Book & Author
Jun-Ho Lee: Gentle Wind on the Shore
By Dr Ahmed S. Khan
Chicago, IL
Jun-Ho (Juno) Lee (1921-1991), managing director of Hyundai Construction Company — the parent company of Hyundai Motor Company — has written his autobiography-cum-travelogue in Korean titled Small Songs on the Shore. The book has been translated into English by the author's son Prof Sang Lee and Prof Ahmed S. Khan. An abridged version of the English translation has been published as Gentle Wind on the Shore by Prof Sang Lee.
The author narrates his life story — growing up in poverty, escaping from poverty to Harbin, Manchuria (now part of China) Russia, growing up as a missionary in Harbin, travelling to Istanbul by Trans Siberian Railway, life in Istanbul during WWII, returning to Korea and Harbin, getting married, and becoming a successful business executive who played a pivotal role in making Korea an economic powerhouse.
The author also provides vivid accounts of his global travels through Asia, Europe and Africa during the period of 1940s to 1980s. He travelled through areas which are presently known as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Indonesia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Russia and the United States. He highlights various social and cultural traditions of distant lands, and reflects on the historical facts of Japanese occupation of Korea, Manchuria, parts of China and many parts of Southeast Asia.
Jun-Ho , which sounds as Juno when spoken in Korean, was born in April, 1921 when Korea was under the control of Japanese imperialism. The author remembers his hometown, a small village, Eusung located in the southeast of the Korean peninsula — famous for the farms producing good quality red peppers and garlic, which are essential seasonings in making kimchi. In the spring the environment is full of the warbling sound of a small stream under the ice, flowers and trees. Low hills full of blooming wildflowers were a perfect place for Juno to play with his friends all day long.
The author observes that the Confucian philosophy influenced most Koreans for a long time until the new Western culture knocked the door to open Korea by many Western missionaries in the early 1900s. The Koreans didn’t think God created the whole world, as Christians believe. They believed instead that the world exists as the result of a balanced Force in the cosmos. Confucianism tells that components of the human body will eventually wear out, and the soul will go to heaven and the body returns to the dust. Since Confucianists think dying is just one of the natural phenomena, humans must live their lives in the course of nature. They didn’t separate life and death into two parts. Death is simply part of a continuous life in Confucianism. Juno liked both Confucianism and Christianity, but was more inclined to Christianity as he grew up because anyone can commit sin, regret or repent, and will either forgive or be forgiven. Evil has already appeared in this world. The author wondered how we can save this world from the devil. He knocked the door at church to get an answer for this. A small church was built for the first time around 1930 in his hometown Oh-dong and Juno began to attend church every Sunday.
Reflecting on his early days of growing up, Juno states that Japan, after annexing Korea in 1910, gradually destroyed many Korean traditions and cultures. After the author learned some Chinese words from his father, who was working in Japan, he studied the Chinese Thousand-Character Text (it is basic Chinese characters for entry level), Myung-Shim-Bo-Gam (it consists of many good teachings about disciplines and morals) from his elder relative, and Korean and Japanese from grade school. At noon on January 21, 1928, when Juno was a six-year-old boy, he was sent to an elementary school that was part of a new education system at that time. To combat poverty his father went to Japan to get a job, leaving behind his wife and two young children, Juno and his brother. After three years of hard physical labor his father died of an accident at a construction site in Kobe, Japan.
Reminiscing about his early days of school and pondering over the differences between Confucianism and Christianity, Juno observes that he learned the following lesson at the first day of school: “Heaven will repay with good fortune for people doing good works and will repay with punishment for people doing bad things.” The next day he learned: “Life and death depend on his fate, and being rich or noble depends on heaven.” Bible says that God does as He planned before Creation. If everything is planned, must we follow fatalism? Juno is inclined to old traditional teachings as he learned from the Four Books and the Three Classics (it is an ancient Chinese book of the Analects of Confucius, the Works of Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean and the Great Learning). Juno studied both the Bible and old traditional teachings in his youth. He cannot forget Confucius’ saying: “If you say you know what you know, and you say you don’t know what you don’t know, that is really to know the knowing.” He tried to accept Christianity based on the principles of Confucianism.
