Korea

AS SEEN from a satellite miles above, Korea is a picturesque peninsula in northeast Asia. It lies just west of the islands of Japan and is bordered on the north by China and the Soviet Union. More than 3,000 islands dot the sea along its southern and western coast, although 2,600 are not inhabited. Korea’s size? Almost as large as Great Britain.

In a closer view, Korea changes into one of the hillier landscapes of the world, leaving about 20 percent of the land suitable for farming, with rice being the staple crop. Plains stretch along the western, northeastern, and southern coasts. Monsoons sweep across this country, first one way, then another, blowing in the cold, dry winters and hot, wet summers.

A face-to-face look reveals that most Koreans have physical characteristics similar to other Asians​—broad face, straight black hair, olive-brown skin, and dark eyes. Yet, they are distinct in their culture, language, dress, and cuisine and lay claim to over 4,000 years of human history. Their language, belonging to the Altaic language family, is spoken today by over 60 million people.

DIVIDED LAND

Because of Korea’s strategic location, nations more powerful, such as China and Japan, have long wielded a strong influence over its people. As a defense, the Korean people isolated themselves to become what has been called the hermit kingdom. In 1910 Japan imposed colonial rule over Korea that lasted until the end of World War II, at which time the peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel between the military forces of the United States in the south and the Soviet forces in the north. In 1948, by United Nations resolution, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was formed in the south. In the same year the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was formed in the north. Both governments claim to represent all of Korea.

On June 25, 1950, with the invasion of the south by the north, the three-year Korean War began. This resulted in a more permanently divided land separated by a demilitarized zone running east to west just 35 miles north of the city of Seoul. The government in the north allows no place for religion, and hence it bars the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

INTEREST IN THE ORIENT

The Watch Tower Society’s first president, Charles Taze Russell, as chairman of the IBSA (International Bible Students Association) committee of seven, first visited the Orient early in 1912 “to see the conditions of the heathen,” reported The Watch Tower of December 15, 1912. “As a result of that investigation it was decided that conditions in heathendom warranted the expenditure of some of the Society’s funds in proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom there,” the account continued. “Accordingly, free literature was printed in six of the principal languages,” including Korean.

Agreeing with the committee’s findings, Brother Robert R. Hollister represented the Association in the Orient, including Korea. He arranged for the translating and printing of the book The Divine Plan of the Ages in the Korean language. It was printed in Yokohama, Japan, showing its publishing date as March 18, 1914, with the publisher as the International Bible Students Association and R. R. Hollister as representative. Brother and Sister W. J. Hollister also spent considerable time sowing seeds of Kingdom truth in Korea.

FIRST DEDICATED KOREAN

The Watch Tower of August 15, 1914, printed a fascinating letter addressed to Brother Russell, stating: “I am a stranger to you in one sense; but I came to a knowledge of Present Truth through your writings just twenty-two months ago. For some time I have been anxious to write and tell you of my special appreciation of the Truth, but circumstances did not permit until now.

“You will be interested in knowing that I am a Korean. When the first missionaries landed here (in 1885) Korea was a hermit kingdom. Since then some Koreans became identified with Christianity.

“For about eight years I drifted through the dangerous currents of what I now see was Spiritism​—Satanic teaching. Now I thank God that He sent our beloved Brother R. R. Hollister here with the Glad Tidings and saved me out of these currents which were leading me to an unknown place.

“My senses were almost lost; it took about six months to have the eyes and ears of my understanding opened. Since then I have consecrated myself to the Lord and continue to praise Him.”​—Signed, P. S. Kang.

Who was P. S. Kang, and how did he learn the truth?

To an IBSA convention audience in San Francisco in 1915, Brother R. R. Hollister related how he met Mr. Kang. “In Korea the Lord directed me to Kang Pom-shika who was at first employed upon a purely business basis to do some translating,” Hollister said. “Soon he began taking a deep personal interest in the articles he was working on, and after spending some months in our office, he professed a full consecration [dedication] to the Lord. Since then he has been much used in translating, interpreting, class leading, and managing the Korean branch. I confidently anticipate the pleasure of introducing him to you at the General Assembly as a delegate from the ‘Hermit Nation.’”

MORE HELP FROM ABROAD

In 1915 Sister Fanny L. Mackenzie, a colporteur (full-time preacher) from Britain, began making periodic visits to Korea, paying her own traveling expenses. She used an IBSA letterhead to give a witness. How? By printing a message about the Kingdom in English on the front side of the letter and on the back side a translation thereof in Chinese, which could be understood by most people in the Orient.

The letter offered to leave the book The Divine Plan of the Ages on a trial basis. The branch records show she placed 281 books. Besides her diligence in this work of distributing literature, she also paid the equivalent of $15 to Brother Kang for his personal expenses. In 1949, at age 91, she turned over these records to the present Branch Committee coordinator, Don Steele, before his coming to Korea.

FIRST PRINTERY

Brother Kang, the secretary in charge of the work in Korea, and his associates continued spreading the message, but the response was slow. Nevertheless, in 1921 they held public meeting “pilgrimages” throughout the country, and the booklet Millions Now Living Will Never Die was published in the local language and distributed. Korea now joined the list of 18 branches of the Society outside of the United States.

Having the message printed in the Korean language outside the country created many hardships. Consequently, in 1922 Brother Rutherford sent Brother Kang $2,000 (U.S.) to set up a small printery of up to seven machines. The presses churned out literature in the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese languages. Still, no great increase was seen during those years.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

The Society established a branch in Japan in the fall of 1926 and appointed Junzo Akashi, a Japanese-American, as the representative to Japan, China, and Korea. In the meantime, Brother Kang, who had been in charge of the work in Korea, was employing the Society’s printery for his own use, printing worldly books. He even had the audacity to sell the printery without permission. Brother Park Min-joon replaced him in 1927.

Brother Park, a colporteur, was a faithful brother who had made long journeys on foot up and down the peninsula to hold public meetings and place literature. He met special opposition from the Protestant missionaries, but the local police, then Japanese because of Korea’s being under Japanese rule, often came to his rescue.

Since by 1931 larger quarters were needed for the office, it was moved to Brother Park’s home at 147 Key Dong in Seoul.

Brother Park knew the English language well and translated the books Reconciliation and Government, as well as others, from English into Korean. His fluency in the English language enabled him to correspond directly with the Society in New York. Apparently, however, Brother Park was not as proficient in Japanese as Akashi desired, so he was replaced in 1935. Brother Moon Tae-soon, a schoolteacher, was placed in charge of the work. Brother Moon’s diligence as a full-time field worker was to be tested in the future.

COLPORTEUR ACTIVITY

Brother Lee Shi-chong, at age 22, dedicated his life to Jehovah in 1930 and devoted himself to the colporteur service. “I was not courageous enough to preach in the city, so I acquired a bicycle and decided to preach in the provinces,” Brother Lee tells us. “I piled my baggage and literature on my bicycle, and the first place I went was to the county office in Kyŏnggi Province. I hesitated about going in, but I thought of my mission as a Kingdom ambassador, a term I had heard often from the branch manager. The result was that I placed several books with the officials, and I was very much encouraged and had confidence from then on.”

Brother Lee, who is presently serving as an elder in a Seoul congregation, traveled the length and breadth of the land, reaching into what is now North Korea and even into Manchuria. He would order literature from the Seoul office and have it sent ahead to the next village or town. This was his life for three years until 1933 when the witnessing work came under difficulty.

The records for the year 1931 show that the Kingdom proclaimers were busy. They reached 30,920 homes, spent 11,853 hours in the field, and distributed 2,753 books, 13,136 booklets, and 3,940 copies of the Golden Age magazine. In 1932 Korea held its first convention, from June 11 to 13 in Seoul, with 45 in attendance. In that same year 50,000 copies of the booklet The Kingdom, the Hope of the World were issued in Korean for free distribution. Thus, the work in Korea was expanding.

POLICE RAIDS

The militaristic government of Japan reacted sharply to this increased activity of Jehovah’s people. The branch overseer in Japan gave the following report, covering both Japan and Korea:

‘I left Tokyo for a trip on May 10, 1933, and received a letter by airmail at Mukden of Manchuria, on May 15th, from which I learned that all the office staff of five brethren at our branch [in Tokyo] were arrested and thrown into prison and the work in the branch was kept going by sisters. Newspapers of May 16 and 17 devoted almost whole page reports to the arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

‘The police raided the Society’s offices in Tokyo and Seoul. They seized the entire stock of our publications. You will surely be glad to know that the Japanese and Korean brethren kept their faithfulness and integrity toward Jehovah and his anointed King even during the severe testings.’

