The General Association of Korean Residents was deemed a terrorist group and ordered to disband in 1949. The League of Koreans in Japan served as a replacement for many, but times had changed. By then, public order had been restored, and someone like my father, an impulsive and poorly educated street fighter, simply wasn’t needed anymore. What the newly launched League really needed at that time were skilled administrators—there was no place for my father, who couldn’t even read, in the new order. I can’t help but wonder now whether his rejection from that group ultimately made him more
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