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Birth and Childhood Memories
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“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
(Psalms 107: 1)
Chapter 1 - Birth and Childhood Memories
My birth place is from the village of Batdul in Yipori in the township of Yuju, Kyunggi-do, a beautiful place.
At the time being, Japan was occupying Korea and even with the difficulty of child bearing she would sometimes go back to her home town from her birth mother and to have rest, as she did bear me when she was 43, which was considered late at this time.
The memory I had of my hometown was during the Korean War (6.25 Invasion of North Korea) when during the early days of the war my father had passed away. During this time my two brothers joined the army, my 2nd oldest brother had join the army when he was 17 years old and during the war time I did not know where my mother and two older sister was, so I stayed in the hometown with my uncle until we were forced to move to Kyungsang-Bukdo. After about 2 years I was reunited with my mother.
Despite being of young age, I had considerably enjoyed the early morning clouds of the Yongmoon Mountain and the clear waters of the Han River. Though my uncle was strict, and being there alone and being lonely, I still enjoyed watching the barley fields and the beautiful autumn moon rising. As it was cleaner environment during the days when I was young, watching the nature around me was very beautiful.
Our house in Hyunjudong in Sudaemoon township in Seoul had burned down from the war, and despite Seoul being restored we had nothing much to eat, as surviving was needed my mother moved to my uncles house for about a year. In order to have less hardship to my uncle she had sometimes taken us in the field to pick up the barley crops and she would also sell in the market place.
Despite all the hardship and having never learned herself, my mother sent us to study in the Ipo Primary school. During the beginning of Korean War I was only in 1st grade, and because of the wartime I was forced to go up into 3rd grade instead and learning war difficult.
I give my thanks to my mother who sent me to school despite all the hardship that was for her and my uncle and aunt who rented me out a small room to say during the hard times.
Most people who watched me grow up thought I had a good memory. But it wasn’t the war had brought me bad memories of watching whole towns burn, people being shot and killed and having the fear of aerial raid was still clear to this day. The memory of staying under thick blanket to survive the bomb fragments and watching all these people bloody had left me somewhat stunned, As I have read in a recent news with the major earthquakes in Northern and Southern California where young children were sent to counselors because of the earthquake and the horror it left behind, it was said that it was not good for children in young age to have such a bad memory when they are young.
During the beginning of the Korean War I entered first grade. Because we were ordered in height I was always first. And despite having to hold class partners hand I could not do such thing. And also when I was young I used to remember when my father would use to serve those who were needed. Whenever he saw someone who needed food he would tell my mother to “let’s kindly serve this person” and would have meals with the poor person. I do recall that my father had lost both his parents when he was about 10 years old. He would used to work with his in-laws place to work for food and such, knowing what hunger was like I now know that he had the heart to serve those were in need.
My memories of my father were he would never yell or punish me. I remembered him as a great man, a very kind man. When I was about 5, 6 years old I wanted a watermelon and despite him saying “Son, I will carry it since it is very heavy,” I would still try to lug the watermelon and ended up dropping and splitting it open, but despite all this my father would not yell, he would just smile warmly as he picked up the smashed pieces of the watermelon. A kind man he was, despite people telling him to “Let’s get out of here and avoid the bombs” He stayed behind his home which was burning. He didn’t want to leave all that he had worked for and stayed and watched as the bombs came down and passed away around his mid 50s.
(2011 January)
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Rise HeungGu! 
Birth and Childhood Memories