Around August 15 1945 in One Korean Family 〔by Lee Jongyun）

In the end of Ｍarch in 1943, I got a job at Chongjin Ironworks of Nihon Seitetsu (Japanese steel company) at the Chongjin port in Hamgyongbukto with a great dream. I entered the company as an apprentice technician applying to the conscription.

At that time there were a lot of conscripted people because of shorthandedness. They were forced employees. Though there were two ways, applying and forced, in conscription, actually they were not different from each other.

My home town was at Meiji-machi (now Kesandong) in Taegu. My father died of illness when I was 7 years old and my family was my mother, 2 elder sisters, 4 elder brothers and 2 younger brothers. So it was 10 in total and large.

I, the third son, used to doodle on the wall and was scolded by my elder brothers and sisters and forbidden to use pencils, when I was 4 or 5 years old.

In spite of that, I drew something by wooden-pencil in the yard, so my sister hit me. I remember I was a crybaby.

My father ran the shop of western shoe materials on the opposite side of the Taegu police station. There was a signboard of the Kyongbukyo leather shop on the roof of the shop. We had 4 or 5 employees, so our family was well off.

As my eldest brother was still 18 years old after my father's death, we closed the shop. The shop slid down to a small one named the Kyongil leather shop on the center street, but our life didn't get harder.

Once World War II（the Daitoa Senso）broke out, all the leather material was conscripted for the military, then most of the material shops were closed. We had to close the shop, too.

As the war situation became worse, we faced difficulties in our life and my eldest brother was requisitioned for the Chimnampo factory of Nihon Seitetsu in Pyongannamdo and became a worker.

The second brother was also requisitioned for the Aoji artificial oil company in Hamgyongbukto opposite of Vladivostok in Soviet Union. He lost his left foot together with his boot by the boiling oil and burned himself very hard. Although he was under cure for 4 months, he had suffered from pains for ten years.

Finally the forth sister, Lee Kyounghi (Yoko Hara in Japanese name) was still maiden and she faced the crisis to be requisitioned for women volunteer corps that was changed to be wartime comfort women (*1).

At the same time of her graduation from women's art school in Taegu, my mother asked to Mr. Park Inho working in Helongin of Manchu to arrange that her daughter could work in Manchu,　so she was able to escape from the requisition of the devote team.
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*1) The comment is added to this topic by the staff. See here.