Place of Birth: Seoul, South Korea
Last Address: Dorim-dong, Seoul, South Korea
Date of Abduction: June 25, 1950
Place of Abduction: Seoul National University College of Medicine
Occupation: Student of the Department of Nursing, Seoul National University
Education: Department of Nursing, Seoul National University (entered
in 1949), ROK Nursing Academy (graduated in 1952), Department of
Education, Chung-Ang University College of Education (graduated in
1959), Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University
(Master’s Degree 71st class )
Career: Lieutenant of ROK Nursing Academy (1956), Director of Nursing Service and Founding Member of Korea Hospital (1966), Research Officer of Department of Scholarship and Founder of the Department of Nursing in Korean National Open University (1984), Principal of Seokgwan Middle School (1993~1998)

Date of Inrerview: June 8, 2005
Place of Interview: Interviewee’s home
Interviewee: Park Myoung-ja
Interviewer: Jeong, Soo-rim


Path of Abduction and Escape
Detained in Seoul National University Hospital in Hyehwa-dong ⇒ Volunteered to Work for the Newly-Opening Hospital (36 Army Hospital for the North Korean Army) ⇒ Training Camp for Two Weeks (now Pungmoon Giris' High School) ⇒ Cheongnyangni (on tram) ⇒ Cheorwon (on train) ⇒ Icheon, Gangwon-do (on foot) ⇒ Gangwon-do, PyeongYang (on foot) ⇒ Escaped near the Amnok River (on foot) ⇒ PyeongYang (on foot) ⇒ Returned Seoul following ROK Army’s advance into PyeongYang
Q. What was the situation like during the Korean War?
I was a medical student at College of Nursing, Seoul National University back in that time. The
Student National Defense Corps had just been established and I was trained for a month by the student
National Defense Corps of the Seoul National University. I remember I was the flagman for the medical university because I happened to be tall. I had an appendicitis surgery a week before and the day the war broke out was when I had to get the stitches removed.
I stopped by the Myungdong Cathedral for the 11 o’clock mass after going to the hospital where I heard a strange announcement from the radio. “All ROK army soldiers! Return to your units, immediately,” sounded the megaphone. The priest, realizing the gravity of the situation, warned me to go home but I returned to school, worried. It was around 2 in the afternoon and the friends who were still in the Student National Defense Corps training were gathered together. About 30 executive officers divided into 3 Nissan trucks and the Student national Defense Corps members, consisting of medical students and nursing school students, collected boric acid solution, cresol, cotton, red medicine, iodine tincture, and bandages because there were no emergency kits at that time and then we headed to Uijeongbu.

We were almost passing the Miari hill as armed soldiers came into sight. We drove up the hill a little more but the soldiers were blocking all vehicles and they told us to go back. We returned to Hyehwa-dong and it was almost 5 in the evening. People had already begun packing for evacuation of the city.

I went to the auditorium in DongSung Middle School in Hyehwa-dong under the orders of a soldier. The floor was filled up with injured army soldiers. I was soaked in rain and everybody wanted us to treat the patients. Frankly, we had never treated wounded people before so we were just sticking around as an American doctor arrived at 7 in the evening. The doctor handed us a bunch of bandages, telling us to cut them up and use them on the patients. While I was busily following orders, an American ambulance came at around 8 and told us to raise our hands if we wanted to follow them to the American army base. Some guys raised their hands and I decided to head home but they wanted to divide the patients into half and have one half go to the Hyehwa-dong Women’s Medical School and have me take the rest to the Seoul National University Hospital. When I took the patients to the hospital, all the civilian patients were pushed back and the wounded soldiers were given seats in the front row.

A professor in the anatomy class came to the operating room. He, who used to teach us, told us to go to the basement and hide. We lifted the small tin cover and hid under it. We thought it was strange how the professor kept on smoking. We were wondering what he was doing in the danger of getting caught by the North Korean troops. I heard the revving of motorbikes followed by a few gunshots. A stranger came up to the smoking professor and said “You’ve done a good job, comrade,” while shaking hands. The professor was a communist. The guy who shook his hands with the professor soon put on a white gown with a gun and then I realized he had also worked at the Seoul National University Hospital but left about a month ago to fight in the war. He must have been sent down as director. We were trapped and they called us after a while. Then the head nurse in the operation room handed me a chain of keys to the operation room. She told me to unlock the door and as I was hesitating, the nurse had disappeared.

