Chung Jae-Sul
Creation of website idea and photo providing by Billi Chung
Summary writing of memoir by Inja Chung Roh
Website design by Scott Roh
Foreword
I had hesitated to write a memoir since I have just had an ordinary life in Korea.
I have lived in a very turbulent time; through the fall of Joseon Kingdom, Japanes reign, UN Military rule, the birth of free democratic Republic of Korea, the division of southern and northern Korean territory, brutal Korean War, Park Chung Hee’s 5.16 coup d'état, industrial revolution and many following changes of our country.
My life over 80 years is not great enough to write ‘a memoir’, I thought. But my older and younger former colleagues around me have urged to write my life story so that they would, in turn, write their own after my book. So here I am, with a pen and paper, looking back bygone days, reminiscing.
Moreover, I wouldn’t be happier if my sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters in the future, find this book as a guide in their lives, and feel their grandfather’s love toward them.
Early Childhood
My first forefather in written document is Sohnwei who served the last 5 kings of Koryo Dynasty. In Joseon Dynasty, Chung InJie, the prominent scholar of Hangl, Korean alphabet invention, wrote various books on astronomy,calendar and ancient music. It is regrettable he avoided the loyalty for Danjong, the tragic child king. Forefather SungJoe and his son KyungIk Gong were sent in exile to Reiwon, northernmost remote area by Yunsankun king in 16th century.
I was born on November 30, 1900 in a poor farm village of Reiwon, Hamkyung Namdo, Korea. To my parents, there were 3 older sons and I was the youngest. A year later of my birth, my father left home for Vladivostok, Russia to find a job. Foreign powers overshadowed King Gojong’s Palace. The first Sino-Japanese War in 1895 was a conflict between China and Japan over influence primarily in Korea. Russo-Japanes War in 1905 was about the rule over Manchuria and Korean peninsula. As a young child I saw Russian soldiers in military uniforms and boots on the streets. In ruling class the corruption overwhelming, lower class people were helpless and poverty-stricken. Many were leaving home to find a job overseas. In Vladivostok my father opened a small Seodang where he taught Chinese calligraphy and poetry in which he had scholastic knowledge. He was there until I was 13.
My earliest childhood memory was when I was 4 or 5. Our house, a small thatched roof, was sold, and we moved to other home in the neighborhood. The new owner brought down our old thatched roof house and I was very sad. In the evenings at sunset, I used to visit the vacant lot and cried alone over the loss of our old home. (My heart aches, as his daughter later, when picturing the young boy of dark curly hair so saddened without anyone consoling him. At home his brothers were only 2, 3 years older than he, and mother was the one making ends meet with father away.)
One summer, I remember, my distant cousin, a poor old bachelor in the village, one night, slipped into a neighboring town, and brought a widow carrying her on his back covered in blanket. It was an old custom for a poor man to get a wife. Upon discovering the woman’s disappearence, her in-laws were annoyed, they sent several strong men to take her back. Those men arrived and started beating up my cousin and dragged him to police station. The village people were shocked but helpless. I was 8 or 9 at the time. I confronted the men to stop them following them half way to police station. My cousin was sent back home by police. People said, “Jae-Sul is the courageous one in the village.”
My School Years, 3.1 Independence Movement, Trouble with Japanese Teacher
In the year I turned 6 years old, I was admitted to Dong-Hwa School that just opened by Park Tae-Hyun, our town’s influential rich man. It was a private school with a new modernized education system. Old village schools were declining, every town held meetings, town chief with village people discussed to bring in effective modern schools. At Dong-Hwa they taught Korean, Japanese, Chinese, math, gymnastics, etc. From the first year until I finished school at age 12, I was the top student representing my class. There was an annual academics competition among the ten schools of the town. Excelling in math and Chinese, I used to take first prize. The town elders talked about me.
