H07K , Myung-Jun Hong ‘00, Grandfather, 1918, Korea, Tōkyō
On November 15, 1998, I interviewed my grandfather. He is 80 years old and lives in Tōkyō now.
When the war was about to break out, he was studying at Meiji University in Japan. It was very rare for Koreans to study at a prestigious university like Meiji at this time. He was using money that was sent by his family in Korea. His life then wasn’t bad at all, except for the fact that Korea was occupied by Japan as a colony. However, when World War II actually broke out, his life became much worse. He didn’t have to join the Japanese Army, since he was good at soccer, and he was on the soccer team of his university.
He said that he was very lucky, because if he had been in Korea at this time, he probably would have joined the army. His family in Korea was not able to afford to send him any money, because they were starving in Korea. The food shortages in Korea were worse than in Japan. The Japanese Army took all metal products to make guns and other weapons. Korea was very poor. He said that sometimes he couldn’t eat a proper meal for three or four days, but the situation in Korea was even worse. He also explained to me about how his Japanese friends treated him and how he learned Japanese. Since he was a soccer player, he got along with his friends very well. He said that playing sports can help you to make friends easily, especially for boys, and you can also learn other languages quickly, because you have to communicate with your teammates all the time.
It was very interesting to learn about my grandfather’s past, even though we had only a limited amount of time. He told me about his experiences, and they really excited me. I wish that I could have had more time, and if my grandfather is free again, I’d like to talk with him about his past and ask him more questions.