And then the operations began. As important as removing bullets, we took care of the little things from feeding, prescribing medicines, and cleaning because we weren’t capable of conducting the actual surgeries. A senior student, Kang Yun-hee, called me. I followed her and she told me we should remove the dead body of a ROK army soldier who had been shot. Terrified about it, I asked, “why me?” and then she replied “you’re the only one I can talk to so let’s just do it.” We carried the body in a sack and placed it in the corpse chamber. Completely covered in blood, I had no reason to question his death. I went back to the operation room to do work as the captain of the North Korean troops called for me at around 2 in the morning. I went to see him and he asked me where I hid the dead body so I told him that I left it in the corpse chamber and he started beating me, reasoning that I wasn’t telling the truth. Regardless, I was telling the truth so I told him there was nothing more to say. He blindfolded me with a towel and the captain was hurling out that he should shoot me to death. Then he threatened me that he would kill me if I didn’t tell the truth. I thought I was going to die a martyr so I drew a cross and prayed. They asked me if I had any last words. I told them, “I don’t have any last words but do contact my family and tell them that you killed me,” and I was waiting to die. I heard two big gunshots and I thought I had died. I heard some fuss and they threatened to kill me again, for real this time. I told them to do so but they really believed me this time and they untied the towel that was blocking my sight.

They told me to go do some work at the Women’s Union. I told them I didn’t know what it was so I’d rather run errands as a nurse so they let me go. Then Kang Yun-hee, who carried the dead body with me, was called and hacked and eventually was made the Chairman of the Women’s Union. It was not her decision to make but it was by force. She assumed the role of training people and I, brutally beaten up, could only help at the operation room.

I was passing by the corpse chamber to collect my meal as I felt horrified. I ran into the cafeteria and there was a guy called Mr. Jin who worked at the student cafeteria. “What’s wrong kid?” he asked. I told him that the swinging trees scared me and he asked me how the trees could be swinging when there was no wind outside. As he was speaking, the dead soldier whose body we left in the corpse chamber walked in to the cafeteria, alive apparently. He quickly grabbed something to eat and Mr. Jin took his blood-stained uniform off and I brought some clothes that the doctors had left in the operation room. After the soldier got changed, I hid the two of them in the operation room and secretly snuck meals to them. They made it outside alive not too long after that.

Some time had passed and now North Korean patients came. There were the Korean army soldiers on one side and the North Korean soldiers on the other. This one time, a student, probably around 16, came in injured. He was the brother of an older friend of mine and he was taken by the North Korean troops. He barely escaped from them after having met his sister.

And then Chinese troops came. They filled up the hall in the hospital and there was a happening one day. An officer of the North Korean troops came in search of the Korean army’s sick ward. There was a captain named Kang Dong Won, 28 years old. He was a patient who received a surgery that removed a bullet from his stomach. When I guided the North Korean soldier to where the patient was, he fired at the captain. His previous condition was so critical that we thought he couldn’t last another hour. The North Korean officer misfired his first shot so he pulled his trigger twice more and the captain finally rolled off the bed and died. The officer continued with the killing going from room to room.

The situation turned worse and we were left with many North Korean patients. We reluctantly had to place them in the same room as the Korean army patients. There, a North Korean patient asked, “What division are you in, comrade?” Unable to answer the question, the North Korean soon realized that they were South Korean soldiers. Everybody was armed regardless of being a North Korean or a South Korean. As expected, guns were fired and the university hospital became a war zone. South Korean soldiers tried to flee, still firing, and the North Koreans followed, also firing at them. Many Korean soldiers were killed then. The current memorial tower was built back then for these deaths. We piled all the dead bodies and erected the memorial tower.

We had more patients coming in and we decided to divide up the hospital. We suggested that we would set up the 36-Military Hospital and get out of here. I actually attempted to escape a number of times, due to poor conditions, but the armed guards who were aligned in 1 meter intervals to surround us prevented me from doing so. My friend tried to climb over the fence but was shot in the back and injured the spine before he eventually died even after having morphine injections.

At last, I gave up the idea of escaping and applied for the foundation of the 36th Military Hospital, hoping for a chance to escape from there.