In spring of my last year at Dong-Hwa, there was a sudden pandemic outbreak. Along with my family, I contracted the virus and suffered for over 2 months. That year I stayed home helping my older brothers. The next year I somehow missed to apply for admission to upper school. I was very concerned about my future. When I saw my eldest brother sold our cow and kept the money in a closet drawer, I decided to take it. It was stealing, I knew, but the money would be used for my education. With the money in hand I still had problems of living alone for Hamhung, a distant city for school. I persuaded Yu Myungrok, my alum of Dong-Hwa to accompany me. Together we walked 24km to reach a port city and got on a big ship sailing to Hamhung. In Hamhung we went to Yung-Saeng School and asked for admission. To our disappointment, the admission deadline had long passed and we were turned down. Heartbroken, there was no other choice but to return home. The money, 3 won had gone, it took us four days to walk back home, sometimes begging for food. At home my elder brother reproached me, but he forgave me for the recklessness caused by my yearning for upper school.
About this time, Dong-Hwa School, my alma mater, asked me to join their staff as a teacher. There I taught math and Korean over 3 years with good reviews of excellent teaching.
But my desire for further schooling was firing inside me. In March 1918 with the approval of family elders, I left Dong-Hwa and was admitted by Hamhung Agricultural School. Some of the students with me were 25 or 30 years old who worked as village head or teachers. Upon graduation they went on to colleges in Japan. Later, I heard they returned home to contribute in North Korea. Now I am very concerned about their safety under Communist rule.
In my second year of Hamhung School there was March 1, 1919, Independence Movement against Japanese reign. I participated in the movement and was imprisoned for 3 weeks and released because of my position of a student. Upon returning I got in trouble fighting with Mr. Jikyah, a Japanese gym teacher. Because of him I had to leave school and flee to Pyongyang in the middle of the night. I got transferred to Soongsil School in the city, but the incident of Jikyah followed me everywhere. That summer I was unable to return home. I just roamed through all places of Pyung-An Nambukdo.
Toward the Big Step
Because of the troubling incident with Mr. Jikyah, the Japanese teacher at my previous school, I had to quit Pyungyang Soongsil School and left for Seoul. In Seoul I was admitted to the second year of advanced class at Hyub-Sung School (Hyub-Sung changed its name to Osan School years later and its advanced classes became Gunguk College of present day). The school’s founder was Yi Gap who finished Japanese Military School at the turn of the century. Upon returning home Yi received financial help from Min Young-hui, a relative of late Queen Min and former mayor of Pyungyang, for the new school founding. The western style red brick 3-story building is now being used for the graduate school of Gunguk University.
I graduated from Hyub-Sung in second place the next year. Chae Kwansuk, who later earned a PhD in English literature and became a professor at Koryo University, won first place. After graduation there was no way for me to afford college education on my own, so I came home. A few days after my return, I received a letter. It was from Roe Byungmu, inviting me to a teaching position at a private school in Kapsan. Roe was my Hamhung School classmate.
I packed a travel bundle again, carrying it on my back, and left home. It was three full days’ walking journey to Kapsan, a highland surrounded by deep steep mountains. Alpine areas of northernmost Korea are nearby.
“I’d like to go to Samsu Kapsan
Where’s Samsu Kapsan?
Oh, the white clouds are hanging over those high mountain tops
Am I heading toward Samsu Kapsan?
I cannot reach there with mountains so tough
Oh, I’d fly there if I were a bird!”
Kim Uk, a Korean poet wrote on Kapsan.
In the Joseon Dynasty, king’s men and scholars were sent there in exile once they lost the ruler’s favor. Winter is long, freezing cold, mountains are perilous and wild. But the descendents of those exiled have worked hard, tilling rough fields, turning it into rich farmland. They have long wished to gain back the lost glory and honor that their forefathers had lost. Now the modernization of the new school system has arrived in Kapsan too.
