Yang Chil Sung, A Korean Guerrilla in Indonesia

It was early morning in Tenjolaya Heroes Cemetery, Garut, West Java. The cool air was flowing along with the warmth of the sunlight that touched the stretch of grass and green trees. In a corner, a young Asian woman was sitting solemnly next to a gray grave with a name inscribed on it: Komaruddin/Yang Chil Sung.

“I didn't believe there was a Korean who fought for Indonesia's independence, but he is the proof,” said Chae-eui Hong, a South Korean journalist. For her, it's hard to imagine someone willing to die thousands of kilometers from his hometown for the freedom of another nation.

“He must have had a very special reason,” she said.

Arriving as a Japanese soldier

Back then, when the Korean Peninsula was colonized by Japan (1910-1945), many young Koreans were recruited by the Japanese military. This effort was intensified when the Land of the Rising Sun carried out military expansion into Southeast Asia in early 1942.

According to Rostineu, a lecturer in the Korean Language and Culture Program at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, there were two Korean combatants used by Japan at that time: gunsok or auxiliary soldiers and ilbon gunnin or regular Japanese soldiers.

“Since May 1942, Japan mobilized 3,223 gunsok to the Southeast Asia region. They were assigned as phorokamsiwon (prisoner of war guards),” Rostineu said, quoting Utsumi Aiko in Aka michi shita no choosonin banran (Joseon People's Revolt Below the Equator).

Yang Chil Sung, a man born in Wanjoo, North Jeolla Province, South Korea on May 29, 1919, came to Java following these phorokamsiwon dispatches. However, Rostineu doubts whether Chil Sung was a gunsok or phorokamsiwon. That's because these types of soldiers didn't have the abilities of Chil Sung, who was skilled in languages and good at military technicalities such as assembling bombs and doing intelligence work.

“I tend to think Chil Sung was part of the ilbon gunnin. Maybe he was assigned to oversee the gunsok,” said Rostineu.

Unlike Rostineu, Korean Broascasting System (KBS) World Radio argues that Chil Sung was part of the phorokamsiwon. In the Indonesian edition of the broadcast on August 15, 2015, KBS said that when he arrived in Java, Yang Chil Sung (by then had changed into his Japanese name Yanagawa Sichisci) was assigned to a prisoner of war camp in Bandung. There, he met Lience Wenas, an Indonesian woman, who was visiting her brother.

They met every week, and the two people of different nations became close and fell in love. Long story short, “Yang Chil Sung married the native woman,” according to KBS.

Not long after Chil Sung and Lience got married, Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945. Two days later, Indonesia declared itself an independent nation. The situation made the future of Koreans working for the Japanese military, including Chil Sung, bleak. Although they were happy to be free from Japanese rule, they were worried that they would be treated as war criminals by the Allies.

Joining the Indonesian Guerrillas

March 1946, Bandung was engulfed in war. Hundreds of youth groups from all over Pasundan flocked there to fight against the Allies and the remnants of the Japanese army. One of these groups was the Garut Prince Papak Troops (PPP) led by Major Saoed Moestofa Kosasih.

The name “Prince Papak” refers to the last nobleman of the Pajajaran Kingdom who was buried near the troop's headquarters in Wanaraja, Garut. “At that time, even one of Prince Papak's descendants, Raden Djajadiwangsa, was willing to become an advisor and facilitator of PPP's daily activities such as providing public kitchens, procuring headquarters, and others,” said Dadang Koswara (46), one of Raden Djajadiwangsa's grandchildren.

One day, during a battle in Bandung, the PPP captured five Japanese soldiers, and one of them was Yanagawa or Yang Chil Sung. According to Basroni Kosasih (60), one of Major Kosasih's sons, the soldiers were originally going to be killed by the PPP soldiers, but Major Kosasih prevented them. “Apart from humanitarian reasons, my father thought that these foreigners would one day be useful to his troops,” he said.

The five Japanese soldiers were then taken to Wanaraja, where they were treated well. After living for a long time with PPP members and the Wanaraja community, they sympathized with the Indonesian struggle. One day, they came to Major Kosasih and declared themselves wanting to convert to Islam.

Major Kosasih then took them to see Raden Djajadiwangsa, who was also an old Muslim cleric. In front of Raden Djajadiwangsa, they said two sentences of shahada and vowed to fight alongside the PPP. Since then they changed their names: Hasegawa became Abubakar, Aoki became Usman, while Chil Sung became Komarrudin.

“I forgot the Japanese names of the other two, but we called them Umar and Ali,” said Raden Ojo Soepardjo Wigena (88), a member of the PPP's public kitchen section who was also one of Chil Sung's comrades-in-arms in Wanaraja, Garut.

According to Wigena, the five former Japanese soldiers had their own duties. Umar and Ali became health workers while Abubakar, Usman and Komaruddin, apart from being PPP military trainers, were also actively involved in various combat operations.

Dutch Military Fugitives

Since the joining of the ex-Japanese soldiers, the PPP unit became a frightening ghost for the Dutch military. They often carried out various sporadic and militant operations of attack, sabotage, and blockade around Wanaraja. Victims fell, not only from the military but also  officers and officials of the emergency government initiated by H.J. van Mook as a precondition for the formation of a federal government in Indonesia.

