during the dark. He stopped by a Korean household, told them he was on leave from the navy (he was still in his uniform) and asked for some food. Through the mountains, he escaped on foot from the southern tip of South Korea in Jinhae near Pusan all the way up to Pyongyang, the northwestern area in North Korea. I "google-d" it and it is about 523 km (325 miles).

At the time, Grandma had given birth to their first child named Chunil 천일 while Grandpa was in the navy, who died after a year old due to malnutrition. When he arrived in Pyongyang at a distant aunt's house, they were shocked to see him. He tried to keep it a secret from his father (Jongsik Park), but his relatives broke the news to his dad. His father said he had already known he had escaped through word of mouth from the police (Grandma chimed in and said that his father was well-educated and had many connections). Grandpa's father suggested that he escape to China where there were many Koreans who immigrated to China participating in the independence movement from Japan.