On a chilly morning in April 1932, Juno walked to the bus stop with his mother and brother. His brother bought him a bus ticket for Daegu. Juno, an eleven-year-old boy, was leaving for Manchuria to escape poverty and hoped to have an opportunity to continue studying there. Life without going somewhere seemed useless. He first thought about Japan. Even though his two uncles were living in Japan, he didn’t think they could help him to study over there, and it was the land where his father died in vain. America or Europe? It was almost an impossible dream at that time. Juno decided to go to Manchuria which was once an old territory of Korea 2000 years ago. Manchuria was not fully developed yet at that time. Many people from different countries were living together in that vast area to develop the land for cultivation. Many Russians were living as construction workers of the Chinese Eastern Railway in the late 19 th century and early 20 th century. Harbin was the construction center for the railway linked to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Another group of white Russians also fled to Harbin as a haven to escape from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
At Daegu station, Juno boarded the train for Harbin. It was an express train from Busan, Korea, to Harbin, Manchuria. It would take 48 hours to get to Harbin — a day-and-night long journey. As the train approached the border city Sinuiju near the Yalu River, the passengers were in a commotion. Iron-faced Japanese inspectors like Nazi Gestapo were searching for Korean underground independence movement agents and smugglers along with their luggage. They approached him and just checked his ticket. They thought that he was one of the children of emigrating families. As the train approached Harbin at night, a kind woman, noticing Juno traveling alone, took him home to spend the night with her children. In the morning, Juno left her home, and took a rickshaw to see the city. After wandering aimlessly in the city, the rickshaw driver realized that the young boy had no destination and no place to stay in Harbin, so he took the boy to the house of a Korean-born American missionary, Pastor Bruce F. Hunt. Pastor Hunt welcomed the young boy and offered his house for him to stay. Pastor Hunt taught English and Greek to the young boy. A month later, Pastor Hunt took Juno to meet his Russian friend Pastor Aleksei Petrov, who took them to the Russian gymnasium in a town called Toli — it was a seven-year pre-college system, three years for middle school and four years for high school. With pastor and Mrs Petrov's care and support, Juno completed his education successfully in Russian gymnasium.
Juno recalls an incident when he refused to bow in honor of the Japanese emperor; the Japanese police officer took him to jail and yelled at him: “You listen to me. There are no Koreans anymore. We all are subjects of the Japanese empire.” Rev Hunt was also arrested and later freed on the condition to go back to America. Juno was now a young man. Pastor Petrov was concerned and worried for Juno’s future, so he sent Juno to Turkey with his nephew Vanya. He was trying his best to keep Juno away from the war. Juno applied for the passport declaring himself as Pastor Petrov’s family. It was going to be a long trip via Trans-Siberian Railway. After checking the visa at the Russian customs area, Juno boarded the Trans-Siberian express coming from Vladivostok. They bought train tickets for Odessa. Juno watched distant Gydan Mountains with the wide Siberian flat terrain in the foreground. Suddenly, Juno missed his mother at home and felt a lump in his throat with emotion. Could I see my mother again? Juno couldn’t control his tears. After a long journey on the train, they arrived in Odessa. From there they took an old passenger ship to their final destination, Istanbul, once called Constantinople — city of Constantine — during the Roman Empire era. As the ship started its voyage, Juno took a big breath to fill in his chest as much as possible with fresh air blowing across the deck. The gentle wind on the shore awakened young Juno’s senses, feeling better in contrast to the stale air of the train's compartment that he hated to breathe for more than seven days. Once they arrived at Istanbul located in the Bosporus strait, they contacted Vanya’s friend Kazim. Kazim greeted them but without any excitement. His face was telling that he had lost his chocolate business because of the War. Even though Turkey was not directly involved in World War II, all Europe was under the clouds of war. There was a shortage of food supplies. The ravages of war also affected Turkey in all domains of life — all food items were rationed.
Several days later Juno took the letter of introduction from Pastor Petrov to his friend, Karadas, who lived in suburban Istanbul. Pastor Petrov and Karadas had known each other when they were in America. Pastor Petrov was a minister at a Baptist church, and his friend Karadas was working at a Turkish company. Karadas was Muslim. Islam was the main religion in Turkey, with few Christians and Jews. Mr Karadas lived with his wife, one son and two daughters. He greeted Juno and Vanya joyfully with a big smile. After reading the letter he said: “You arrived in Istanbul at the wrong time.” He was right, but they could not return to Harbin right away. Karadas pondered over their dilemma and said: “There is a Turkish military cemetery nearby. How about working in the cemetery?” He offered this job to Vanya, who had no choice but to accept his offer. During the Greco-Turkish war, fierce fighting between the two armies resulted in huge casualties; it was not practical to remove and transport all dead bodies individually for burial, so the battlefield became a memorial park. After offering a job to Vanya, Karadas turned to Juno and asked him if he could teach Russian to his children. Juno agreed.
