ESKAPE

Grandpa rushed to Father and tried to make him lie down on the ox-cart, but Father refused and insisted

on walking. Father said: "How can I be seen lying down on an ox-cart while I am still alive. I don't want

the Japanese to see me like that". Father walked all the way home on his own.

Upon returning home, he told his brothers (my uncles): "I struggled to stay alive while in prison. I ate

and drank whatever in order to stay healthy and gain strength. The Japanese are the worst people in the

world and we cannot let them be. You Hyong Rok and Hyong Gwung must fight the Japanese. You must

fight blood for blood, death for death." I swore that I, too, would follow Father's wish and wage life and

death struggles against the Japanese demons.

Father read books even in his sickbed. Father stayed with a relative, Kim Sung Hyon, well-known for

curing eye diseases. Father got interested in medicine and began reading medical texts while in prison.

Father learned medical skills from Kim Sung Hyon. Apparently, Father had decided to become a

medical doctor while in prison. He believed that he could be more effective being a medical doctor than a

school teacher.

Father would not stay in bed waiting for his broken body to heal. He dragged his aching body out of bed

and walked to various towns in North Pyongahn Province and tried to rebuilt the networks for the Korean

People's Association. Grandpa encouraged Father to stay the course and carry on. Before leaving home,

Father wrote a poem titled - "The Green Pine Trees of Namsan": "Even if our body is broken into dusts,

we will go on fighting generation after generation, without rest, until our three thousand ri land of green

mountains and shining rivers is free and a new Spring comes here". It was Father's solemn pledge to

fight on ..PAGE 26