Yang Kyoungjong

2015-05-09T17:14:46Z

Pudding30:

{{korean name|Yang}}

{{Infobox military person|name= Yang Kyoungjong
|birth_date= March 3, 1920
|death_date= April 7, 1992 (aged 72)
|nickname=
|birth_place=
|death_place=[[Illinois]], [[United States]]
|image=Yang Kyoungjong.jpg
|caption=Yang Kyongjong (left) in Wehrmacht attire following capture by American paratroopers in June 1944 after [[D-Day]]
|allegiance= {{flag|Empire of Japan}} {{flag|Soviet Union|1923}} {{flag|Nazi Germany}}
|serviceyears=[[Imperial Japanese Army]]: 1938–1939 [[Red Army|Soviet Red Army]]: 1942–1943 [[Wehrmacht]]: 1943–1944
|rank=
|commands=
|unit=
|battles=[[Battles of Khalkhin Gol]] 
[[World War II]]
* [[Third Battle of Kharkov|Battle of Kharkov]]
* [[D-Day]]
|awards=
|other work=
}}
{{Infobox Korean name
| hangul = 양경종
| hanja =
| rr = Yang Gyeong-jong
| mr = Yang Kyŏng-chong
| context =
| img =
| caption =
}}
'''Yang Kyoungjong''' (March 3, 1920 – April 7, 1992) was a [[Korean people|Korean]] soldier who fought in the [[Imperial Japanese Army]], the [[Red Army|Soviet Red Army]], and later the German [[Wehrmacht]] during [[World War II]].<ref name=dailymail>[[Antony Beevor]], 2 June 2012, [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153688/Second-World-War--German-Japanese-soldier-stories-change-perception-ever.html The soldier forced to fight for three sides in WW2... the ultimate tale of a man who became a reluctant veteran of the Japanese, German and Soviet armies], Daily Mail</ref><ref name=huff>26 June 2012, [http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/antony-beevor/book-excerpt_b_1619999.html What's New About WW2], Huffington Post</ref><ref name=ambrose>[[Ambrose, Stephen]] (1994). ''D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WWII.'' Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0671673345</ref><ref>Antony Beevor, (2012). ''[[The Second World War (book)|The Second World War]]''. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. ISBN 0297860704</ref>

In 1938, at the age of 18, Yang was in [[Manchuria]] when he was [[conscription|conscripted]] into the [[Kwantung Army]] of the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the [[Soviet Union]]. At the time [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea was ruled by Japan]]. During the [[Battles of Khalkhin Gol]], he was captured by the Soviet [[Red Army]] and sent to a [[Gulag|labour camp]]. Because of the manpower shortages faced by the Soviets in its fight against [[Nazi Germany]], in 1942 he was pressed into fighting in the Red Army along with thousands of other prisoners, and was sent to the European [[Eastern Front of World War II|eastern front]].<ref name=dailymail/><ref name=ambrose/>

In 1943, he was captured by Wehrmacht soldiers in [[Ukraine]] during the [[Third Battle of Kharkov]], and was then pressed into fighting for Germany. Yang was sent to [[Occupied France]] to serve in a battalion of Soviet [[prisoners of war]] known as an "[[Ostlegionen|Eastern Battalion]]", located on the [[Cotentin peninsula]] in [[Normandy]], close to [[Utah Beach]]. After the [[D-Day]] landings in northern France by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]], Yang was captured by [[paratrooper]]s of the [[United States Army]] in June 1944.

Stephen Ambrose, an executive producer on the television mini-series that was based on his work, Band of Brothers, interviewed Lieutenant Robert Brewer of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, 506th Infantry Regiment, first platoon of ‘Easy Company’, which parachuted near Vierville on June 6, 1944. According to this interview, on June 7, his platoon attacked and occupied a German bunker near the beach and captured four Asians in German uniform who spoke a strange language. The Americans initially believed the four to be Japanese in German uniform, and he was placed in a prisoner-of-war camp in the [[United Kingdom]]. Eventually it was determined that they were speaking Korean and after a translator was found, Yang told how he was conscripted to the Japanese army in 1938 and captured by the red army in 1939 in Nomonhan and again captured by Germans in the defense of Moscow in the winter of 1941. He and the other Koreans, including many other Russians, Georgians, Turkistani's, and many other ethnic groups, were assigned to assist in building the defenses in Normandy. <ref>http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=82819</ref>

Yang was was transferred to a camp in the [[United States]]. After he was released at the end of the war, he
settled in [[Illinois]] near Chicago where he lived until his death in 1992. He never told his story to his family including his two sons and his daughter. <ref name=dailymail/><ref name=huff/><ref name=ambrose/>

==See also==
*[[Lauri Törni]] – Finnish army captain who served in the [[Finnish Army]], [[Waffen SS]] and United States Army
*[[Joseph Beyrle]] – American soldier who fought in both the US Army and Soviet Red Army during World War II
*[[:ru:Александр Павлович Мин|Aleksandr Pavlovich Min]] – ethnic Korean military officer in the Soviet Red Army during World War II, posthumous recipient of the [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (in Russian)
*[[Ivor Thord-Gray]] – Participated in 13 different wars covering several continents.
*[[Apolonio de Carvalho]] - [[Brazilian Army]] officer who fought alongside the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War and later on reached the rank of Colonel in the [[French Army]] fighting Nazi Occupation.
*''[[My Way (2011 film)|My Way]]'' – 2011 South Korean movie inspired by Yang's story.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Persondata
| NAME = Yang Kyoungjong
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Japanese prisoner of war
| DATE OF BIRTH = March 3, 1920
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = April 7, 1992
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Illinois]], [[United States]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang Kyoungjong}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Japanese military personnel]]
[[Category:Japanese prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:German military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Korean emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany]]
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by the United States]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Yang Kyoungjong