After deciding to found the hospital, I was trained for about 15 days at where Poongmoon Girls High School is now. One day, we were summoned at midnight and they carried us on a cart. We arrived at the Cheongnyangni Station and they loaded us on a train. I was never able to escape in the middle and the sector of the train I was in was packed with North Korean army patients. I was the only student and I was wearing a nurse uniform. I had been spotted at the training at Poongmoon Girls High School because I was quicker, athletic, and optimistic. There were only two operation kits for appendicitis at the Seoul National University Hospital and I had one of them with me. I had been carrying it hidden in other medical supplies.

A series of bombings began after departing from the Cheongnyangni Station. Our train was the target. I got off the train, most of the patients were killed, and the rest were carried to a nearby elementary school. What kind of nonsense is this? The American troops started bombing again. Everybody escaped, thinking they would get killed if they stayed. They crowded into a nearby mountain. I lied still in the garden of the school, thinking I would get killed either way. A plane flew over, scouting the area, and I could see the face of the pilot. The pilot pointed at the mountain, where he saw a large crowd, and the scouting plane fired at the mountain, which burned and killed everybody.

We went back to Joonghwa with the patients who could at least walk. We stopped by Ichon in Gangwondo on our way and a lady with a black skirt and a white Korean jacket welcomed us. She prepared us a meal and it was the first meal I had there. I was really excited and I drew a cross and began eating. A nun saw that and came up to me asking if I was catholic. I nodded and she asked me if I was here on my own will or if I was forced to come. I told her it was the latter and then she asked me if I wanted to go home. “Of course I want to go home. I was trying to sneak out but I didn’t get the chance,” I told her and she took me to a traditional Chosun house.

When she lifted the wooden floor, there was a trail to the basement decorated with a statue of Virgin Mary and everything you could find at a chapel. I said to the priest who was in the basement that I’d like to make a confession although I didn’t know if I could make it. He accepted it and he blessed me afterwards. Then he told me that the nuns and the officers here can help me escape so I went back to the nun. There was a house amid the mountain and the lady who lived in that house also came. About 50 years old, her son was about to become a priest after having graduated from a Christian school. She showed me a picture of him and asked me to pass her words to her son when I get to Seoul. After the conversation, a male officer and the nun led me through an escape route but we were caught from behind. The officer and the nun were shot killed at the site. I can’t put in words the trauma I felt at that moment.

Then I followed back to Joonghwa. There were still heavy bombings when I arrived there late at night. I tried to avoid the bombing by hiding in sewages. When the bombing was over, I still didn’t go out on the streets. I thought I could escape after hiding here for a while but now they were looking for me because I didn’t show up. Somebody shouted a direction that he thought I went to. Then I was surprised when someone approached me, saying “Here you were, comrade.” I acted as if I was injured from the debris of the bombs. He helped me stand up and I had no other choice but to follow again. So we arrived in PyeongYang.


Q. What was the date when that happened?
I don’t even remember the date. We were out since July, however. We didn’t know how far we travelled but we just tagged along. We knew nothing, not even the date. We would hide on top of trees or in piles of straw to take a nap during the day and we marched during the night so we don’t even recall the way. That’s how we made it to PyeongYang. It was around 2 in the morning when they sent armies of middle school students because they ran out of soldiers.

Now they had to give us some food but they couldn’t find any place for food, apparently. They could only repeat quarrelling, “Give us some food, give us this and that.” Able to get nothing, they shot a cow that was next to them with a gun. They offered us the cow with blood pouring out from its head. It was disgusting to even look. We used to pick grass or cabbage to eat on the side of the walk and that’s how much we were starving. Some people even gave up trying to keep up with us. Then they were offered to get on the cart and when they tried to get on the cart, they were shot and killed. Only the ones who could walk were able to follow the group. So we made our way past PyeongYang towards the Yalu River.

We were told that the hospital was in Hamheung but when we headed that way, we thought the enemies might have retreated. There was a nurse named Sim Kyung-ae who was a health graduate from JoogAng University. The daughter of a pastor who was a few years older than me, I never let go of her hands trying to figure out a way to escape. I would ask her, “Should we escape right now?” then she would tell me “If we get caught, we’re dead.” Then I would say, “We dead either way. We might as well do less suffering before we die.” Before we could even put our words into action, someone happened to overhear our conversation. They tied our hands together so that we couldn’t do anything. I smiled at Sim Kyung-ae, saying “Look, now we’re tied up and we either have to live or die together. So let’s just run.” She would still refuse to do so.

