뉴스레터

We took part in the Foundation-supervised training of teachers over the course of four days and three nights, and it fired up our hearts more than the hot sun in the middle of Korean summer. The training was to investigate major anti-Japanese historical sites in Beijing, Handan, and Shexian in China. Our trip began at Lukouchiao where the Sino-Japanese War broke out and ended where Lee Yuksa sacrificed his life for the country, following the traces of the Korean Volunteer Corps. The independence fighters who inflamed themselves in fire in faraway China in pursuit of the nation’s independence, despite the tough environment. The numberous commentaries that were heard while following their traces and dialogue with the locals prompted warm sympathy, and this came to bear a greater meaning and offer a greater lingering imagery.

View of the ruins of the Korean Volunteer Army at the foot of Oji Mountain

Following in the Footsteps of Korean Volunteer Corps

Handan, where the Korean Volunteer Corps was stationed after traveling to the northern part of China, is near Taihang Mountain. The annual precipitation in this region was only 600 millimeters and its environment was very poor with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius in the summer and falling to 9 degrees below zero in the winter. It is said that the Korean Volunteer Corps got together in Luoyang in March 1941 and crossed the Yellow River before walking to Taihang Mountain. They established their headquarters in a temple, Heungboksa, to avoid harming local people. The temple is still used as a village shrine for residents, and its appearance after being burnt by Japanese soldiers remains intact. We turned our steps toward Undujeochon. The village is famous for having been the residence of Mujeong, commander of the Korean Volunteer Corps, and for posting slogans written by the Korean Volunteer Corps in Korean as part of anti-Japan propaganda activities. The propaganda slogans posted near the village’s south gate read, “Our compatriots conscripted forcibly as soldiers should fire their guns up into the sky because there are voluntary Korean troops wherever the Eighth Route Army is,” “Let’s demand for Korean language to be allowed to be spoken freely,” “Come to the Korean Volunteer Corps, carrying guns, after shooting the Japanese superiors to death.” The slogans, which were erased due to a fire a few years ago, were rewritten by looking at old pictures.

Development of the Korean Volunteer Corps

We hurried toward Seokmunchon, leaving behind a hot trail. The tombs of the martyrs Yun Sei-ju and Jin Gwang-hwa, who died in Taihang Mountain while fighting against Japanese soldiers in May 1942, and the memorial hall of the martyrs of the Korean Volunteer Corps are located together in Seokmunchon. It is a favored location, with its back to the mountains and its face to the water, and home to the well-managed first burial sites of General Jwagwon, the top commander of the Eighth Route Army, and the two Korean martyrs. The deaths of the two martyrs are said to have greatly prompted the Eighth Route Army of the Chinese Communist Party. The news of their deaths prompted the Hwabuk Korean Youth Federation, the independent anti-Japanese organization of Koreans, to form the Hwabuk Korean Independence Alliance through the second conference of representatives in July 1942, and the Korean Volunteer Corps was transformed into the Korean Volunteer Army as an armed organization.

First burial sites for martyrs in Seokmunchon (left: Jin Gwang-hwa, right: Yun Sei-ju)

The Hwabuk Korean Independence Alliance established the Hwabuk Korean Youth Revolutionary School on November 1, 1942 to nurture officers. The Korean Volunteer Army and the Korean Independence Alliance, which relocated from Jungwonchon to Namjangchon in April 1943, renovated a small temple to establish the Hwabuk Korean Youth Military and Political Cadet School as Korea’s young people continued to throng to Taihang Mountain even after the main unit left for Yeonan in January 1944. Near the school was the site of houses and lodgings suspected to have been used by Mujeong of the Korean Volunteer Army until 1945 as the school headmaster, but we couldn’t enter the site because it was closed.

It is said that the Korean Volunteer Army, which originally had to be self-sufficient when it came to food, owing to the severe drought and famine that had continued on since 1942, had solved the food problem while cultivating the wastelands at Oji Mountain. Having heard that someone who had lived with the Korean Volunteer Army there was still alive, we really wanted to meet her. Upon catching wind of our sincere wish, a local guide called her and our meeting was realized. Wang Gyo-jin, a 91-year-old woman, was incredibly robust and lovely. We smiled just imagining the older woman’s younger days, listening to her stories. After marriage, she lived in the village at the foot of Oji Mountain, she chased after Korean volunteer warriors calling them “oppa” (flirtatious Korean word), and she served them food. Hearing that the woman felt very glad to meet people from Korea, we thought about how we wished she could stay happy for a long time. Wishing health for her, we moved to the residence of the Korean Volunteer Army at the foot of Oji Mountain. There were caves where they took breaks from cultivating the land and the Jeong Yul-seong Memorial Hall that had been renovated from lodgings. Jeong, a native of Gwangju, Jeollanam-do Province, is famous for composing the military march for the Eighth Route Army and devoting his musical talent to the anti-Japan struggle.

With the Mrs. Wang Gyo-jin in Oji Mountain

Shin Chae-ho, Lee Hoi-young, and Lee Yuksa Met in Beijing

Our field trip that followed in the footsteps of the Korean Volunteer Corps was entering its final stretch. Arriving in Beijing late at night, I thought of Shin Chae-ho, Lee Hoi-young, and Lee Yuksa, who I would meet the following morning, while looking at the night view of Tiananmen in the bus. Going around a place suspected to have been the residence of Danjae Shin Chae-ho who wrote the “Declaration of the Joseon Revolution” at the request of Kim Won-bong, I paid my respects to his spirit that wished for the country’s independence. I felt both lonely and angry in the residence of Lee Hoi-young, who called himself an anarchist while fulfilling “noblisse oblige” and where Lee Yuksa sacrificed his life for the country. The wide plain missed by the young people who spent their youth dreaming of national liberation deep in Taihang Mountain and who loved their homeland ardently would not be the divided Korean Peninsula now. I had a lot on my mind on the way back after having my final journey with Lee Yuksa. What should we say to our friends and descendants? I felt, once again, that we owe a lot to our ancestors who devoted themselves to the country and came back with the belief that we will have to make ceaseless efforts to pay back the debt.