However, no PPP action was more impressive than the destruction of the Cimanuk Bridge, which connected Wanaraja to Garut. The story goes that around 1947, PPP agents intercepted information that the Dutch military was about to hit Wanaraja. Major Kosasih then decided: the Cimanuk Bridge must be destroyed.

One night, a small team of PPP soldiers moved to the Cimanuk Bridge, and once arrived, they went straight into action. While others stood guard around the area, Komaruddin nimbly crept under the bridge and placed bombs carefully at a number of points in the bridge's construction. Once the explosives had been placed, he quickly moved back to safety. Boom! Moments later, a powerful explosion shattered the night, and the Cimanuk Bridge was destroyed instantly.

“The collapse of the Cimanuk Bridge thwarted the Dutch military's attempt to control Wanaraja,” said Dadang Koswara.

The incident made the Dutch even more furious. They thought that the presence of former Japanese soldiers at PPP put them at a disadvantage. So, a hunt operation plan was made, involving an elite hunting team from Yon 3-14-RI (Regiment Infanterie), a Dutch Army battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel P.W. van Duin.

“Most importantly, this unit had to capture Abubakar or Hasegawa, a former guard of the prisoner of war camp on Flores who was known to be very cruel,” according to a statement quoted by Het Genootschap voor het Nationaal Archief.

Captured on Mount Dora

In early February 1948, in accordance with the Renville Agreement, the Siliwangi Division had to leave their posts throughout West Java, and were placed in parts of Central Java and Yogyakarta as their new base. However, not all Siliwangi Division personnel left for the move.

“As a time bomb, we secretly left small units to stay in West Java,” said Colonel R.H. Eddie Soekardi, an elder of the Siliwangi Division, in the book Hari Juang Siliwangi (Days of Struggle of Siliwangi).

The PPP employed this tactic. According to Basroni, all PPP personnel had moved to Yogyakarta, but Major Kosasih instructed some of the troops led by Lieutenant Djoehana to return and continue the guerrilla war in Wanaraja. “Together with former Japanese soldiers led by Abubakar and Komaruddin, Mr. Djoehana obeyed my father's instructions by continuing to organize resistance to the Dutch in Garut and its surroundings,” he said.

In the book Siliwangi dari Masa ke Masa (Siliwangi from Time to Time) compiled by the Historical Service of Kodam VI Siliwangi, it is mentioned that some PPP personnel were placed under the Tjitaroem Brigade led by Lieutenant Colonel Soetoko. Apart from being in charge of disrupting Dutch positions in Garut, they helped the infiltration of Siliwangi Division soldiers from Republican territory to Garut and Tasikmalaya. “They were the ones who had to welcome and provide a safe place for the infiltrating troops,” mentioned the book Siliwangi dari Masa ke Masa.

One night in August 1948, the PPP held a meeting in Parentas Village, which is at the foot of Mount Dora (Garut-Tasikmalaya border). They discussed their plan of infiltrating troops and the tactics against the Pasundan State troops and Darul Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army or DI/TII. The former Japanese soldiers trio, Abubakar, Usman and Komaruddin, were also present.

Unbeknownst to them, the Yon 3-14-RI ambush team had secretly surrounded the stilt house where the meeting was taking place. Apparently the Dutch military had sniffed out the guerrillas' whereabouts. “There was a spy from Garut who leaked the meeting place to the Dutch,” said Raden Ojo Soepardjo.

After midnight, gunshots rang out. Realizing they were surrounded, Lieutenants Djoehana, Usman, Abubakar, and Komaruddin decided to surrender. A document from the Dutch National Archives shows photos of the moments after they were captured. Abubakar, Usman, and Komaruddin were seen with their hands and necks tied with a rope smiling with calm faces.

“Together with the arrest of Abubakar and his friends, a number of important documents and notes on the results of the unfinished meeting were also confiscated,” as written in the book Siliwangi dari Masa ke Masa.

The Dutch military then held a summary court martial which resulted in the death sentence for Komaruddin, Usman, and Abubakar. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Djoehana was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Cipinang Detention Center, Jakarta. According to Yoyo Dasrio, Lieutenant Djoehana, who was good at speaking Dutch, had defended himself to escape the death penalty.

“But until he died, Mr. Djoehana always felt guilty for not being able to save Usman, Abubakar, and Komaruddin in front of the court, even though of course it was not his fault,” said Yoyo Dasrio, a journalist who had interviewed Lieutenant Djoehana.

Dressed in Red and White

Monday, August 9, 1948. After sunset, a lebe or headman accompanied by a Dutch officer met Komaruddin, Usman, and Abubakar in a room in Garut Prison. To the lebe, the three of them conveyed their last message, which was a request to be buried as Muslims after they died. Their request was immediately agreed to.

Earlier the next day, wearing white kampret (a type of koko shirt) and red Tjap Padi sarong, the three former Japanese soldiers were transported to Kerkhof Field located across the Cimanuk River (now Gelora Building). At exactly 06.00, several gunshots were heard. Komaruddin and his two Japanese friends died.

“According to a witness I interviewed, Komaruddin still managed to shout the word ‘merdeka’ (freedom) before the bullet pierced his head,” said Yoyo.

The bodies of Abubakar (Hasegawa), Usman (Aoki) and Komaruddin (Yang Chil Sung) were buried at Pasirpogor Cemetery. Twenty-seven years later, their remains were moved to Tenjolaya Heroes Cemetery, a place that officially recognized them as heroes of Indonesian independence.