Korean War: Escape for freedom
An old woman of 73, Ae Ki
Hyun sits in her house for most of the day doing household chores until her
grandchildren come back from school.
Fifty-three years have passed since she once feared for her life. Her body is tired, but she manages to
reminisce the tragic memories of her attempt to escape Communism and the loss
of her family. Every word she let out
showed me the great misery and fear she felt as she struggled to survive.
Born in the 1930s,
grandmother, my younger sister, and me were in North Korea: Hamyong-bukto, Kyungsun-gun. And my father passed away, when I was
sixteen.
I
attended school, but we didn’t know that the North Koreans hit the South, but
for girls they would recruit women soldiers and stuff. I didn’t want to join, so I was in hiding
[chuckles]. But then later on, when the South invaded the North back, the North
started to retreat invading our town villages. That’s when my cousin and I
decided to leave because we didn’t like living under a Communist government.
Okay,
the North Koreans are the Red because they are Communists and they were against
the Republic South. First the North
started to invade the Seoul, the South invaded them back, so everyone whom
wanted to flee, all of them, with their luggage fled. We fled walking together,
in a day we would walk about 60..60, not meters, I don’t know how many kilos it
is.
Of
course I had to follow the South Army and hope that the South would retaliate
or else we would be stuck in a communist place. Not just to Seoul, we were following them, the South Army.
My
cousin, my uncle and I wanted to leave, but my mother and sister stayed home,
because I was 20 and it was easier to leave the North, I just followed my
cousin. Because if the South kept invading, I couldn’t possibly be left here to
stay in North Korea. We thought we would leave for a short while and then
return back home, so I came out, but then ha..ha..ha.. I ended up in Seoul
The
conditions were bad because it was during the winter and we were walking. My feet were frozen because we kept walking,
our scarfs would freeze up, and we would just try to conquer the cold. But then
we came upon a train station, there were many people riding the train, so we
decided to take the train too. They were letting only girls in the train, so my
cousin and uncle couldn’t get in, I took the train. In the train, it wasn’t inside the train, but many were seated on
top of the train as well. Just in the
open air, Carrying hundreds of passengers on top.
We
arrived at Hangoon, where a big boat was waiting for us, I somehow managed to
get on it, everyday, with one Kimpbab.
In the boat, I t was hard to get out of North invaded regions, so yes,
we went to Pusan; you know, the one at the end of South Korea. The boat arrived at a huge refugee camp, and
I stayed there for a..couple of days and finally I went out to the city. There were a lot of refugees there, and I
was thinking, if just in case any relatives were there. Everyone was following and looking for their
relatives. It was a coincidence that
after looking, I saw my aunt. So we lived in Pusan, then from Pusan, came to
Seoul.
The
old..war..memories? The only thing, back then , was that: I was really hungry and cold. North Korea, up til this day, scares
me. I have no plans to meet my family,
I can barely remember their faces now.
Well you know people in America are now trying to find their lost
relatives..but I’m scared. Let’s say I
go to North Korea, and you know how they are these days, what if something
happens and I get captured. Yes, I miss them, but I mean my mother is now old
for her age, so she probably passed away and ..my sister is four-years younger
than me, she’s living well?
It’s hard even to live life here and it costs a lot of money to go there or even try to meet them, so I try not even thinking about it and I forgot about everything. Before, I used to cry a lot and I was in so much pain, you know, because I miss my mother and sister. They were all I had, but I know it’s going to be hard to see them [holding back tears], so I had to face..life.