First of all, he didn't stay in the army for 6 months, though this number does come out later in the story. And they didn't kill the students who were in demonstration as well. Allow me to begin somewhere in the middle.
So the reason why all this movement started was because there were basically no labor rights for the working class. The workers in the factory were paid very little for the long hours they had to work. Students who saw this believed that this was not fair and started movements for labor rights for the working class, which was extremely successful against the government. So what the government plotted to do was to take away these college students who were so hot to spread this topic around and isolate them from everyone else in the world. This was a very suspicious move by the government. Usually you are given a year or so once the government notifies you that you were drafted for the army, but in this case, they gave them very short notices to come. So my dad and the rest of his schoolmates left shortly after they received a letter to join the army. But this group of college students were under some special care. They weren't allowed to mix with the "regular" army people. The physicals given to these students were not even real physicals, they were admitting everyone in this group. Fortunately, however, my dad's uncle who had some connections in the army requested that my dad be re-evaluated because his eyes were not best fit for army conditions. So my dad was reexamined by a regular physical, and sure enough, was exempt from this group. So in a even shorter time than 6 months -- 10 days -- my dad left the army.
After a long period of time, my dad's schoolmates were able to resume school after their quote-quote service in the army. But they came out as totally different people. These politically-radical college students who fought so hard for labor rights had totally changed. The government had brainwashed them during this time of "army service." I can go on regarding this, but let's skip forward a little bit in time:
So my dad had finished his undergraduate degree and moved on to the working world. He still had this desire to fight for labor rights, so he went to work for a factory himself where some of these working ones were employed. He slept, ate and worked with this working class of people while helping them form labor unions to fight for their rights. At this time, he still didn't touch God in a personal way, but thought that surely the God who created the universe created all mankind in an equal way, and surely He did not appreciate the fact that there was this huge gap between the affluent class of people and the working class of people.
This was, basically, the Communist/Socialist move that was going on around Korea at that time. After working for a few years in the factory he decided to become a pastor. Woah.. what's the sudden jump here? Well, working with the working class, he basically did whatever they did. And the working class people would go to Sunday service in a church building that was right next to the factory. These groups were more labor-union oriented rather than the typical service-worship oriented groups -- they were groups raised up by pastors to help the working ones. I guess after seeing the patterns of these pastors had on the working ones, and the greater impact they were creating, my dad had the desire to become a pastor.
And so he went to seminary, where my mom was there as well. And their beautiful love story begins takes off in another avenue here, but let's not stray away from this story road. The seminary that my dad chose to go to is not like the Moody Bible Institute, Fuller Seminary, or the Full-Time Training -- it had a special curriculum where the focus was yet again on helping the working class. Anyhow, after finishing seminary, he went back to start helping the working class, and this is where the plot gets interesting:
My dad and a few other pastors gathered themselves to further this labor rights movement by publishing a newspaper together. The gist of this newspaper was that God created all men equal, and that we should achieve and strive to build God's kingdom where every man is equal. In other words, the Communist/Socialist notion. This publishing created a huge stir in the government which made these group of pastors a target. Actually, the government had sent spies all around to monitor these ones with such an idea and the group that my dad was in was under the radar. It was this publishing of newspapers that really tipped off the match.
This was around when my older sister was born. My mom and sister just got out of the hospital, so my dad dropped them off at my grandmother's place where my mom could recoup after having given birth. He headed back to where we lived back to continue working on the labor rights movement. But as soon as he arrived at door of our house, he saw some men standing right in front. My dad still recalls how they got hold of him and tied him up, threw him in a car and blindfolded him so that he could not see where they were taking him.
They took my dad to a place where they held North Korean captives and other Communist/Socialist idealists. They locked up each one as if they were prisoners and tortured them. I would go into detail about some of the tortures, but I think it's best to not. It's too graphic.. So my dad stayed in jail for 6 months (this is the correct 6 months), trapped behind bars, tortured, and tried in a court.
cliffhanger...i expect you to tell the rest of the story to me tomorrow.
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