The amount of literature confiscated by the police from the Society’s Seoul office on June 17, 1933, was estimated at 50,000 pieces. It was taken to the Han River in Seoul in 18 handcarts and publicly burned, reported the Seoul newspaper Tong A Ilbo. The article also said that on August 15, 1933, approximately 3,000 pieces of literature were seized and destroyed at the homes of the brothers near Pyongyang, now in North Korea. But did the police raids silence the witnessing work?

THE WORK GOES ON

Colporteur Lee Shi-chong, who was called back to Seoul because of the arrests, recollects: “The brothers quickly recovered their courage and resumed preaching with The Golden Age, the only publication not banned, and, of course, we kept holding our meetings.”

The Golden Age was used in the Korean field from 1933 to 1939 and was registered as a newspaper. Its price was two jeon, the equivalent of one cent (U.S.). Although the main supply of literature had been destroyed, many of the brothers still had some books and booklets of their own, and these were loaned and exchanged among the brothers so that people who were really interested could receive the message.

The meetings were held weekly on Sundays. The brother conducting would speak for an hour, and if some new ones were present, he would go over the fundamental teachings for them. The conductor would also explain a Watchtower article, since the others did not have a copy in which to follow along. The Watchtower was printed in booklet form and in Japanese. During the Japanese occupation, Koreans were forced to use the Japanese language and could therefore read, write, and speak it.

However, there were few qualified brothers in Seoul to conduct these meetings. Why was this the case? Because the branch overseer enrolled all he could in the colporteur work and then sent them to faraway territories. As a result, the experienced brothers were scattered about the peninsula and were unable to associate together. Any further improvement in the methods of conducting meetings would now have to await the arrival of Watch Tower missionaries, yet some time in the future.

INFLUENTIAL FAMILY FLEES “BABYLON”

With all Watch Tower literature except The Golden Age now banned, the work had to be done cautiously. Brothers had to be careful, discreet in their comings and goings. Despite there being no regular organized meetings, those who did take up the truth were courageous and determined individuals.

The Ok family are an outstanding example. They were all Seventh-Day Adventists, well educated, and economically well off and they had an outstanding reputation in the community. Ok Ji-joon’s father was an elder in the church and the principal of an Adventist school, and his wife Kim Bong-nyob was the local school’s auditor.

“One day in 1937,” Ok Ji-joon tells us, “I happened to find a magazine, The Golden Age, in the trash can. Since I was very religious, I was interested in the religious articles in it and read them thoroughly. Some days later two men visited me and offered me more literature from the ‘Lighthouse.’ [This was the term for “Watch Tower” mistakenly translated and used by the Japanese branch overseer and hence used also in Korea.] They had me read what I later learned was a testimony card. I gladly received all the books they had. Later, on reading them I found many points that contradicted my Adventist faith. I wrote to the Tokyo address appearing on the back pages of the book and for some months kept up this doctrinal discussion by mail. The Tokyo branch would answer my questions, enclosing certain Watchtower magazines underlined in red at particular places.

“The Sariwon Adventist Church in Hwanghae Province, now in North Korea, made trouble for me because I kept on asking questions about this newfound truth. The minister tried to evade answering and haughtily said that asking such questions of the minister, especially one who was an intimate friend of my father, was disrespectful. But I thought personal relations should not interfere with Bible discussions and that he owed me an answer. My younger brother also recognized the truth and came along with me, as did my older brother. Finally we stopped attending church.

“My father opposed us. When my older brother and I closed down our prosperous farming-tool factory in order to have time for the preaching work, he was furious and put us out of the house. However, we did not give up but kept trying to persuade him with the information in The Watchtower.”

Brother Ok’s older brother, Ok Ryei-joon, next tells how their father’s eyes were opened to the truth.

