I Was a Jailer of Christians

As told to “Awake!” correspondent in Korea

IN THE late nineteen-thirties I was a prison guard in the Seoul Prison. Korea was governed by the Japanese then. I was one of six Korean women assigned to the Women’s Section; we worked under six Japanese women guards. Little did I know that I was soon to be a jailer of faithful Christians.

In 1938 and 1939 I read about the Japanese government’s arresting some of the supervisory ministers of the International Bible Students, as Jehovah’s witnesses were then known in Japan and Korea. Later, when individual Witnesses were arrested, I found myself as guard over six of these women, all evangelizers of Jehovah’s witnesses, They were placed in my section.

My duties in the prison were to teach the Japanese language to prisoners, to teach them to knit or do something with their hands, to try to educate the illiterate ones and condition their minds for the time when they would be released. I also took prisoners out of their cells for exercise. Besides sharing in the guard duties, it was also my responsibility to enforce all the prison regulations.

We Are All Commanded to Bow Down

One of the prison regulations required that each morning all the prisoners (and we jailers also) bow toward Tokyo at the command of the chief guard. This was a Japanese nationalistic rite in worship of the Japanese emperor. It was part of the Shinto religion. We Koreans were forced to participate in it. I learned later that these six Witness women were imprisoned, in part because of their refusal to bow down toward the East. In prison also they refused on religious grounds to bow down toward Tokyo.

When they were reported to the prison authorities and efforts to persuade them to bow down proved fruitless, they were punished. Each was finally put in chains. These were very heavy chains that were difficult to lift up to place on their backs. The chains were kept on these Witness women for most of the twenty-four hours every day.

At the time I thought how foolish they were to maintain such a defiant attitude just over religion so as to bring that harsh punishment on themselves. Many times I tried to persuade them to bow down toward the East with the rest of us and save themselves this ordeal.

Impressed by Their Faith and Courage

But as I talked more with these women I was deeply impressed by their faith. They were always cheerful, and in all other matters were most obedient and easy to handle. I felt drawn to one of these women especially. This was because there were many parallels between Mrs. Chang’s life and mine. She had been well educated as was I. She was an only daughter as was I. Any work assigned to her she learned how to do very fast. She had an excellent general knowledge. I felt particular empathy for her because she was put in prison shortly after she had married.

Whenever I checked the cells where these six Witness women were kept, I always found these Christians reading or discussing the Bible. I could see it was the key to their faith, and I wondered how a book could inspire the faith they had.

One day when I took the Witnesses out of their cell for exercise, Mrs. Chang asked me for some news from the outside. I told her that Japan had been victorious over the United States forces in the Philippines and over the British forces in Singapore, and so forth. Mrs. Chang explained some prophecy from the Bible to me in such a way as to leave me with the impression that she thought Japan would eventually be defeated.a I was shocked that she would even intimate such a thing, and if heard by the other guards, it would mean even more severe punishment for her, including reduced food rations. I counseled her very sternly not to repeat such words to anyone.

A few days later when I was passing their food through a slot into their cell, Mrs. Chang explained more to me from her Bible. She said all governments of the world were described in the Bible as beastlike and would be destroyed by God’s kingdom. I could have moved away from that slot, but I was interested in what she said. I could have had her punished, but I had no mind to. I felt affinity for these courageous Witness women whose faith could cause them to speak so boldly even while being punished for that faith.

When I was alone with them, I would sometimes remove their chains for a short time, but that had to be done very circumspectly. Then an unforgettable incident occurred.

One of these six women became very ill. At the same time that she had been committed to prison her son had also been confined to the same prison. But he compromised his faith by bowing down to the East. For this he was given a better job in the prison but was not released. His mother was unmovable in her faith. When it appeared that she would die, she asked to see her son. I intervened for her so that her son was finally brought in from the men’s section. I was present at this meeting of mother and son. She was dying, but she encouraged her son to keep his faith. He did not listen but begged his mother to compromise so she could be taken out of the prison to die. Five days later she did die. The son was allowed to attend the funeral in prison. He sobbed bitterly and I could not help crying myself.

Despair and Lack of a Sustaining Faith

It was at this point that I decided to change my occupation. I had become a prison guard after graduating from a highly regarded school for women, a school established by the government, and I was qualified as a teacher. While I was still in school we had been taken on a tour of a prison, and I was moved by the helplessness of the inmates. By being a guard I thought that I could not only teach but somehow help these unfortunate ones. So I applied and was accepted at the prison. But having seen so many miserable humans in my years at the prison, I realized how little I could help them.

True, I had received letters now and then from former inmates telling me how much they appreciated what I had taught them, and that made me feel good. But I saw so much that I could not help them with, and from a mere humanistic viewpoint I despaired of being able really to change things to help them. After the death of this Witness woman, I realized that I had no faith to sustain me as her faith had sustained her. I left my position as guard at Seoul Prison before the end of World War II.

My own religious background had not instilled such kind of faith in me. My family had been Buddhists. I had often gone to the Buddhist temple with my mother. But as a high school girl I had enough education to know that the worship of images as practiced by my mother was only superstition so that I no longer worshiped that way when I became independent.

When 1945 came and the long Japanese occupation of Korea ended, I remembered what Mrs. Chang had told me, and I was struck that the Bible’s prophecies were indeed true. I was even moved to try to make contact with Mrs. Chang but found out at the prison that she and the other four women had been released.

In the intervening years I was busy working for the United States Occupation Government until the republic was established in 1948. Then I found other employment. A neighbor who was a deacon in one of Christendom’s churches asked me to attend services. This I did. But I could not help seeing the hypocrisy in that church, so I quit going. I still had no real faith to sustain me.

Reunion with the Faithful Christian Women

From time to time over the years Jehovah’s witnesses called at my home, and occasionally I would take their magazines. But I had no time to talk to them or discuss things with them. Then in the spring of 1969 one of the Witnesses moved in as my neighbor. She began to talk to me about the Bible. I asked if Jehovah’s witnesses were the same as the International Bible Students, as Mrs. Chang was known to me. She said they were. I learned from her that Mrs. Chang was then in Inchon, so I went to Inchon to visit her.

We had a long talk about the Bible and the beliefs of the Witnesses. On the basis of that talk I decided to study with Jehovah’s witnesses. A regular Bible study was arranged, with my new neighbor teaching me.

I progressed in Bible knowledge, and then in October 1969 I attended the “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Changchoong Gymnasium in Seoul. Here I met the other four women who had been in prison for their faith. It was a joyous reunion. They greeted me as a long-lost friend and not as their former jail keeper. What I saw at that assembly deeply impressed me.

I continued my Bible study and attended meetings regularly at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then I made the decision: I too wanted to have the faith of those faithful Christian women. So I was baptized at the “Men of Goodwill” District Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Seoul on July 24, 1970. On that occasion I said to others, “This is the happiest day of my life.”

Our Choong Jung Ro congregation’s witnessing territory in Sodaemun-ku includes the side of a hill from which one can look down into Seoul Prison. While sharing the good news of God’s kingdom in that area along with my Christian sisters, I cannot help but think of what happened there years ago. I am truly happy to have at long last the wonderful faith that sustained those dear Christian sisters of mine for up to seven years of imprisonment during World War II.

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