There are 2 names that come to my mind whenever I think of my beloved late father.
One is Choi Kyuhah who briefly served as the President of Korea. He was the designated carrier of ham, the traditional wedding gifts in Korea for my parents’ wedding. President Choi and my father went to the National Daedong Institute in Xinjing, Manchuria together long time ago.
After graduating from the National Daedong Institute, my father came all the way to Seoul to work as an officer at the Department of Trade and Industry and Choi Kyuhah who didn’t have a job then yet, frequently came to our house and used to hold me in his arms when I was a little baby.
After my father died suddenly, the only one left that had known my father was Choi Kyu-hah. I asked him to meet several times because I wanted to talk to him about my father, but he never responded. I just wanted to hear about my father’s memories… I guess he didn’t reply because he wanted to remain silent on the history of the time yet I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that all the acquaintances of my father were gone.
Then one day in 2007, one of my acquaintances suggested that we go and say hi to General Paik. General Paik graduated from Pyongyang Teacher's College, so General Paik and my father might have known each other, my acquaintance said. I was worried, he was war hero and there is no single Korea who hasn’t heard about him yet if he and my father didn’t go to school at the same time and didn’t know my father, what would we talk about? I know nothing about war.
I am usually intimated by career soldiers, yet General Paik welcomed me at his office at the War Memorial of Korea and brought up my father as soon as we took seats.
“Dr. Lee Yoonmo was two years my senior and he was very well known. He showed excellency in his studies, he was good looking and he conducted a school orchestra, he was versatile and well known. After he graduated, he worked as a music teacher in Manchuria. His salary then was such and such…
This was only a few years ago, and I cannot even remember the number. Yet I was taken aback that he remembered my father’s salary from 80 years ago.
For his enormous fame, my first impression of him was folksy and simple. Granted, he was different from my refined father who always put on a smile and orated great stories with ease, yet his sincere, delicate demeanor and memory that could recall what happened 80 years ago were astonishing.
“I value honesty the most. That’s why the U.S. generals trusted me” he says.
I was impressed with the war stories I read from daily newspapers and lectures. He remembered all the places, situation, dates, time of each battle, I also admired his courage and bravery that saved this country.
When North Korean People’s Army came down to Dabudong, the front line at Nakdonggang River in Korean war, he persuaded his superior, Commander Milburn, saying that he knew Pyongyang well as it was his hometown, and walked day and night all the way into Pyongyang. I couldn.t be happier that the renowned General who did all this as the first lieutenant in the Korean Army and the legendary war hero, is alive and well right in front of me. Listening to my father’s stories of 80 years ago was a bonus that moved me deeply.
Usually, talented children from poor families went to the Pyongyang Teacher's College. There were about 100 students per entering class. The teachers there were mostly from Japan except for Professor Sung Nyong Lee and you could learn English there. The English that the General Paik used during the war was learned from Pyeongyang Teacher's College. Pyongyang Teacher's College had an orchestra with 200 organs. My father learned voice, piano, violin and conducting; he went to Daedong Institute after teaching music for two years at Xinjing at Manchuria. The General wanted to go to military school, not become a teacher; his mother managed to scrape up 500 won to pay off the tuition for Teacher's College and go on to enter military school.
Back then students were patriotic, wanting to beat Japan, and studied hard. My father had a particularly combative spirit and tried to ace all his subjects. He was a man of ability and showed it when working in office, General Paik says. I was reminded of General Paik’s patriotism as well as my father’s patriotism and leadership from which I learned to cultivate.
He is worried about current situations. He thinks that we need to beat Kim Jong-un in order for us to live peacefully, and he thinks from experience that the only way to accomplish that is war. I could feel his ardent desire that this country, a country that he devoted himself to protecting from communism not be turned into a communist state.
I become patriotic as I faced the general. And I can see my father, who died 35 years ago, as if it was only yesterday that I last saw him. General Paik was friends with my father in Pyongyang, Manchuria, and Seoul. Holding his hands feels like holding my father’s hands, it makes my heart ache.
I give him my book in which I wrote about my experiences at Doshisha University, Kyoto. I’m surprised when he mentions the name of the founder of Doshisha University, 'Niijima Jō’ and even more so when he goes on to list the names of the founders of five other prestigious universities. He says that he engraved their names in his heart because they are all great people. He also says that Mrs. Bang had said, “The Japanese are bright people.”
I point to the chapter that I wrote about ‘Niijima Jo’ and turned to leave, before I’m gone I hear his voice saying on my back “I respect you, Ms. Lee” His sonorous voice sounds like my father encouraging me. A tear drops from my eye.