Dongmyung School, founded by Kim Yungho, the principal himself, was 8 km away from Kapsan township, convenient for transportation. The total number of students was 40, along with a teacher assistant. I taught here for 3 years, working hard to lay groundwork for a new school. During the daytime I had classes with students, and in the evenings, I visited their parents. They needed my counsel and advice with new knowledge. People got to understand the school system and started cooperating with the new school. The number of students increased to 70.
My success story spread, and a neighboring town school, Bomyung, wanted my help. So I resigned from Dongmyung and moved there, a town 32 km away. The school had a long history, the facilities were good, and parental support was excellent. I taught there for over 2 years until I left for my further studies.
Looking back, for those 5, 6 years in Kapsan I was young, energetic, worked very hard day and night, and was proud of what I had done. Additionally, the salary I saved became the seed money of my future college tuition.
Higher Learning, and Crossroads of Ideologies
In May 1927 I returned home to prepare for college in Japan. My second cousin Jae-Pil was going to accompany me. Bags were packed, finances for college was ready. When June 10 Independence Uprising swept the whole nation that summer, I was very concerned.
With the death of Sun-Jong, Joseon’s last king, Korea’s independent movement spread throughout our land. I thought back about the March 1 Movement in which I participated, imprisoned, also the troubled incident of fighting Japanese teacher that followed me to Hamhung and Pyungyang schools. Now I have to make up my mind to go forward for my goals in higher learning.
Together with Jae-Pil I boarded the ship sailing to Fukuoka. From there we rode on the train to Tokyo. We found a boarding house in Shinjuku, middle of the city. Its host and hostess were kind looking middle aged couple. They kept the house clean and treated their boarders, mostly college students, nicely.
Immediately I registered at a private study academy to improve math, English, and other subject skills for college examination. When it came to decide on major in college, I had to consider my finances and my age. Friends around me also gave some advice. I decided on forestry at Tokyo National University, while Jae-Pil chose law school at Tokyo Univ.
I passed the examination. The competition rate was 2:1.
(From my maternal grandmother I, his daughter learned my father’s finances in Tokyo was in trouble because my uncle borrowed, spent the savings for his new business. Father had to work through college. He later wrote that he finished school with fairly good grades, that indicated the difficulties he had gone through. The boarding house host commented that my father worked diligently, was straightforward, honest and reliable.)
Jae-Pil finished law school and got a job in Seoul. He met a girl on the train, a Tokyo college student, and later married her. At the time socialism was spreading in colleges of Japan, many students were influenced by it, and became its followers. With the liberation of Korea at the end of World War II, Jae-Pil and his wife moved to Noth Korea and joined Communist Party.
During Korean War when South Korean UN troops marched into North Korea towns, their citizens welcomed the troops with Korean flags in hand. Jae-Pil somehow failed to flee with his Communist comrades, and was in hiding inside a haystack in the barn. Our family uncle sarcastically said to him, ”Jae-Pil, you and your wife should raise the Communist red flag at your door to greet the UN troops.”
Why ideologies divide people? In one household, father and son turn their backs against each other because of that. Jae-Pil had been very close to me, just like my own little brother. I never dreamed of him to be estranged and walked away from me.
Second son of my elder brother was murdered at student anti-Communist uprising in Hamhung.
It was anti-Soviet upheaval too. In March 1946 many students took to the streets in protest of the infiltration of communism and the Soviet in campus. The red army fired at the unarmed young men. The murdered students’ bodies were found in the village wells.
We heard the following story from our relatives who fled North Korea during Korean
War; one evening a stranger visited Jae-Pil. The man said he was a spy from South Korea and brought news to him from me, his cousin, Masan City mayor at the time. It was the Communist frame to test Jae-Pil’s loyalty to their party. News and informations from the South arrive to the North constantly. The posters of my congressman election May 30, 1950 campaign were sent to the North by somebody, and my relatives could get hold one of them. When they came to Busan, the poster helped to locate me. The South’s political, military and industrial secrets are the main targets of the North’s espionage system.