We finally arrived at the Yalu River and there was a Sorghum field nearby. It must have been fall because of all the harvesting. The Sorghums were stacked high up. They told us to go to the restroom if anyone needed to. It was a dark night and I asked Sim Kyung-ae to go to the restroom with me. So we went around the back and untied ourselves. “When you go to the restroom, I’m going to run away and you’ll be shot for having let me go so follow me if you want to live,” I scared her and she decided to follow me. We dashed our way through the Sorghums. A moment later, they began looking for us. Then, somebody told them that we went around the front and that we couldn’t have went anywhere with our hands tied together. Perhaps miracles do happen when you want it to happen so much. It’s not something you can force. We were able to keep more distance from the group and I told her, we have to go to Seoul no matter what but we kept heading in the opposite direction. We didn’t know where anything was but we just followed the path. We were hoping for something to appear as we traveled in the opposite direction until dawn.

The sun had risen and there was a mountain in which soldiers dug a hole and they were staying in there. It was scary to see the North Korean troops all over the place. Then I realized something was not right. My instincts told me to run so I started running with Sim Kyung-ae. We came to a house with the cross hanging in the front. We ran in, thinking it was either a church or a chapel but we were stopped by a captain of the North Korean army, who asked us where we were going. I lied to him that we were looking for a hospital but got lost. He told us to go elsewhere but we ignored and kept running towards the house. He pulled out his gun but we shoved him and made it inside the house.

I was standing inside an elongated room with a pastor, his wife, and a kid who looked like a 6 or a 7-year-old. We begged for help but they yelled at us to leave or else they would all get killed. If we head back out, the soldiers will be there and we were in panic when I saw a fireplace. I first shoved Sim Kyung-ae into the fireplace. I never knew North Korean fireplaces were so deep. I went in after her, only upside down so that I could see what was going on outside.

The North Korean soldier followed us into the house and the pastor’s family told him that they haven’t seen anyone come in here. Then he threatened to kill them, poking every place in the kitchen with his rifle to see if we were hiding somewhere. Not being able to find us, he threw a bunch of pine twigs into the fireplace and started a fire below it. Now the smoke was filling up and it was burning my face but I didn’t make a sound in desperation to live. He finally left, thinking we were not here. When we jumped out of the fireplace, Sim Kyung-ae was fine but my forehead had swollen and my eyelids had stuck together. I couldn’t see anything and she started leading me from then and on.

I was starving to death and there was blood of the North Korean soldiers everywhere. The dead bodies carried emergency rations called grape sugar powder. We eased our hunger by dissolving that in bloody water, since there was no drinking water, and eating. We made it to PyeongYang like that. We approached a huge tile-roofed house upon arriving. When we entered the house, there were Catholic nuns in black skirts and white Korean coats. Although I’m carrying it right now, I also carried beads with me back then. I went up to the nuns, who had noticed my beads, and I cried for help. They were digging an air-raid shelter as they told me that they couldn’t help us with the North Korean artillery troops stopping by here for meals three times a day. We insisted that we would dig the air-raid shelter and we have nowhere else to go. Then they gave us some food and told us that they would ask the head nun. They also gave us black skirts and white Korean coats for us to change into. Then they gave us some work to do, which was cooking rice and bringing food from the kitchen. Later, the North Korean soldiers came and asked us where we were from. The head nun quickly replied that we were two nuns from the countryside brought here to help the busy nuns here. Fortunately, they bought the lie and I couldn’t feel my legs.

So we decided to stay there for a while and then the army troops entered the city. The 1st division army came in and the nuns led us outside, carrying a flag, when we saw the marching band enter. When I saw the 1st division army marching band, I saw the teacher who was the conductor of the Myungdong Cathedral choir. I darted towards him and yelled “Mr. Conductor!” Surprised, he asked me what I was doing here so I told him that I was captured from school and I also told him the chapel I stayed in. He told me that since he’s marching right now, that he would come by at night so that I should stay put and not go anywhere. When he really visited in the evening, I told him everything and he gave me his word that he would contact the 8th division army near Sibil-ri, Hwanghaedo and helped me go home.

