『He Is Alive』“We were fooled by the broadcast”
(No. 3) Dong-A Daily, Feb. 23, 1952
If only he could have hidden himself for four more days

Mrs. Park (Kim Yeong-ae): The North Korean regime was always suspicious about what we were doing and severely oppressed us.It was endless and we were helpless.

Mrs. An (Kim Bu-rye): He was confined. There was nothing he could do about it.

Mrs. Park (Yu Song-juk): If he could have escaped, why would he have been taken?

Mrs. Son (YeonKyeong-hwa): My husband didn’t worry so much because he was hiding in the mountains. He thought he was safe. I guess there was nothing he could do when he was taken so abruptly. We listened to the government’s announcements on the radio and did exactly what they asked us to. And now look what has happened.

Mrs. Gang (Park Ok-chul): I guess it was his fate to be abducted, since he was captured despite his best effort to hide in a safe place.

Moderator: I see. Now we will hear the opinion of Mrs. Son, the wife of the President of the Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences. How were your and the rest of your family members’ lives after your husbands were abducted?

Mrs. Son (YeonKyeong-hwa): It was June 28. From that day, I moved from one place to another with my young children, without a husband to rely on or a house to live in. We had to stay out of sight of the North Korean officers because they would keep abducting people if therewere any chance. Even now when I think of those days, I feel horrified. We did not have enough to eat and were forced to listen to shortwave broadcasts of communism propaganda. Every day was a continuation of the suffering.

Mrs. Gu (Park In-suk): After my husband was abducted, the air raids got worse and my family scattered to different cities across the nation. There were times when we did not even know about each other’s fates. All we hoped for was for Seoul to be recaptured by the ROK Army.

Mrs. Park (Kim Yeong-ae): Like the saying, “Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” we decided to seek a hideout after my husband was abducted. My remaining family scattered to different places. I was worried that I might be abducted, too, so I left home early in the morning and came home late at night.

Mrs. Hyeon (Baek Suk-ryang): We sought hideouts in different relatives' houses. After my husband was abducted, we crossed the Han River and escaped to Noryang-jin.

Mrs. Lee (Lee Jeong-sun): From July 10, four days after my husband was abducted, Internal Bureau officers came by daily and yelled at us to vacate the house, calling it a house of rebels. I yelled back at them, saying, “I have lost my husband and there is no place to go with my young children, so do as you please.” I cannot describe what I went through during those days.

Mrs. Park (Yu Song-juk): I had heard that the Security Bureau took my husband, so I went to the Bureau every day at 5 a.m. just to see him, and came home late at night for a week from July 25. If I could not make it home by curfew hours, I slept on the street in front of the Internal Bureau Office. However, I could not see his face, not even once. We’d barely made a living even before my husband was abducted, so the Security Bureau officers did not confiscate our property. However, they told us to leave the house and move to the countryside. They came to my home every day until August 5. They even searched the house late at night and behaved badly. There were always two or three people keeping an eye on our house, pretending they were going for a walk. All of this made our lives even more difficult. In the end, my husband’s aged mother had to walk great distances to get food.

Mrs. Gang (Park Ok-chul): After the North Korean Army captured Seoul my family was kicked out of the house. My house was used as a town office for a People's Committee.

Mrs. Yang (Yang Me-rin): I escaped with my granddaughter.

Mrs. An (Kim Bu-rye): After my husband was abducted, I spent four days in fear and sorrow in an empty house. On September 28, four days after his abduction, Donam-dong was finally set free.