Ever since Juno arrived in Istanbul, he wanted to study the orthodox theology at the Calvin University in Geneva, Switzerland. But it seemed impossible to go over there because of the war. Had Turkey sided with the German during WWII, he could not have come to this country. Turkey was neutral during World War II. Germany had already occupied Sevastopol earlier than a year ago. Had Turkey not been neutral now, there would be a war going on in Black Sea. Fortunately, except for the warships, all the commercial ships of all countries could still navigate freely in the Black Sea. Seeing no fruitful future in Istanbul, Juno and Vanya decided to go back home. Several weeks later they boarded the 3500-ton Greek freight ship to start their journey back to Harbin. As the ship was sailing away from Istanbul, Ayasofia caught their eyes again, and the minarets of the Mosques were moving away slowly from them, and finally disappearing as they passed through the Marmara strait and Dadnar strait. As they entered the Mediterranean Sea the thoughts of uncertainty of the future suddenly shook Juno's whole body.
As they were approaching closer to the Suez Canal, everyone on the ship was wondering if they would be able to safely pass through the canal into the Indian Ocean without any blockage or problems. Fortunately, they made it through and arrived in Macao after 40 days of journey on the high seas. The ship was originally supposed to arrive in Shanghai but was rerouted to Macao. From Macao they took a train to Shanghai, staying there for a couple of days because it was Vanya’s birthplace and his parents had lived and died there when fire destroyed their chocolate factory. Vanya had lots of good memories of growing up here. They took a train again and finally arrived in Harbin on September 23, 1943.
In the post WWII era after Korea got liberated, Juno worked for the US Army Military Government in Korea, translating the post-war Japanese documents to English for the Department of State. He also worked as postal mail exchange coordinator between South and North Korea. During a session in the US-Soviet Joint Commission (established for Korea’s Independence) he worked as a Russian translator for US delegates. In 1950 when the Korean War broke out, Juno was father of three young children. During this time Juno was sent to Paris to represent Korea for the Young Men’s World Convention. He even went to Australia to discuss the import of wools that were desperately needed to get over the bitter cold weather in Korea. It was a business trip for the company he had worked for, but it was a very important trip. As the war was over in July 1953, Juno started working as a professor of Russian language and literature for years. In 1960 Juno traveled around the world for about 8 months with his new wealthy boss (owner of the largest textile company at that time) who needed his foreign language abilities (Juno was fluent in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, English, and Greek), and international trading experiences to make contracts overseas for his business while travelling.
Juno visited Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan in July 1960. His impression of Karachi was that the city represents a blending of 15 th and 20 th centuries because of the presence of camels with carts in the modern downtown area. He visited the historical city of Lahore and then went down to the lower Indus River and visited the city of Thatta where he found house walls were made of mud — similar to house walls built in the Korean farmlands.
After returning from his global travels, Juno started working with Hyundai Construction Company. In the 1960s, he successfully obtained Korea’s first overseas construction contract in Thailand. As Hyundai Construction Co expanded by getting higher business volume it led to the establishment of other companies such as Hyundai Marine and Hyundai Motor Company. Juno, as the managing director, was instrumental in founding these new companies and doing a joint venture with Ford Motor Co. Juno played a pivotal role in making Korea an economic powerhouse — he retired as CEO of a steel company and passed away on January 20, 1991.
Gentle Wind on the Shore by Jun-Ho (Juno) Lee is an absorbing narrative of the triumph of hard work, dedication and wisdom — how a young boy Juno ended bondage to poverty and became one of the prominent businessmen — and in the process helped Korea become an economic powerhouse.
[ Dr Ahmed S. Khan - dr.a.s.khan@ieee.org - is a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, 2017-2021. Professor Khan has 35 years of experience in Higher Education as professor of Electrical Engineering. He is the author of many academic papers, technical and non-technical books, and a series of books on Science, Technology & Society (STS); his most recent books are Mashriq-o-Mugrib Ki Mumtaz Shaksiaat ( Prominent Personalities of the East and the West), and Nanotechnology: Ethical and Social Implications.) ]
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