Sim Kyung-ae’s parent’s home was in Sibil-ri, Hwanghaedo, too, where her father and mother lived. Major Hyun let us use his jeep so we drove there. After being investigated from the Ministry of Information, we received stamps that would let us enter Seoul. I was suffering from pleurisy, which was totally cured after a month of stay at her house. After then, the Ministry of Information took me to Seoul. I was investigated again at a police station and then came the 1-4 retreat. The Korea Nursing Military Academy was recruiting back then so I decided to enroll to the Nursing Military School and the Korean War broke out while I was working there.

Q. Did you continue to work as Nursing Officer after that?
After serving as a Nursing Officer Lieutenant, I returned to Seoul National University and graduated before working at the Gyeonggi Nursing School. Then I was invited as a Nursing Director at the Korea Hospital, demonstrated toxic chemical drills in middle and high schools, spent 10 years as a junior supervisor in the Assembly of Education, 10 years as a senior supervisor, and then I established the department of nursing while I was working as a researcher at the University of Broadcasting and Communication. Before retiring, I assumed the principal role at Sukgwan Middle School. Now I do community services and also teach in lectures.

Q. What happened to your co-escaper, Sim Kyung-ae?
I wasn’t able to see her ever since. I don’t know where she lives or if she’s passed away. I want to find her.

Q. Her family was in Hwanghaedo but didn’t she stay there?
No, I came with her. Why would we stay at Hwanghaedo, it’s such a frightening place. Her family couldn’t come together because they had to receive an identification confirmation stamp from the Ministry of Information and show it to the local police office. They could live if they were confirmed as not being communists after a series of investigation. That’s the certificate of residency. Her family couldn’t make it because they were from the North. Anyway, such people suffered from poor living conditions. They were mostly ill due to having been emotionally devastated, injured from climbing over fences, or from being beaten up. Being an optimist that I am, I tried to let go of all the emotional upsets whereas many others could not.

Q. Were there a lot of people when you left for PyeongYang from Chungnyangni?
Every Seoul National University Hospital staff member was in the group that included many well-known professors and doctors. Some had to rely on canes. When we said we couldn’t go any further due to sore foot, maybe thinking that we were trying to escape, they told us that our parents were also following us in the back. It was natural for me to think that my parents were indeed following us from the back because I was caught too so I kept on walking and walking.

Q. How did you manage to eat when they captured you?
Well there was absolutely nothing to eat. We even ate raw cow flesh along with its blood. We seldom undusted and ate cabbage leftovers on the ground. Even the North Korean soldiers didn’t have anything to eat so how could we have found food? There was absolutely none.

Q. Did injured North Korean soldiers also accompany the group?
Yes, but only the ones who could walk. The rest were killed on the way so at the end, almost everybody was killed. Nobody was able to make it to PyeongYang. They called on the ones who couldn’t walk anymore or injured and shot them. It didn’t matter if one was North Korean army, Korean army, patient, hospital staff; they killed everyone who was sick.

Q. How many were left by the time you arrived at PyeongYang?
Not too many. I couldn’t really tell because it was too dark. I was on the 36 Military Hospital side and the other side had people from the SNU Hospital. I later realized that we had left first and then the SNU team followed. We were taking a rest, all exhausted, and then Professor Kim Si Chang, a famous medical professor at Seoul National University, appeared. “Professor!,” I called out then he asked me how I ended up in here. I told him that I came through Poongmoon Girls High School. I remember I helped him walk by supporting his arm. Many other Kim Si Chang-famous people also were in the group, who each carried a cane or a cup with hands tied to the hand of an adjacent person. The North Korean troops closely accompanied those whose hands were not tied. Most of them were aged over 50 so they couldn’t manage long distance walks and they would even collapse during bombings. I’ve witnessed many of them die, and Professor Kim Si Chang was not an exception. Others volunteered to starve themselves to death, preferring it over such demanding torture.

Q. According to the information collected by American informants, the people were brought to Cheongnyangni on a streetcar and then were taken North by train, which went as far as Wonsan back then. But did you only go as far as Cheolwon by train?
Yes, we went to Cheolwon. We got on the train at Cheongnyangni but we had to walk to PyeongYang from Cheolwon because of the bombing.