‘We were poor, but i didn’t feel poor.’
Jo Yong-woong – ‘the american’
Jo Yong-woong was one year old when his family fled south by boat from North Korea to Incheon. In 1950, the North Korean army crossed the Demarcation Line and occupied Incheon, triggering the Korean War. Jo Yong-woong was six years old when the city where he lived with his mother was recaptured from North Korean forces. The amphibious assault on Incheon by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was a major turning point in the conflict. “The noise was incredible. It was like thunder,” Yong Woong Jo says. “Some houses had a bunker. We had nothing but a blanket we could hide under.”
After the war Yong Woong Jo signed up to a sponsorship programme run by Save the Children’s US office. His sponsor, an American woman called Naomi Middaugh, sent him clothes and school books. “Back then everyone was poor. I got all the school materials thanks to Ms Middaugh.” Mrs Middaugh encouraged him to work hard, to finish school, to follow his dreams. To never give up. The two – the hairdresser from Nebraska and the schoolboy from Incheon – kept in touch long after the project and the official sponsorship ended, wrote to each other and sent voice recordings for nearly 30 years. But they never met in person.
With Ms Middaugh’s support, Yong Woong later became a student of veterinary medicine, and completed several degrees before working in animal health. He is now 74, retired and a grandfather. He lives in the countryside, occasionally helping out at a blueberry farm owned by his sons.
Now elderly, this former veterinarian and economist made it to the top of his profession. His country, however, remains divided.
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This text is an excerpt from the book “I’M ALIVE”
by Martina Dase and Dominic Nahr.
All information about the book and where to order can be found here.