Bedtime Facts (153/365)

In Normandy in 1944, American paratroopers captured a Korean in a Wehrmacht uniform who claimed to have fought in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Red Army in addition to the Wehrmacht

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A Korean by the name of Yang Kyoungjong was captured by Americans in Normandy in 1944. The Americans first thought he was Japanese because it was impossible to communicate with him because he spoke no German or English. Yang was first sent to a POW camp in Britain and later to a camp in the United States. He told his captors that he was Korean and had been conscripted into the Kwantung Army that occupied Manchuria. Korea was occupied by Japan between 1911 and 1945.

From Manchuria, Yang had been sent to fight the Red Army in the Battle of Ghalkin Gol in Mongolia 1938. The result of the battle was a rout for the Japanese. Yang Kyoungjong was one of the Japanese prisoners of war who were sent to the Gulag. After languishing in a Soviet prison camp for five years, he was pressured to join the Red Army that was suffering from a shortage of manpower in 1943. Yang was captured by the Wehrmacht in the Third Battle of Kharkov. This time the Germans made him join the Wehrmacht which is how he ended up fighting the Allied in Normandy. Yang was sent to a POW camp in the United States. After the war he was released and he moved to Illinois and lived there until he died in 1992.

A South Korean documentary did not find direct evidence of anyone by the name of Yang Kyoungjong existing thus creating controversy as to the veracity of Yang's story. The film Mai Wei was loosely based on Yang's story. The film adds a twist into the story that would explain the lack of records in Korea proving Yang's story. The fact remains, however, that the allied captured a number of Asians in Wehrmacht uniforms in France.

The film Mai Wei is a Korean big budget production and in many ways well made. It depicts the battle of Khalkin-Gol that is very rarely seen in film. The acting is a bit over the top for at least Western taste. I chalked that up to cultural differences. The story of the main characters is explores themes such as our common humanity vs. arbitrary distinctions created and upheld by brainwashing.

Here's a clip from the film depicting part of the battle of Khalkin-Gol.