Life under Great Oppression- Interview with Church Elder

Ben Kang slowly peeled a tangerine as he sat on the chair for the interview. Carefully he listened to the questions and took time remembering the memories of his past. As memories of good times came up, he smiled. As he recalled, he didn't have any grudge against Japanese nor did he have a grudge about the fact that they once took over Korea. However, he seemed to feel bitter about the fact that his language and culture was taken away by the Japanese. Thirty-five years of suffering and oppression. “No one wants to lose their freedom of speech, freedom of thoughts, or even their language..”

Korea used to have 13 provinces, now it’s divided North and South. I think there are about uh.. seven or so provinces in North Korea. About six or so in South Korea. There are quite a few things I remember, first of all that we were not allowed to use our own language, Korean. Japanese leaders forced Korean government to sign a treaty called wul sa joh yak. The treaty states that Korea can’t do anything without Japan’s permission. Also, a Prime Minister at that time betrayed the country and helped Japanese leaders force King to sign the treaty.

 There are quite a few things I uh..remember, we were not allowed to use our language, Korean in any public places. When you cannot use the language, then that means all the Korean literature, we won’t be able to access it, so actually Japanese wanted to abolish the Korean culture. In this, they were trying to make Japanese out of Koreans, but that didn’t work out.

 Also, we had to change our names to Japanese names. I remember that everything was very very scarce. Lots of people then had not enough to eat, lot of people then had not enough cloths to wear. We had to turn in any metal objects to the Japanese so they could make weapons out of them.

 My grandfather was a landlord and he was rancher. My father was an employee of a Japanese government, he worked for the Japanese. Because my grandfather was a landlord and my father worked for Japanese government, we lived better than the other people at that time. My grandfather was very against Japanese people, he hated Japanese people. But my father, he was educated and he worked for Japanese people. But there weren’t very much conflict, you know among our family, they just accepted the fact.

 I was in a grammar school back then; those elementary schools didn’t require that much money, but if you wanted to go to junior high, high school, or even college, then you needed a substantial amount of money. Only middle class or the upper classes could afford to send their children to a school. But the poor were they can’t afford to send their children to school. Subjects I learned..uh..you know, the language of course was Japanese, and then like a music and physical activities. There was a different school for Korean children and Japanese children. I suppose that the Japanese schools were better than Korean ones, but you know, I didn’t go to the Japanese school.

 My family as you know, we are Christians. The Japanese government, they uh.. they would oppose the Christians. Christians were always under the observation, you know? There were Buddhist temples and churches. We were required to attend the Japanese temple.

 When you disobey or break the laws, the consequences were you either get imprisonment or you get executed. The punishments were very very harsh. But when you have to oppress other country, you have to be strict. Also, there was sort of discrimination, when one country occupies another country, there always discrimination. Japanese people living in Korea, they received better treatment than the average Korean people. My relatives got drafted into a military service and forced labors. They would have to go and serve in a military service.

 Lots of people went aboard in attempt to set the country free, because in Korea you can’t do much. There was some, I guess, underground activities. Seung Man, Lee and some others formed temporary governments outside Korea to support the underground activities and to set the country free. Also, during the Japanese occupation there were some saboteurs in Korea

 After Japan lost the war somewhere in 1945, some of the Asian countries with Korea all got liberated. I remember vividly, it was August 15, 1945. They were waving Korean flags, people were all excited and it was just, you know? They were joyful. It was very very memorable and I still remember it very vividly. After the election of Seung Man Lee as a president, the government was democratic.

 I personally don’t have any grudge against Japanese, but it’s natural to feel negative about Japanese because of the past event. When other country occupies the other and takes way their language and culture. I mean..they take your freedom away from you. It might have been resentment against Japanese. I can’t deny that because of Japan’s invasion the new technology came in and developed Korea. But your freedom is more important than anything else.

Interviewed by Carolina Chang