BAE SANG-HA

Reference: Monthly magazine 「Hope」
Author/Compiler: Bae Sang-ha (Former Chief Editor of 「Yonhap Newspapers」)
Publisher: Jayu pyeongron-sa (Liberty Reviews) Corp.
Date of Publication/Serialization: March, April, May 1955 (three-time serialized)



How I Escaped

-The survival story of an abductee-

Bae Sang-ha (Former Chief Editor of 「Yonhap Newspapers」)

After being taken to the Political Defence Bureau with Park Yeol from Seoul on July 20, 1950, the author was imprisoned in Seodaemun Prison 3rd ward, cell No.24, (along with three others - an official from the ministry of finance, Lee, a police officer, Kim and Dong-guk University's dean of inspection department, Son Young-seok) until September 16 for about 70 days. 70 days' imprisonment was filled with the pain of loneliness, monotony, humiliation and beating as well as future of despair, devastating starvation and severe malnutrition.


Loneliness, Monotony and Humiliation

The date I was captured with Park Yeol by the red officials after not being able to escape from Seoul, was July 12, 1950. It was about 20 days after the Korean War broke out. I was taken to so-called Political Defence Bureau, which was a 3 or 4-story red-bricked house right across from the national library on Namdaemun street, and after I was investigated with Park Yeol inside a dark room at night on the third floor of this house, I was taken to be imprisoned in Seodaemun prison with about 40 other comrades on a truck at night of July 15. This was the last time I saw Park Yeol. The cell I was imprisoned in was cell No.24 of 3rd ward, and I spent about 70 days until the night of September 16 with three other people - an official from the ministry of finance, Lee, a police officer, Kim and the dean of inspection department, Son Young-seok - in this minute cell. In fact, everyday went by as if there would be no next day, for the situation I faced was like being sentenced to life without any trial or judgment delivery. I had no idea of whether the cell door that was shut tight would ever open. The little hope I had in the beginning started to fade as days and months went by, and I was only left with despair that I would never get out of the cell alive. Not only loneliness, monotony, humiliation and beating were hard, but the most unbearable things for me were the future of despair, devastating starvation and severe malnutrition. Although I was given three meals a day, one meal, in fact only consisted of a handful of boiled wheat mixed with pebbles that I had to pick out grain by grain in order to eat.


What is Reactionary crime?

The small "meals" we had were not shameful enough; when one grain of wheat fell down to the floor, we were eager to pick it up and did not feel any shame about it. Such was the reformation of communism, destroying a human being's every bit of conscience and shame little by little for one small material. However, there were some exceptional occasions when the monotony of the cell life disappeared; one such case was the lecture of red prison guard under the title of reformation, beginning with the phrase 「Comrades in the cell, listen to what I say.」, going on with cursing about flaws of Republic of Korea as well as emphasizing how Democratic People's Republic of Korea was like earthly heaven and always ending with 「You also try to become a faithful person of People's Republic of Korea after the reformation as soon as possible!」.
If such was the case, giving only few grains of wheat to cause malnutrition was reformation and keeping people in a cell without any trial was reformation and executing people by firing squad from time to time was reformation. 「Damnit, with one more such reformation, they will wipe human beings out!」 was Son's silent protest out of resistance. If such protest was said out loud, awaited the punishment for reactionary crime, which meant causeless death.

Another thing that broke our solitude was the cleaning time of honey buckets in every morning. After breakfast time, from the 1st ward on the other side, came the sound of honey bucket cart, and whenever this sound was heard, we used to cling to the window to see the carts coming. Carts were pulled by prosecutor, Lee Ju-shin from front, and pushed by a member of KPK musical troupe, Kim Hae-song, and we never grew tired of waiting for this time. I wonder how prosecutor Lee thinks of the reactionary crime, whether Kim Hae-song hums popular songs now…. Ah! They are now all gone, both prosecutor Lee and Kim Hae-song, along with everyone else….


New Fear

In the early morning of September 16, three days after being given two chipped bowls, suddenly there was an unusual commotion in the 3rd ward, and investigators of political defense bureau (or plain clothes officers?) from up and downstairs were making lists of us with restless and nervous behaviors and voices. This list making was usually done by prison guards, and it was the first time that anyone from political defense bureau came to do this job firsthand. There must have been a reason they were rushing like this in such early morning. Without any long hesitation, I came to conclude that this meant the end for all of us. In my opinion, the reason for the political defense bureau to make a precise list was that they lost the list they had made in past, therefore had to make a new list and put their final action for us within a day. The final action would be either killing all of us or kidnapping us to North Korea. Either way, today I, for the first and last time, could leave for outside through this fast shut iron door, because even though they were going to kill us all, they would not do such thing in this tiny cell, but kill us outside in the mountain or riverside.


This is How I escaped.


- Unshackling handcuffs with spirit, carrying buckets over shoulder and..Into the pit of despair!