“One day our Adventist minister visited us and told us that the intelligence section of the Police Bureau had ordered our church to attend the Japanese Shinto shrine to worship Japanese gods and to raise the Japanese flag at the church, salute the flag, and sing the national anthem before each service. The pastor’s own opinion was that the Adventists would have to conform or else the church would be banned and the Adventists would disappear. The minister asked the church’s headquarters about the matter, and then he visited us to tell us the answer. Their headquarters said they should obey the police order, though it would be a big trial. Our father was greatly disappointed in that decision.”

Their father wanted to know the view of the Watch Tower Society on this matter. To find out, he began to study the Bible with his sons. As a result, he recognized just how right Jehovah’s Witnesses were. The whole family​—father, mother, four sons, and two daughters-in-law—​stopped going to church.

“Later, in 1938, the Adventist Church sent an American missionary to our home, and he told us that their missionaries had decided to leave Korea because of the Japanese government’s oppression,” continues Ok Ryei-joon. “He also said that our family’s withdrawal from the church on account of the flag-salute problem and the worship at Shinto shrines was very commendable and encouraged us to keep strong faith in Jehovah God, even as all of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Korea do.”

When the branch overseer from Japan visited, this entire family was baptized on November 19, 1937. Today, three of these brothers serve as elders. Because of his stand on the neutrality issue, their younger brother, Ok Ung-nyun, died faithful in a Japanese prison in 1939.

A TIMELY WARNING

In December 1938, during Junzo Akashi’s last visit to Korea, he met with 30 brothers at Moon Tae-soon’s house in Seoul and warned them that they would soon be arrested. When that happens, he cautioned, do not show disrespect to the national flag or emperor. Do not compromise either, he also said. He urged all to preach as much as possible using the three booklets available, Protection, Warning, and Face the Facts.

In the new booklet Face the Facts, Akashi dwelt on one point that would adversely influence the Korean brothers. The booklet encouraged young couples to wait a “few years,” until after Armageddon, before marrying. He interpreted this to mean just two or three years, instead of an indefinite time period. Thus, the Korean brothers believed that they had just a few months left to preach, then they would suffer arrest, and while imprisoned, Armageddon would strike.

A few weeks later the newspapers began to attack the organization and referred to Brother Rutherford as a “crazy pacifist.” When Junzo Akashi’s son and another Japanese brother refused military training in January 1939, Akashi himself was summoned to the Japanese army headquarters in Tokyo to explain why. Arrests of the brothers followed​—in Japan on June 21, in Taiwan on June 22, and in Korea on June 29. Many Witnesses repeatedly spent time in prisons until the end of World War II in 1945.

EARLY INTEGRITY KEEPERS

Sister Chang Soon-ok, a former Catholic who learned the truth by reading The Golden Age, tells us what developed after that last meeting in Seoul with Junzo Akashi. “Those who heard his talk went out to their assigned territory with many books,” she begins. “I went to Pusan and preached. At dawn of June 29, 1939, a policeman arrested me. Nine of us sisters were locked in the same cell with common criminals. It was hot and dirty, and it stank. We were jailed for one year before we were even brought to trial.

“In prison they forced the prisoners to worship the emperor every morning. Because we refused, they handcuffed one hand behind our back with the other hand drawn over our shoulder. Sometimes they put double handcuffs on us, and sometimes two persons were chained together, back-to-back. During that time they had to change our handcuffs to the front each time we had a meal. Finally, after seven months, they gave up and took the chains off.

“After our regular sentences were finished, four of us sisters were held in a protective custody camp in Ch’ungju as incorrigibles. One guard told the sisters that everyone in that camp was due to be executed within a few days. Then suddenly the war ended, and we were finally released on August 16, 1945. To this day I get filled with emotion when I think about all those years in prison.”

The Ok family was also among those arrested. Lee Jung-sang, the wife of the oldest brother, Ok Ryei-joon, relates their experience.

“When I was no more than a spiritual babe, baptized less than two years, the police from Seoul took my husband and his younger brother, Ok Ji-joon, off to prison,” she recalls. “At that time most of the Korean brothers and sisters were arrested and eventually were put into Sodaemun prison in Seoul. The police again confiscated all the Society’s publications​—or so they thought!

