[Korea Encounters]When Korea's exiled royal family returned home

Crown Prince Yi Eun, left, and Yi Bangja, published in The Korea Times May 2, 1989. / Korea Times Archive

By Matt VanVolkenburg

The 20th century was not kind to Korea's royal family. As Japan asserted control over Korea, Emperor Gojong was forced to abdicate in 1907 and the weak Crown Prince, Sunjong, was placed on the throne instead. Sunjong, by then a mere figurehead, died in 1926 without an heir.

Emperor Gojong had four children who lived to adulthood. The next oldest child after Sunjong, Yi Gang, was born to a concubine and therefore illegible to rule. He tried to escape Korea in 1919 to join the provisional government but was caught by the Japanese and closely watched afterwards.

After Sunjong took the throne, his next youngest sibling, Yi Eun, the son of an Honorable Princess Consort, became Crown Prince. Seeking to Japanize him, Japanese Resident General Ito Hirobumi sent the 10-year-old to Japan In 1907 to be educated in the Gakushuin Peers' School along with children of the Japanese nobility.

In 1920 he was wed to Princess Masako Nashimoto. Though the marriage was forced on both of them, they came to love each other. The death of their first child in infancy, however, was a cruel blow. A second son, Yi Gu, was born in 1931 and, after attending MIT, he worked as an architect in New York City and married an American woman, Julia Mullock, in 1959.

Yi Gu, left, and his mother Yi Bangja, published in The Korea Times Nov. 23, 1963 / Korea Times Archive

Emperor Gojong's last child, Princess Deok-hye, was born in 1912 to Gojong and a concubine. Though she had a happy childhood during which the emperor doted on her, she was sent to Japan to study in 1925 and was forced to marry a Japanese count in 1931. She suffered from mental illness and divorced her husband in the early 1950s.

After the death of Emperor Sunjong in 1926, Yi Eun had become His Highness King Yi of Changdeok Palace but, as his wife Princess Masako wrote in her autobiography, "though we made various visits to Korea, it was never possible for us to live there permanently. While Japan ruled Korea, of course, it was Japanese policy to separate the Korean royal family from the people and try to assimilate them into the Japanese Royal Clan."

Due to World War II, they were not able to visit Korea after 1943. With Japan's defeat the former king, his son and Deok-hye had their royal titles stripped from them and they became stateless. Their wish to return to Korea was thwarted by President Syngman Rhee, who was not about to admit potential rivals into the country. So, they became Japanese nationals.

In 1961 Yi Eun "suffered a stroke which left him a permanent invalid."

Despite this misfortune, their prospects for returning to Korea improved after Park Chung-hee took power in a coup in 1961. Park moved quickly to have the Korean government cover Yi's hospital bills, and during a visit to Tokyo in November 1961, he sent flowers to the former king. In return, Masako called upon Park.

"He told me that the Korean government would assume responsibility for our living expenses and said that we might return to Korea whenever it suited our convenience. He was most solicitous about my husband's health, and spoke to me kindly and sympathetically." It became clear that their fortunes might at last change.

In January 1962, former Princess Deok-hye became the first member of the royal family to return to Korea, but, according to Masako, having been "confined in a mental asylum for many years," she seemed to be unaware that she had returned to her homeland for the first time since she was 13. She was unable to recognize members of the royal family or realize that the Former Imperial Family Property Act had been amended to restore her Korean citizenship.

As Yi Eun was still too ill to travel, in June 1962 Masako visited Korea to try to acquire Korean citizenship for her husband. At the airport she announced that she had come "to pay homage to the royal ancestors' shrines and call on Queen Yun" and Park Chung-hee "on behalf of the ailing Prince."

Yi Bangja, published in The Korea Times Feb. 13, 1981. / Korea Times Archive

Queen Yun, the widow of Emperor Sunjong, had been living in Nakseonjae in Changdeok Palace for the past 36 years and, along with two other former court mistresses of Emperor Gojong, was being supported by the Korean government.

Masako described seeing Queen Yun for the first time in 18 years as an "emotional meeting" in which they "both wept copiously." According to The Korea Times, she reportedly "delivered a 'goodwill' message from the Japanese Emperor Hirohito to Queen Yun."

When Masako told her that Yi Eun "did not want to come back as a helpless invalid," the former queen disagreed and said, "This is his father's and mother's country," and asked that he return so she could see him before she died.

During her visit, she visited the royal tombs, including that of her first son, and met with Park Chung-hee and his wife. Park told her that they could only get Korean citizenship once they were on Korean soil, but though she left Korea empty-handed, the law was amended later that year and she returned briefly to obtain the documents in December.

Yi Bangja, left, and Yi Gu's wife Julia attend the funeral for Queen Yun, published in The Korea Times Feb. 15, 1966. / Korea Times Archive

In June 1963, Yi Gu came to Korea for the first time with his wife Julia, and visited Queen Yun, Deok-hye, Park Chung-hee and the royal tombs. They also visited Sukmyeong, Jinmyeong, and Yangjong high schools, which had all been established by his grandmother around 1900.

Finally, despite the fact that Yi Eun "understood little of what I told him now, and never spoke," Masako, now a naturalized Korean with the name Yi Bang-ja, chose to return to Korea in November 1963. Before they left, she and other family members were guests at a dinner hosted by Emperor Hirohito.

On Nov. 22, Yi Eun returned to his homeland, but, despite the crowds that lined the streets, he may have been unaware of his arrival, and was immediately taken by ambulance to a hospital.

A portrait of Yi Eun is carried during his funeral, published in The Korea Times May 10, 1970. / Korea Times Archive

Yi Bang-ja moved into Changdeok Palace with her son Yi Gu and his wife Julia. Queen Yun died in 1966, followed by Yi Eun in 1970. Yi Bang-ja continued to live in the palace and decided to "work on establishing homes and schools for physically and mentally handicapped children, something I had long been interested in," and which, "besides being of immediate practical value to society, would perhaps atone in a small way for the many injuries done to Korea by Japan."

Crown Prince Yi Eun's daughter-in-law Julia, left, and widow Yi Bangja, published in The Korea Times May 10, 1970. / Korea Times Archive

Julia also engaged in charitable endeavors while her husband worked for Trans-Asia Engineering Associates, an American military contractor based in Yongsan Garrison. Unable to produce an heir (they adopted a daughter), Julia was forced to divorce Yi Gu in 1982.

Princess Deok-hye and Yi Bang-ja died in 1989, and the 62-year-old modernized palace building where Queen Yun and Yi Bang-ja had lived, Seohaenggak, was demolished. Yi Gu died in Japan in 2005. Julia returned to the U.S. in 1995 and died in 2017.

Funeral procession for Crown Prince Yi Eun, published in The Korea Times May 10, 1970. / Korea Times Archive

Visitors to Changdeok Palace who pass by the open space where Seohaenggak once stood may note a similarly large absence in the stories told by tour guides, who focus only on the Joseon era and make no mention of the Japanese- and American-born princesses who once lived there.

Next Tuesday, July 13, the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea will host an online lecture by Seulkee Nahm and Dr. Cameron Pyke about Yi Bang-ja's social welfare work in Korea. As well, RAS Korea has copies of "The World is One: Princess Yi Pang Ja's Autobiography" available for sale. Visit raskb.com for more information.

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr.