 Meet
the Founder - Part 6
A Good Plan Gone Bad
As we read last time, the Korean soldiers forced to be in the Japanese
Army near the end of World War II had a plan. Rather than fighting the
‘enemy’, they were going to turn their guns instead on the
Japanese soldiers and destroy their hated army from the inside.
Every month they met and organised their coming revolution. It wasn’t
easy, but they planned in secret very carefully and took their time. Choi
Hong Hi was one of the 4 main leaders of the group. They needed to be
very careful; one mistake could ruin their plan, and get them in huge
amounts of trouble. As time went on, more and more Koreans joined their
group.
 They
eventually realised their best plan was to run away from the army and
hide out in the nearby Baek-Du mountains until they were ready to strike.
They each had equipment hidden away, ready for their escape.
Which of these things do you think they did not intend to take with them?
- Rifle and Bullets
- Cell phone
- Spare Clothes
- I-pod
- Horses
- Money
- Bayonet (a weapon with a knife at the end of it)
 Of
course they didn’t take cell-phones or i-pods...they weren’t
even invented! Horses may have been useful, but it’s a bit hard
to hide a horse when you are keeping things secret, and they are not so
easy to take up into the mountains either. Besides...they bite! Everything
else was hidden - ready to go at a moment’s notice.
They were only a few days away from putting their plan into action when
disaster struck, ….Choi Hong Hi hurt his leg in an accident, so
badly he couldn’t walk. Because he was so important to the success
of their plan, they had to postpone their mission. Choi later said:
‘Our rising, prepared with much difficulty,
had to be delayed only because of me’
They were all set to go again, when the worst possible thing happened.
All of them, including Choi Hong Hi, were suddenly arrested and taken
away to prison. A spy had betrayed them. Their plan had failed and they
were in serious trouble
... to part 7
Text from Taekwon-Do and I, The Memoirs of Choi
Hong-Hi, the founder of Taekwon-Do |
