Life is a difficult thing, sometimes it writes out such tricks that you are amazed. There are, for example, such cases when soldiers in a war have to fight first for one side, and then for the other. But this character has outdone everyone.
What is such a separate person in world history? A pitiful grain of sand that is unable to influence its fate. When the planet is shaken by historical cataclysms, the whirlwinds of wars and revolutions pick him up and the poor man, who dreamed of living a quiet, calm life in his village, gets an amazing fate, about which, many years later, books and films are made.
It all started with photography
In June 1944, on the first day of Operation Overlord (the Allied landings in Normandy), an American lieutenant took a photograph of a Wehrmacht soldier who surrendered. The Americans then took thousands of prisoners, but this one was special: it clearly showed Asian features. "A captured Japanese man in a Nazi uniform tells his name and surname to an American officer," read the caption under the picture.
In 2005, the South Korean magazine Weekly Korea published a photograph and indicated that the photograph may not be Japanese, but Korean. (For us, these are all Asians - Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Chinese alike, but they are different from each other.)
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The journalists of the largest Korean TV company SBS were interested in how the Korean was blown far away in Normandy and began their investigation. They visited France, Germany, the USA, rummaged through the archives of the Bundestag and the American NARA (US National Archives).
Yes, they said after examining hundreds of documents, this is the Korean Yang Ken Jong, aka Yang Gyeongjong, aka Yang Gyeongjong. Having left for the war in 1938, in 7 years he managed to consistently fight in the armies of the Japanese emperor, the Red Army, the Wehrmacht and, with a rifle in his hand, marched from Korea to northern France.
Korean, loyal subject of the divine Mikado
Yang Gyeongjong was born in 1920 in Korea, then a Japanese colony. In the empire, Koreans were not full citizens. They could not study in higher educational institutions, occupy leading positions, etc. But if a Korean “repainted” himself as a Japanese, he received equal rights with the inhabitants of the metropolis. Many Koreans have taken this path, Yang Ken Jong was one of them.
He changed his surname into Japanese and began to speak Japanese even at home. However, to get rich this was not enough, Ken Jong was and remained a poor man, only now Japanese.
Emperor's army soldier
In 1937, Japan went to war with China. And Ken Jung saw this as his chance. Koreans were not drafted into the Japanese army, but exceptions were made for the "right Koreans" such as Ken Jong. In 1938, Yang volunteered, took an oath of allegiance to the emperor, and went to the mainland to beat the Chinese who dared to oppose the will of the Divine Mikado.
However, in May 1939, the unit, in which the gallant Japanese soldier Yang Ken Chzhon served, ended up in the area of the Khalkhin-Gol River and had to fight not with the Chinese peasants, but with the Red Army. The Japanese soldiers fought to their last breath and shouted "Banzai!" fearlessly rushed under the Soviet tanks. But Yang Ken Jong was not a real Japanese, so he did not rush under the tank, but surrendered.
In September 1939, the Japanese ambassador in Moscow appealed to the Soviet side with a request to end hostilities. On Khalkhin-Gol, the guns ceased to rumble, the Japanese prisoners began to gather home. But Yang Kyung Jeong decided not to return home.
Soldier of the Red Army
Ken Jeong reasoned that he was unlikely to receive a warm welcome in the empire. The divine Mikado will not forgive the Korean for betrayal. He came to the camp commandant and announced that he was a representative of the people oppressed by the Japanese, that he was forcibly driven into the army by the invaders, that he loved the world's first state of workers and peasants with all his heart and dreamed of staying in the USSR forever.
The USSR is a large country and there was a place for one unfortunate Korean in it. Ken Chjon began to put down roots in the Soviet land and gradually "turn brown". When the war began in 1941, he, like all Soviet people, dreamed of an early victory for the Red Army, hated the Nazis and worked for a future victory. In 1942, they brought him a summons, Ken Chzhon put on his tunic and solemnly took the oath of allegiance to the Soviet Motherland and the Workers 'and Peasants' government.
In February-March 1943, the so-called. Third battle for Kharkov. The Soviet and German armies fought for the first capital of Ukraine. The city passed from hand to hand and, in the end, remained with the Germans. During the battle, the Red Army lost over 100,000 people killed, wounded and missing. Private Ken Jong was also on the list of casualties.
Loyal soldier of the Fuhrer
But Ken Jeong didn't die. Having already had the experience of surrender, he raised his hands in time and thereby saved his life. Soon Jan saw that the German POW camp was not a sanatorium at all and was very different from the Soviet one. He made a mournful face and went to the camp commandant.
To the stunned German officer, he explained that he was neither Russian nor Soviet, but a real Japanese, a soldier of the invincible army of the Emperor, an ally of Germany. In 1939, he was wounded, taken prisoner, survived the indescribable torments of Stalin's camps and was forcibly brought here to fight against the army of Hitler, so beloved and respected by him. He hates the Bolsheviks with every fiber of his soul, is ready and willing to fight them to the last drop of his blood. Banzai!
The German nation is renowned for its tendency towards order. Indeed, a soldier of the army of the union state should in no way share the fate of the captured Bolsheviks. They took off the Soviet tunic from Yang Ken Jong and put on the tunic of a Wehrmacht soldier, he took the third oath in his life, this time for loyalty to the Fuhrer and the German army was replenished with another soldier.
However, the Germans remained somewhat uncertain about the sincerity of Ken Chjong's words. The story seemed incredible, impossible to verify. And is this Asian Japanese really? They all look the same. Therefore, the recruit was sent to serve on the Western Front - to distant Normandy, to which Ken Jong was only glad.
Prisoner of war
But all good things come to an end. For Yang Ken Jong, the idyll ended on June 6, 1944, when first bombs fell on his head from the sky, and then paratroopers. Possessing considerable experience in how to surrender, Ken Chung, as soon as he saw an American soldier, happily raised his hands.
Following the trodden path, Ken Chzhon went to the head of the camp and announced that he was a soldier of the Red Army, forcibly forced to fight in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, he hates the Nazis, in his heart he loves Comrade Stalin very much, and even more so the American president.
However, the American officer was not impressed by the speech, and Ken Jong neither had to fight nor serve in the US Army. The slanting German prisoner of war was sent to a camp in Great Britain, where he happily sat until the end of the war. In May 1945 he was thrown out of the gate and said: "Free!"
American citizen
Unlike other prisoners of war who dreamed of returning home as soon as possible after their release, Yang Ken Jong was in no hurry to return home to Korea, rightly believing that neither South nor North Korea would forgive him for desertion and service in the Japanese army. He was not eager to return to Japan or the USSR either.
In 1947, Ken Jong settled in the United States, near Chicago, where he became Yang Kenjon, and lived under this name until the end of his days. Raised two sons and a daughter who had no idea what kind of odyssey their father had. Mr. Kenjon passed away in April 1992.
National Hero of Korea
The story of a veteran of the three armies has become hugely popular in Korea. Books have been written about him, and in 2011 director Kang Jaegyu directed the film My Way, based on Yang Gyeongjung's biography. In the tape, a young Korean man shows miracles of courage and courage, is an example of valor.
In fact, as the simple facts of his biography suggest, Yang Gyeongjong wanted to be a hero the least. The main goal for the terrible seven years for him was simply to survive. In fairness, it should be said that a veteran of the three armies, he never demanded any awards, or the military pension that is due to him under the law, or benefits as a participant in hostilities.
Having survived the terrible seven years of the war, he lived the remaining years quietly and unnoticed. And if an American officer had not taken that picture in June 1944, no one would have known about it, and Korea would not have received its national hero.