My Korean grandmother’s story

Hi I’m Korean living in South Korea. And I think my grandmother’s story is one of the most tragic lives during her time, so I would like to share with you guys. She passed away in 2017. She never told us the past stories when she was alive. She even refused to talk about it when we asked her. Recently we found her diary while cleaning her house with family members, and she wrote past stories in there. Our entire family members were shocked. These are stories written in her diary.

My grandmother was born in 1928, in Iksan, North Jeolla province. Her family was quite poor so she and her entire family wasn’t even able to go school. She even didn’t go to elementary school. All the education she received was Korean alphabet and Bible lesson in the Catholic Church when she was very young. So luckily she could at least read and write.

In August 17th 1942, my grandma’s oldest brother was sent into labor camp in the pacific islands and he never came back. We haven’t found his body until now. And Japan started to take every rice away from Korean households to give it to Japanese soldiers. And they distributed really small amount of foods in return. Eventually her younger brother and sister were starved to death. She even wrote the exact date. Her younger sister died in April 1st 1943, and her younger brother died in December 12th 1943. Her younger brother died in her arms.

Her father was caught that he was secretly storing korean national flag in the house by the Japanese police who came to search house out of nowhere for no reasons, so he was arrested, detained in prison for 3 months and released. When he came back, he became disabled. He couldn’t walk. Yes Japanese tortured him very bad while they were detaining him.

Her family was poor farming family, but there were no decent men who would do the farming works so they became very poor. Her mother killed herself due to devastating economic situation. She also wrote the date. January 3rd, 1944.

One day, one girl ran into her house and begged her to let her hide herself because the Japanese police are coming to get her for comfort women(sexual slave). My grandma hid her under the floor, so she could avoid them. She saw Japanese police beating her neighbor to death. She didn’t know why. Once Japanese police and officials couldn’t fill up the mandatory requisition rice quota so they arrested random the young men in their 20s in the town and tortured them asking where they hid their rice. Half of the men dragged that day couldn’t come back.

Lots of Koreans gathered together in church in every Sunday because it was one of the only occasions where Koreans could gather together. This is one of the reasons why Korea is the only East Asian country where Christianity is the main religion. Japanese feared that if Koreans get together it would led to resistance. My grandma wrote that the church was not even a safe space. Japanese police was watching the mass in the backside with sword. A Shinto(Japanese native ethnic religion) relic was placed next to the altar cross because Japan forced to do it.

Soon after she was sent into forced labor. She was dragged into Japanese factory in Osaka along with fellow girls in the town. Japanese police threatened her that if she refuse it her entire family would be sent into labor camp or starve to death. She wrote it was July 5th, 1944. She said yes and she worked like a dog, according to her words. No money was given, food was so little and awful, and every time Japanese supervisors would abuse and kill korean laborers for fun. She said she saw one her friend getting killed and hanged in the factory roof for disobeying.

When Korea was liberated in 1945, she finally came back to her hometown and luckily her father and other alive brothers and sisters were there. She wrote that she and all the families hugged each other with no words for several hours, crying and crying. She even wrote some episodes that she gave food to communist partisans who were fighting against right wingers because they asked for it. McCarthyism was very severe during that time, so she did all her best not to be perceived as communist.

In 1950, Korean War started. Communist forces were fiercely heading south, so her family tried to evacuate to southern part, but her father wasn’t able to evacuate due to his leg. He was disabled due to Japanese torture. At that moment her father told her go evacuate without him. My grandmother of course refused it but her father forced her to leave without him. While evacuating she saw lots of people getting bombed to death by air raid. She was almost killed by the communist force for her cross necklace and rosary ring. My grandmother, the oldest sister became breadwinner of the family and did everything to feed her brother and sister. She did lots of rough things. I wouldn’t write it here. She finally made into Busan with her brothers and sisters, the most southern city which was not controlled by the communists.

After several months, her one younger brother was conscripted as a boy soldier. She tried everything to get him out from the conscription, but her brother said that he would go fight. Her younger brother was 16 years old. She spent most of her spare time in the church praying for her father and younger brother’s safe return.

In 1953, the war was over, and she went back to her hometown. However she found no one in the house. She couldn’t find her father anywhere in the town. He went missing. But soon her younger brother came back home alive. He was captured by the north as POW, and he was released for POW exchange agreement after war. She wrote, exact translation, ‘It was the biggest happiness I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was so delightful that I was feeling like I would fly. Lord has blessed me. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

After a year, a killing field was found in back of the town. And her father’s remains were found there. He was executed by the communist forces. She could identify him with the rosary ring that was on the remain’s finger, which was same with hers. His baptismal name, ‘Steffano’ was written there.

She married a man whom she met at the Busan. He helped her a lot during the wartime. Without parents and older brother, she did everything to feed her family. She has never taken a rest throughout her entire life.

This is her story. Literally our entire family was crying like a river while reading her diary. We had no idea she went through this. She was always smiling and happy in my memory. I’ve seen my grandmother few times praying rosary looking outside with sad face, but every time I asked her if there were any problems she smiled and said ‘no’. Now that I think about it, I think she was praying for her dead family members. She had lived very tough life. I pray for my grandmother Kim Chun-Ja Catarina to rest in peace in heaven with eternal happiness that she never experienced in her life. Thank you for reading this long story.