My Wedding, Raising family, and Mrs. Jue Soon-Gum
Now it is time to write how I met a girl and wedded. The young people nowadays may consider it as an ancient tale of “the time when tigers smoked pipe.”
My father married at age ten, mother at sixteen. The young bride used to carry bridegroom on her back to village school. We, their four sons married at much older age; the oldest at 21, second, 22, third, 23, and me at 25.
While in Kapsan there were several marriage proposals, but I wasn’t interested. In my mind I wanted to wait until after college. Upon my returning home, two close friends of mine, Yum Anguk and Joe Taehyn, visited me. They came to tell me about a lovely girl suitable to be my bride. I thought about it seriously. I wasn’t that young any more. Most my friends had married. So I decided to follow their friendly advice. The elderly woman sitting next to me now,
turning her once beautiful glistening young hair into grey over the years, was the girl, Park Wolha.
Some 70 years ago young man and woman were not allowed to see each other before wedding. Park Wolha was from a village rich family, her grandfather, a gentleman of the town. My friends told her family that I was a promising college-bound young man from a home of close-knit family of four sons. Soon Yum Anguk made clevely an arrangement for me to meet the gril secretly. We opened our hearts and talked about our future together. Later, the family elders of both households approved our marriage, formal written letters were exchanged, and marriage middle men visited both homes.
With family elders’ blessings we were engaged, and I left home for preparing for college in Japan. In spring of the next year I entered Tokyo National University, in summer, returned home, and married during summer vacation. Our wedding, the first Western style ceremony in our town, was held at Donghwa School. Park Taesuk, the school principal, officiated it and Yum Anguk delivered congratulatory speech. Two hundred people, friends from Seoul, Tokyo, and Hamhung came to be with us. It was the biggest wedding our town had. For reception food was sumptuous and liquor overflowed. The most I miss here is there are no wedding photos. Mr, Hwang, the day’s photographer, drank too much, dropped his camera in the creek, ruined the films. Alas, not only the wedding photos but the pictures of my friends, young men and women of the day were all gone. How wonderful would it be if we can recall the day through the photos!
Two months later in September, I went back to college in Japan. My young bride stayed behind working as a village school teacher. Upon graduation I started working as an engineer at forestry department in Seoul. We rented a house on Tong-uidong. Our first child, Sung Ik arrived in four years of our marriage, to a great joy to us. He was delivered by Dr.Park, my friend, at Seoul National University Hospital. With the baby at home my mother-in-law, Mrs Jue Soon-Gum came to help us for a while. She went back and forth between Reiwon and Seoul to help raise my family of five children with loving care. I owe her so much.
(One day in 1948 while Grandma Jue visiting us, Father came home from work with the news that Korean territory was divided into two, North Korea and South Korea, at 38th parallel. All traffic including railroad stopped and banned between two regions. Grandma Jue was unable to return home to Reiwon, North Korea. She lived with us raising us until she passed away in 1977. All her life she had longed for home. She was buried in our family cemetery at a sunny spot facing north of her home. Father promised that she would be transfered to her own family cemetery in the North when the day of Korea’s unification comes.
When I went back to Korea in 2017, I visited her grave. There I saw two beautiful red-tailed dragonflies, in slender body with wings of transparent silk like. They brought back to me the sweet memories of my childhood with grandma chasing after them.)
My country, my contributions
As the only college graduate in my family, my brothers loved and adored me. Three of my nephews came to me to get higher education in my town. Jungsun, the oldest finished school and got a job, then went back to marry a hometown girl. Ju Ik, my second brother’s son joined the army and fought at Korean War. Ho Ik, the third brother’s son was killed at frontline battlefield. He was a handsome sweet young man. I grieve over his premature tragic death. My 19-year-old son, Sung Ik was missing in summer of 1950 while fighting as lieutenent of G2 of American Army. I feared his possible death. Later, we learned he went to Gaesung and Pyungyang, north Korean capital, to rescue General James Dean who had been captured by the North. Korean War was the most fierce, brutal and bloody in our history.
