Comments on: A U.S. Silmido/A truly remarkable man

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:29:45 +0000

What I found particularly funny about this story in light of recent events is that Incheon wants to set up a display about Kim, and ends with a quote from MacArthur, whose statue in Incheon is the focus of some controversy. Then again, I have a rather obscure sense of humor.

By: Sperwer

Sperwer — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:20:33 +0000

Kim Young-Oak was remarkable, not least for declining to be transferred out of the 100th, when the (white) commanding officer suggested it upon discovering that Kim had been assigned to the Japanese unit (except for senior officers) on the mistaken assumption that he too was Japanese, and then going on to command the respect of the Japanese he led as a junior officer in the Vosge campaign and then in Italy, where the 100th was amalgamated with the much more well-known 442 RCT. It cheapens his real accomplishments for the Chosun Ilbo to make bombastic claims that he ( an Lt. and then a Cpt) “led” the 100th and that “he” played a major role in the liberation of Rome.

When is Korea going to get over it, so it refrains from such incessant, shrill and phony over-promotion?

By: Andy (The Yangban)

Andy (The Yangban) — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 16:03:20 +0000

I’m going to meet today with a man who also served in the Korean War. He was atached to the US Marines (as a kind of pre-KATUSA). After the war, some Ivy League types in the Corp helped him get into Yale. He became a citizen and worked in the States as an attorney before eventually moving back to Korea to work (and continues to work despite being over 70 years old). He also happend to officiate at my wedding.

Truly a remarkable man from a remarkable generation.

By: Antti

Antti — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 05:42:25 +0000

Even if not widely talked, the training of Koreans by the OSS at the end of the WW2 has not been a secret. There was a character in a Korean novel I read recently (and blogged about as well…) in which one of the main characters had been a student soldier (????) forcibly recruited to the Japanese army. He had escaped in Burma to the Allied side, and had been trained by OSS in order to infiltrate Korea, but the war ended before the operation could take place. As the novel was supposed to be based on historical facts, I wondered whether that had actually happened. In an article on Kwangbokkun (the army of the provisional Korean government in China) it’s told that Kwangbokkun had cooperation with the allies during the war, and also that Kwangbokkun soldiers were trained by OSS. Several other references turn up as well by googling, but training in the USA is not mentioned. (It’s in the novel, though!)

This synopsis of a KBS documentary on Kwangbokkun from 2001 mentions the training in Catalina, telling that the concerning OSS documents had been recently released.