When I was court-martialed in 1953, the Korean government did not understand the concept of conscientious objection. Some of us were accused of being Communists, and a few of our fellow Witnesses were beaten to death. Many who were imprisoned as conscientious objectors when they were young men have seen their sons, and even their grandsons, go to prison for the same reason.

In the last several years, the media has given generally favorable coverage to incidents involving the conscientious objection of Jehovah’s Witnesses to participation in the military affairs of any country. One lawyer who had prosecuted a Witness conscientious objector even wrote an open letter of apology for what he had done, and it was published in a well-known magazine.

And I am not the only Korean Witness who has refused military service. In fact, more than 13,000 other Witnesses in succeeding years have taken a similar stand. They have served a total of more than 26,000 years in Korean prisons.