In the midst of war, Syngman Rhee, the Leader of South Korea had to solve the food shortage problem. One of his foremost tasks was feeding his starving people. Rhee summoned Woo Jangchoon, the renowned biologist, from Japan. Woo’s contribution in the development of agriculture was great and well known. He studied at Tokyo National University several years ahead of me. Woo came to Korea with his 30 years of research achievements. Double cropping of rice, improving main Korean vegetables and fruit trees on farms, all came from his works. Had he lived in today’s Korea, a world’s 6th influential powerful nation, not a war-torn poverty-stricken country, he could have won Noble Prize.
Around this time I was called by the Korean Government to lead the Ministry of Agriculture, joining Rhee’s cabinet as the asociate secretary, then the secretary of agriculture and forestry.
My first important task was the founding of agricultural bank and agricultural cooperative. The law passed by Congress and agricultural bank has been set up, but for agricultural cooperative
President Rhee had reservation. He must have thought ‘cooperative’ is a system belonging in socialist nation. I went to talk to him with a letter of resignation in my suit coat upper pocket.
“Do we really need agricultural cooperative?” he asked.
“Yes we do, to improve rural farming areas with young trained agents. It is very necessary,” said I.
“What if bullies, swindlers stir up villages?”
“I will prevent them with my life,” I said.
“Okay, do it.” He put presidential stamp on the document. It was the birth of Korean agricultural cooperative.
My next task was planting trees in the devastated bare mountains which were destroyed by the war. One America advisor suggested to Rhee that people go up the mountains and plant grass seeds. Grass seeding with many people would harm mountainside, I objected. It requires well planned long term project. What I planned but not accomplished were 5-year plan of improving agricultural products and setting up grain exchange center.
In retirement I opened a laboratory of tree planting for the mountains.
In free democratic Korea, farmland reform law and free trade of crops have immensely upbuilt our farming villages. Our farmers have overcome the difficulties caused by war and improved rural economics in cooperation with our government. The ministry of agriculture and forestry will keep working for their betterment and contribute for the bright future of Korean farming field,
My Father’s 1953 Travels to Italy and its neighboring countries
“Today we performed at St. Peter’s Basilica. Just imagine our Duke University chorus filing the large hall of high ceiling and great Dome. Tomorrow morning we’ll move on to Sistine Chapel and see the famous ceiling, painted in fresco by Michaelangelo in early 16th century.” This was written by my son Scott on a postcard of the Great Vatican Dome. He was travelling through Italy, singing as a member of the Duke choir. In awe and joy, upon experiencing the High Renaissance art, he wrote in such excitement.
My father saw Rome for the first time back in 1953. He wrote about that trip in several pages of his memoir. It was close to the end of the three-year-long Korean War. Because of the war, very few Koreans were able to go abroad. My father’s travels reminded me of Bak Jiwon’s book of Qing Dynasty trip two centuries ago. Bak was a Joseon scholar and literary man, but not well accepted by people of his time. His book had been banned for two hundred years until its true value was discovered in the 1930s.
Now I’d like to share with you what my father thought of the Western countries upon seeing them. He wrote:
“From June 15, 1953, the meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Council was being held in Rome, Italy. I was dispatched by Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea, to attend the meeting. My duty was to ask for urgent assistance and care for Korea, a war-torn devastated country. Korea’s farmland had been totally destroyed and the whole nation was under a food shortage. With Kim Myungsu of the forestry department accompanying me, I started the journey from Busan, the provisional capital at wartime. The flight was via Tokyo, Japan and Bangkok, Thailand.
