Two classes of soldiers
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By Nam Sang-so
Some soldiers are daring enough to live with their own patriotic sentiments and they create fascinating episodes that sometimes lead us civilians to mull what is right and wrong.
``Are you there?” shouted an American soldier in the dark at the DMZ. Soon he heard unintelligible Korean and found himself surrounded by several shiny bayonets pointing at him. ``I’m Sergeant Charles Jenkins of the United States Army,” then he recited his dog tag number. ``I want to see your country in the North,” the 25-year-old American told North Korean soldiers in English. ``Excuse me” said Jenkins and peed. Then he was arrested. He thought his plan had succeeded.
That was in January 1965. After drinking 10 cans of beers, the sergeant set off on his nightly patrol of the DMZ and crossed into North Korea. He wasn’t a communist sympathizer he just didn’t want to be transferred to the wrong war in Vietnam. He carried out his plan in the hope that he’d be sent to Russia and then eventually back to the United States. But Jenkins immediately regretted his actions because he found his Pyongyang stay unbearably difficult.
Later Jenkins taught English at a university but North Koreans didn’t like his thick southern accent because the country had adopted British English. In 1980, Jenkins met Miss Hitomi Soga, a 21-year-old Japanese nurse who had been abducted by North Korean agents. Falling in love is the only freedom the people in the North have, so the boy from Texas and the girl from Japan married and produced two daughters in Pyongyang.
After assurances of protection from the Japanese government, he arrived in Japan with his daughters, and was met by his wife in July 2004. After spending some 39 years in the communist country, Jenkins surrendered himself to U.S. Army Camp Zama in Japan. He was sentenced to 30 days’ confinement and received a dishonorable discharge.
Jenkins and his family settled on Sado Island in Japan, the home of his wife. He now works as a tour guide and smiles with visitors for photo sessions contributing to the island’s tourism. ``My life in the North was a bad dream. I’m very happy now,” the 72-year-old repeats to tourists.
Hiroo Onoda is now 91 and runs a cattle farm in Brazil. He was a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army and remained in the jungles of the Philippines until 1974 after being sent there during World War II. He was ordered to resist the Americans until given new orders so stayed 29 years after Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945. He had no problem finding food because bananas, coconuts and wild animals were abundant.
For almost 30 years, he didn’t trust that the war had ended. The Japanese government air dropped leaflets asking Onoda to surrender. He saw them but ironically the prosperous photos of Japan rather assured Onoda that Japan would never surrender and ultimately he continued his solitary resistance because he hadn’t received new orders. The loyal soldier believed that the leaflets were a fraudulent act by the enemy.
He cried out “Banzai Emperor!” on his first step back on Japanese soil. President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines pardoned Onoda praising his patriotic devotion and returned the bloodied Japanese sword Onoda had surrendered to him.
The author is a retired architect-specifications writer who resides in Seoul and New Jersey. His email address is sangsonam@gmail.com.