Those who wait, those who never came back (3)
Guksa O Ha-young
P.3, Chosun Daily, Jul. 10, 1964

○ Fourteen years ago on June 27, Guksa's son, who was then working at the Ministry of Transportation, came running home and told Guksa, then a member of the National Assembly, that he had found a way to go to Busan and that they should flee. A Dr. Baek was supposed to come to pick Guksa up, but he never came, and Guksa never made it to Busan. Guksa was wearing summer trousers and a jacket made of ramie and rubber shoes when he was abducted. He was put in a truck made in the Soviet Union and sent over Muhakjae Hill. Fourteen years have passed. His wife, Mrs. Ham, came back to Seoul after fleeing to Busan. She rented a small house in Gongdeok-dong and a shabby little store plastered with paper boxes in Gongdeok Market. She put out about twenty comic books, a can of soy sauce and a can of doenjang (soybean paste). She earned a living from young children paying to read her comic books, and she would feed them warm water as she felt sorry for making them pay. She also sold spoons of doenjang to the poor living in Mapo.

○ Guksa was born on a farm in Pyeongsan,Hwanghae Province. He participated in the Donghak Revolution when he was 18, and then found asylum in Manchuria. This was the beginning of his never-ending activism and the sufferings that came with it. He was 27 years old when he was baptized by an American missionary. He was taught at a Methodist seminary just outside Seodaemun. He was a minister at Jongno Church in Seoul when he became one of 33 signatories to the Korean Declaration of Independence in 1919. Hachon, a Japanese man, was the prosecutor in charge of questioning at SeodaemunPrison at the time.He asked Gugska for the last time, "Are you going to keep participating in the independence movement?" Guksa answered calmly, "Whenever I have the opportunity." He was imprisoned for four and a half years. Afterwards, he was jailed repeatedly, for being involved in the Singanhoe incident, a secret organization under the Gwangju Student Movement, and many other independence movements.

○ Mrs. O is now living with her honest adopted son and five children's grandchildren at Seoul Railway official residence. She believes that the sameMuhakjae Hill that her husband was dragged over at gun-point will lead to heaven, and that her husband will cross it, smiling.