In Rome, the members of FAO Council, representatives of US, Britain, France and other countries were gathered. I attended the meeting wearing a hanbok, the traditional Korean costume, because I needed to show them the image of Korea, my country, a new-born nation of 1948. Not many people of the world had seen Korea as an independent nation. Toward the end of the first day, Mr. Dati of Thailand and the Council chairman came to me and earnestly asked me to speak on Korea’s problem the next day. Immediately I accepted his offer, returned to my hotel, and prepared a speech of our sufferings caused by the North Korean invasion and the ruined homeland. The following day, again wearing a hanbok, I was on the speaker’s platform. The camera flashes and the explosive sound of shutters reminded me of the bombs of war and put me in a brief panic, but I recovered composure shortly. My speech was successful and great applause filled the hall. In the front page of Rome newspapers the following day, there appeared my photo in hanbok with the full text of my speech.
When I left for Italy, Lee Yunbae, a close friend of mine and a business owner told me I had to stop by the neighboring Western countries to learn about their highly developed features to benefit our country. He gave me three hundred dollars, knowing the Korean government travel budget would be tight. That money helped me to invite important council members to a dinner party. We shared diplomatic dialogues. I emphasized the need for their immediate help to Korea, and told them to hire a Korean to work at FAO, and they accepted my proposals.
After the five-day meeting, we were invited to see the farming villages of Italy, visit the department of Italian agriculture, and meet the Pope at Vatican City.
The following observations are from my brief tour of the countries on my returning home.
Italy: Like our country, Italy is a peninsula with a long coastline, surrounded by the Mediterranian. Italy left a powerful mark on Western culture. Rome is a city of landmark art and ancient ruins. The majestic historical buildings are overwhelming and so well preserved. When it comes to Naples, all Italians dream of visiting there, just like people of China in the past wished to come and see Kumgang-san, the Diamond Mountain in Koryo Kingdom of ancient Korea. Naples, a port city, is so beautiful with blue sea and sunny mild climate. But the streets were dirty and disorderly. In the building balconies of the back alleys, laundries were hanging out that were called ‘the flags of Naples.’
France: Liberty, equality, fraternity: the core values of free democratic society have come from the spirit of the French Revolution. You can feel it when you get there. France attracts the most tourists in the world. Paris, its capital, is famed for its fashion houses, classical art museums and monuments like Eiffel Tower. Over 60% of the land consists of farming villages. France export its wines and abundant produce of wheat, barley, corn and potatoes. With its rich natural resources, industries of iron products, chemicals, automobiles, airplanes and various machinery are highly developed. The marronnier trees of the city streets were captivating.
United Kingdom: Just across the Dover Strait over the English channel, not far from Continental Europe, Great Britain has its uniqueness of long history, tradition and culture. Their high moral values and pride in their culture give security to visitors. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned the month before I arrived in London. Trafalgar Square across Buckingham Palace and the streets of London were covered with the Union Jack. The city was in the midst of the very festivities. London’s streets and alleys were well maintained and clean. Outside the city in the rural areas, visitors could enjoy peace and tranquility in the beautiful countryside scenery.
It took more than 20 days to tour the Parliament Building, London Tower, Westminster Abbey, British Museum and other historical sites, I was told.
Thailand: This country has never been under the domination of foreign powers. You may think their national character stereotype is tough-minded and wilful, but when you meet the people in the street you find them surprisingly kind and friendly. Traffic yields to Buddhist monks on the street. Bangkok was the center of air traffic in Asia and provided various services to foreign travellers and tourists. The city has a river and well-developed channels of many boats and boathouses. These boats carry shops and sometimes small markets. While looking romantic, they show a part of primitivism too.”
Far from being talkative, my father was a reticent man. We should not expect from him the humor, banter and jokes of Bak Jiwon’s book. Now I regret very much that I didn’t tell him I liked his memoir, a well written book. I was so foolish.
My sister once said, “I don’t deserve to be called Father’s daughter. Father kept journal every night while travelling with us.” Along with her husband she drove with Father from New Jersey to Key West, Florida, and saw Father writing down the day’s diary however late the night was. I am sure his 1953 travels came from his little notebook of the trip of 40 years ago.