Ponderings and Contemplations: Tales from Mokpo

By Park Nahm-Sheik

Mokpo, located in the peninsula’s southwest corner, is a city with plenty of interesting sights to see and plenty of interesting things to do. Mokpo is famous as the host of Mt. Yudal, so much so that the two are synonymous for all intents and purposes. Just as iconic as the city is Samhak-do, the island trio comprising the so-called “three-crane island cluster.” Folklore has it that the island group was where a young martial artist supposedly held his daily workout sessions in the clean air of the wee hours of the morning.

Three beautiful maidens came to watch this young man at his workout. He did not particularly appreciate them being at such close range. They so distracted him that he eventually came to beg them to please leave him alone. For all his earnest entreaty, however, they showed no signs of budging. This war of nerves went on and on until he eventually went so far as to threaten to forcibly expel them if need be. Even this ultimatum did not seem to work.

Under these circumstances, the young martial artist could no longer keep his temper in check. Losing self-control momentarily, he pulled his bow string, thereby sending the three beauties to their instant deaths. Upon passing from this world to the next, they miraculously morphed into three magnificent cranes. Folklore has it that the three islands of Samhak-do are “reincarnations” of the three departed souls. Just a bunch of myth as it may be, it still is quite intriguing. It keeps tugging at our heartstrings, does it not?

So much for the mythical portion of the story here. How about some real-life figures brightening up the firmament of Mokpo? Definitely topping the list here is the late President Kim Daejung. He was born and raised on the nearby island of Haui-do (하의도) in the all-island county of Sinhan (신안). He used to call Mokpo home, though. Suffice it to say that Mokpo was always near and dear to his heart. Besides, he got a diploma from Mokpo Business School.

Be that as it may, Kim is best remembered to this day as the first Nobel laureate from Korea. His is a distinct honor to Mokpo as well as to the rest of Korea. First and foremost, however, he is revered as the favorite son of Mokpo, if not of the entire country. I had the rare privilege of meeting Kim in person back in the mid-1960s while I was studying at the University of Hawaii.

“Deflnitely topping the list here is the late President Kim Daejung.”

As luck would have it, I was on a gig assignment as a guide for Korean dignitaries visiting Hawaii. And I got to work as Kim’s guide for the duration of his stay in Honolulu. The two of us hit it off right away. I was immediately struck by his personable manners; he also developed an apparent liking for me from the get-go. I was particularly enraptured by his vibrant personality. His forward-looking Weltanschauung was truly one of a kind.

Hawaii was on the first leg of Kim’s visit to the United States as a freshman member of the Korean National Assembly. Friends are thieves of time, indeed. Our time together ran out lightning fast. When he bid farewell, he promised to keep in touch with me. True to his word, he always remembered to send me greetings around yuletide. Let me touch on one eerie episode here, though. In the family photo he habitually enclosed with his wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, the whole family had their eyes gouged out.

The grotesqueness of it all got burnt into the innermost crooks of my mind. Bone-numbing goose bumps that followed in its footsteps just wouldn’t go away for a long while. There was no way of knowing who was to blame for this sickly villainy. However, my wild guess is that some rogue underlings of the then powers-that-be may have been behind it all. After all, numerous attempts had been made on Kim Daejung’s life. Anyway, the whole story was so weird and so surreal and so darn out-of-this-world. It has left open wounds in the deepest pits of my soul that still keep bleeding with no evident signs of letting up.

The Author

Park Nahm-Sheik is a native of Gwangju. After graduating from Chonnam National University, he went on to receive a master’s degree at the University of Hawaii and a PhD (applied linguistics) at Georgetown University, both in the U.S. Upon completing an illustrious career at Seoul National University, Prof. Park served as president of the International Graduate School of English.

Cover Photo: The Samhak-do maidens transform into cranes. (The Federation of Korean Culture Centers)