“While we were still free, my sister-in-law, Kim Bong-nyo, and another sister, Kim Kyung-hui, and I went to the Society’s storeroom and took all the literature we could carry, as it was in our mind to place as much of it as we could before we ourselves were arrested. We went north to Pyongyang, and while working there, we too were arrested in November 1939 on the grounds of disturbing the peace and distributing books that were banned. We were jailed in the Tongdaemun police station and later moved to Sodaemun prison where the other sisters were. Altogether, 38 brothers and sisters were in prison at that time.”

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH

Sister Park Ock-hi, who is presently a special pioneer at age 86 and another of those faithful ones who had been imprisoned, recalls those difficult days.

“After spending all winter in Kyŏngsang Province in southern Korea preaching the good news, we came home to Seoul in February 1939,” she says. “And my husband, Choi Sung-kyu, was immediately arrested by the police from the Tongdaemun police station in Seoul. The police charged him with refusing to worship at the Shinto shrine. During his 20 days in jail, he contracted typhoid fever, and they transferred him to a hospital. After 40 days in the hospital, he was released, only to be caught up in the arrests of the brothers that took place in June 1939.

“My husband’s brother-in-law had a position under the Japanese government, and he sent a lawyer to effect his release from prison. The lawyer told my husband that the only way he could arrange his release was for him to worship at the Shinto shrine. My husband rejected his offer on the spot and told him never to come to see him again. My husband then wrote me asking, ‘Who sent the lawyer? Keep awake! Read Romans 8:35-39.’ This letter greatly encouraged all of us on the outside, and the new ones were determined to continue to praise Jehovah.

“Later, in September 1941, I was arrested again but held for only 15 days. I was told that since my husband was being released from prison, I should bring 500 won ($250, U.S.). I borrowed the money and went to the prison. It was a dark, cold night. I found my husband lying on the ground, covered with a white sheet, more dead than alive. They had imprisoned him for two and a half years and now demanded 500 won to release him in this condition! My husband, at age 42, died eight hours later.

“I was arrested for the fourth time in September 1942 and this time ended up in Sodaemun prison in Seoul along with other imprisoned sisters. There we had to endure indescribable torture.”

The female guard would get angry with these sisters for not worshiping the Japanese emperor. It created extra work for her. For each meal she had to change their handcuffs and chains. But obviously she noticed the faithfulness of these dear sisters. Amazingly, over 20 years later she began to study the Bible, was reunited with these sisters at a district convention, and was baptized in 1970.

The brothers were interrogated time and again as the authorities sought ways to prosecute them. They were asked: “Is it true that all nations are under the influence of the Devil? Is our great Imperial Japan included? Are you an American spy? When will Armageddon come?” The brothers answered the last question by saying: “After the preaching work is done.” Next the authorities would charge: “By your preaching you are actually urging Armageddon’s coming, which means you are urging our Imperial Japan’s destruction. So you are violating the law of public order.” Many of the brothers were then arrested and thrown into prison for two to four years.

Five of the 38 imprisoned died faithful while in prison, including Moon Tae-soon, who had been taking care of the work under the Japan branch overseer.

AFTER WORLD WAR II, DISILLUSIONMENT

Junzo Akashi was responsible for the work in Korea from the time it was placed under the Japan branch in 1926. After their release in 1945, the brothers looked to him for direction. However, Akashi, who had been leading an immoral life and had compromised the truth under pressure, had left God’s organization.

The Korean brothers were disturbed, though, because they had believed his inaccurate explanation of the “few years” left before Armageddon. That small group of brothers became divided. Some, strong in faith, believed they should continue to preach; others lost their zeal.

For several years after 1939, there was no contact with Jehovah’s organization. The brothers felt abandoned. Many of them believed that what they were experiencing in Korea was happening to the entire organization around the world. They had no information that the Watch Tower Society was still operating, let alone that their brothers in other countries had held fast to their integrity during World War II or that increases were beginning to take place. With no one to take the lead and no contact with the organization, true worship in Korea slowed down almost to a complete stop.

[Picture on page 143]

Lee Shi-chong, a colporteur who traveled through rural areas by bicycle in the early 1930’s to spread the Kingdom message

[Picture on page 146]

Ok Ung-doo, Ok Ryei-joon, and Ok Ji-joon (left to right) faced severe trials during World War II

[Picture on page 153]

Choi Sung-kyu suffered severely unto death in 1941 because of his beliefs, but his faith was a great encouragement to his brothers