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Kim Gu, center, and Kim Shin, right, prepare to cross the 38th parallel (the pre-Korean War boundary between the two Koreas) on April 19, 1948, before attending a joint South-North conference in Pyongyang. |
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"Flying through the Homeland Sky" is a memoir by Kim Shin, a former chief of the Republic of Korea Air Force and the second son of Kim Gu. |
Lt. Gen. Kim Shin was a pioneering fighter pilot and the first Korean to train at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. Born in Shanghai, Kim was sent there as part of a delegation from the Nationalist Chinese Air Force Academy, which he entered in 1944.
After returning to Korea in 1947, he served as one of the founding members of the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and eventually became its sixth chief of staff. But his was a career that almost didn't happen, according to his memoir, "Flying through the Homeland Sky."
When Japan surrendered and effectively ended World War II, Kim was undergoing pilot training at the Northern India Flying Club near Lahore, India. When he heard that Japanese occupation had finally ended after 35 years, he wrote to his father and political titan Kim Gu (1876-1949), the leader of the China-based interim government during the Japanese occupation.
"The Provisional Government will now return to the motherland. Since elder brother is no longer with us, I will come to you and accompany you back to Korea," Kim wrote to his 69-year-old father.
But Kim Gu was adamantly against his son discontinuing his training, even at the risk of losing what was now his only child after the death of an older son. Many lives were lost during pilot training at the time. "Even after we establish a new country, it will take years to nurture well-educated people like you. Since you have already started a career in the Air Force, you must stick to it," Kim Gu wrote back to his son.
"If it hadn't been for my father's insight, I would have returned to Korea immediately after liberation and not trained in the U.S. If so, I wonder how my life would have turned out," Kim Shin writes.
Father's absence
Although his father had been a profound influence throughout his life, Kim Shin spent a parentless childhood. His mother died when he was only 3 and his father was never home. From the age of 3 to 14, Kim Shin lived with his grandmother. Until he returned to Korea in 1947, he said he had never eaten a meal with his father.
The Sept. 4th edition of the Donga Ilbo reported Kim Shin's return to Korea from China. He had come back to an impoverished nation at the verge of division. After having lived most of his life without a country to call his own, returning to Korea was an emotional occasion for him.
"It is hard to describe how moved and happy I am to come back to my country for the first time in 13 years. Because I've been away for so long, my Korean is not very good. But I would like to assist my father with rebuilding the nation. I have been trained in aviation technology. I would like to use my knowledge in this area to safeguard my country," Kim was quoted as saying in the article.
Because Kim Gu is such a towering figure in modern Korean history, one may assume, before reading this memoir, that the writer would devote a considerable portion of it to incidents related to his father. But midway through this book, Kim Gu is assassinated and is hardly mentioned afterwards.
What is impressive about the memoir is that the writer doesn't waste pages glorifying his father's achievements as a pivotal figure in the independence movement from Japan. Nor does he dwell on criticizing those who had been political foes of his father ― particularly those who are suspected of a conspiracy that resulted in his father's 1949 assassination.
Kim Shin writes from the perspective of a man who spent a lifetime serving the nation in the Air Force and government, not merely the son of a statesman who enjoys hero status. The author focuses on recounting the major events in his career in the KORAF and later, as a diplomat and politician during the Park Chung-hee administration.
As the readers follows the stories of Kim Shin's life, they are introduced to intriguing details about political circumstances that resulted in the one tragedy his father tried to stop at all costs ― the division of the Korean Peninsula.
Prelude to national division
Kim Shin served as a secretary to his father, along with Seon Woo-jin who had been with the military arm of the Provisional Government. A main task of Kim Shin was delivering his father's letters to Syngman Rhee (1875-1965), the founding president of the Republic of Korea who led the nation through the Korean War (1950-1953).
It is interesting to learn that Rhee had been a family friend of the Kims from their days in the anti-Japanese movement. Even after Rhee became president, Kim Shin called him "uncle." Rhee sent a set of blankets as a wedding gift when Kim Shin married Lim Yun-yeon in 1948.
Kim Shin writes that his father was furious when Rhee made a speech in 1946 about the need to establish a separate government in the southern half of the peninsula.
The most interesting part in the memoir regarding Kim Gu is the unification talks he held with Kim Il-sung, the founding leader of North Korea, in 1948 in Pyongyang.
Kim Shin was among the delegation that accompanied his father to the North Korean capital.
The then-37-year-old Kim Il-sung paid his respects to the much older Kim Gu, who at the time was 73, and praised him as "a superior figure in anti-Japanese movement."
Kim Shin recalls his impression of the North Korean sentiment about his father's speech at Moranbong Theater: "The congregation clapped passionately when father said he was against a separate government in the South. But it became completely silent when he said he didn't want a separate government in the North, either. They also remained silent when father said unification should be realized through the combined efforts of our people. It was apparent that establishing a unified government would be impossible."
As an Air Force officer, Kim Shin took an interest in studying the Korean People's Army (KPA). During his few weeks in Pyongyang, he secretly took photographs of the KPA at various functions. He recounts a sense of uneasiness when witnessing the capacity of the North Korean military.
"Judging from the photographs, it was apparent that the KPA was well-trained. The KPA had equipped itself with the latest weapons from the Soviet Union. Many of the top-ranking KPA officials had plenty of battlefield experience. They were using Japanese planes, when we had dismantled them."
After returning from Pyongyang, Kim Gu continued his campaign against forming separate governments in the two Koreas. Shortly after his assassination, the Korean War erupted in 1950.
A lengthy part of the memoir is devoted to Kim Shin's experience in the Korean War. This part would be of particular interest to those studying the period.
This memoir is a significant addition to a series of publications on Kim Gu by Dolbegae Publishing, including a popular adaptation of his autobiography "Baekbeomilji."
There is still not a lot of substantial written material on Kim Gu or the Provisional Government. Korean historians weren't taking an interest in Kim Gu until the early 1990s. Critics of the Provisional Government continue to doubt its legitimacy, as colonial powers of the time did not recognize it as a proper administrative entity. The debate over its legal status and achievements continues among Korean historians. The memoir does not shy away from addressing the shortcomings of the Provisional Government ― namely its factional strife.
The memoir loses steam when Kim Shin leaves the KORAF in August of 1962. A few months later, Park Chung-hee appointed him as ambassador to Taiwan. He served eight years in the post and then as minister of transportation.
His time in Taiwan contains some unknown stories about his special relationship with Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek.
