A Tale of Two Friends

A Korean saying goes: “When big whales are in battle, small shrimps are crushed.” On 15th August 1945, the day of Victory Over Japan, Korea was liberated. The two super powers were heartily welcomed as liberators. The two were, namely the Soviet Union in North and the United States in South. The country was divided into two halves, bordering  on the line of the 38th parallel.

On 25th June 1950, the hastily Sovietized People’s Army of North Korea took an all-out offensive against the South. Seoul then, its capital, was fallen in three days. The armed fifth column unit went direct to the West Gate Prison to release the political prisoners. Fresh from prison release, I found my friend Jai Gon, a Chinese literature major, recalling many bistro sessions we had in rating and debating over the works of Li Po and Tu Fu.

Serving as a reporter for the Army periodicals, his undercover mission in tie-up with the communist party was for brainwashing the soldiers. We were young and ideological conflicts did not separate us. He was in full conviction, saying that liberation of southern half is assured by backup of the Soviet Union. His strong suggestion to me was to earn a proletarian status and he took me to cell unit of a local power transmission site for re-education. My attendance was evasive.

Meanwhile, search for our mutual friend Sun Jin was no avail. His detention in Suwon Prison made us hopeless for his survival. Reportedly, a mass killing was committed by the national police forces in their desperate retreat to keep the  leftist prisoners from collaborating with the enemy in rushing toward Suwon. Under the scorching summer heat wave and in shortage of food, suffering of the citizens of Seoul was mounting ever more as the days went by.

All at a sudden in one day, a roaring sound of the U.S. Air Force super-sonic jet fighter made a major section of Seoul blasted and deserted. Now the war situation is reversed. The target pinned down was the fabric factory where heavy cotton-inlay-ed uniforms were made for winter operations of the People’s Army. Thence the enemy was on their way of retreat back to North and this was the time I solicited Jai Gon to stay in South together.

At the last climactic scene of separation, Jai Gon said: “I don’t like Yankees by nature.” I yelled: “Listen to it.” Ignoring the thundering sound of the jet fighter over the sky, his last sound-off was: “There is no politics in the air.” Waving his hand, he was faded out of my sight, mingled with a group of like-minded retreating back to the North. When September is come, my memory is revived of this separation, lamenting particularly in this year we don’t  see our seventies any more. The United States defended the South Korea during the Korean War.