As I had expected, as soon as the sun went down, we could see the comrades from 2nd ward being dragged out one by one. There was loud noise from 1st and 2nd wards, and soon afterward, we heard footsteps coming towards the 3rd ward. Soon, we heard someone saying 「Friends from the cell! All the cell doors will be opened now, so come out to the corridor without holding any object or making any noise, and sit quietly and in order!」. Yes! My dreadful prediction was undoubtedly correct and the end was coming to all of us. Dragged out to the corridor, we sat in pairs, arranged in about 100 pairs under their commands; I was not surprised for I had expected this situation, but most others who had not seen this coming did not have any vague idea of what was going on. However, we all knew the worst incident was happening, and from here and there whispers like 「What is happening? What are they going to do? Where are we being dragged to?」 came out. When I looked around, gray-haired Hwang Ok was sitting in the next line, my alumni from Sungkyunkwan University, Lee Neung-seok, Lee Ui-shik were sitting across, and Pastor Yoo, who set me up and informed against me was sitting far over there. I ordered my cell mate Son to bring four reliable youths to us, paired myself up with Cha Gu-shik(an official from Jong-no Youth Corp.) on my left side, and paired Son with a kid from student association(I do not know his name, but he was a friend of Son) in front of me, and in front of them were friends of Son who were officers from Armed Force(I do not know their names, either). These six people were paired up along with other people. Such was how we were lined up.

When a number of platoons of hundred people were arranged, red officials started binding us, and when I saw their metal shackles - so-called padlocks - in their hands, I sank into despair as if the sky fell upon me. The cuffs were far from what I had expected and broke my hope of escape. I had expected that we would be bound with ropes, not with metal shackles like padlocks, and had not thought of any method of breaking or opening such shackles. The fragments of bowls in our pockets might have barely managed to cut the ropes, let alone these metal shackles! They bound my left arm with Cha's right arm securely like the others , and threaded a thick rope from the front to the back of the line through the holes in our metal shackles, making us look like a string of herring in two lines. I closed my eyes and sighed upon the sky. I blamed god. I felt despaired by my stupidness and folly after sensing my one whole day's plan was coming to nothing. There was no time to think of any way to gain freedom. 「Stand up! Follow me!」 A stern order was given.


The lines of living hell

From the beginning of the line, the number of people in each platoon was counted, and through my mental calculation, the total number added up to be approximately 6300. When they were counting the number, the grim reapers with their rifles were keeping their eyes on us. Among the pounding airstrikes, pitch-black darkness, cloud-covered sky without any moonlight or starlight, we were on our journey to real hell step by step. As time went by, I got more nervous. The hope for escape that I had yearned for was totally shattered for I had not thought of being bound by the metal padlocks. In my eyes gazing at the dark, cloudy sky, the sight of my family- my sick wife, aged mother, daughter and two little ones' faces- was 「Closing up」, and I kept hearing spluttering sound of a streetcar from somewhere.
The sound of streetcars came from the 「rail」 made from iron. Poison should be neutralized with poison, iron should be pierced with iron. Then suddenly, the thought of a story I had heard a while ago flashed back into my mind - even a metal shackle can be opened with a small nail. Therefore, I fumbled the ground around me to the farthest I could reach with my free right arm. Nail! Hoping to find a small scrap of nail, I searched around, but there was no way such thing could be found. A piece of nail! A precious nail that could help me attain my hope of escape! Then to my hazy mind, one thought came up that sometime ago in the cell, Son once mentioned he had worked in an iron factory to pay for his school. I poked Son and whispered into his ear while keeping my eyes on the red prison guards,「Son! You have the bowl fragments I gave you earlier, right? Make a nail out of it! Quick!」


The first day of our action

At last, we were dragged out one by one. Before being dragged out, I calculated the approximate number of people in each platoon, and came up to conclude that about 6000 people were bound up there. Outside, I felt the fresh air I had not breathed in for a very long time. Outside the prison door, countless streetcars were waiting for us in the darkness. They must have been planning to take us to somewhere in streetcars. We, six members of escape death band, were standing close to the central door of a streetcar. We decided that I was to think of the place and time of escape, and promised each other never to take any independent action. Six lives were at stake upon my decision. Where and when should we take the action? In my thought, our streetcars were going to take one of either routes, to Cheongryangni or to Seoul station. If we were going to Cheongryangni, we could jump in front of the racecourse and hide into the wide vegetable field right next to it; if we were being taken to Seoul station, we could escape under the train wheel when they were going to make us get on the train! This was the escape plan I had in my mind.

The streetcar passed the Pagoda park before we knew. That meant we were going to Cheongryagni for sure. The racecourse! The last battle field that our lives were depending on! As we passed by Pagoda park, I told Son to open the shackle. From Son's position, he could not free both shackles between me and Cha, so he only managed to open the shackle which bound Cha's hand. As a result, Cha and I could move separately, but I had two shackles dangling from my left arm. As there was not enough time, both shackles could not be unbound. Then racecourse came into our sight! When the towering roof dimly appeared into our sight, I told Son to open the door, and one by one from Son, we started jumping off from the streetcar running at its maximum speed. I was the last one to jump off from the streetcar, and when I jumped off, I was in so much hurry that I could not prepare to jump properly. With one complete 「Tumbling」 in the air, I fell to the hard ground on my both shoulders. The falling left my mind shaken and dizzy, and normally I would not have been able to stand up, but at such life or death moment, I took all the courage I had and managed to run towards the vegetable field, in opposite direction to where the streetcar was going. As I was running, my heart was pounding, imagining someone screaming, 「You rascal! Stop right there!」, but fortunately I did not meet up with anyone while I was dashing to the field, and my death band comrades who had jumped off before me were nowhere to be seen.