By Sam Hahn

Not many people can say that they were a Marine, a prisoner of war, and a physics professor. My paternal grandfather, Yukap Hahn, was all of those. He was born in 1932 in Seoul, in what is now South Korea, and was the oldest of five siblings.

The Hahn family in 1949. Yukap is standing on the left.

At the time, Korea was under Japanese rule but was liberated following the end of the Second World War. For the beginning of Hahn’s school years, Korea was still under this rule. He mentioned that life was “not easy. If you were found speaking Korean in school, or even to your family members, you would get in trouble.” He did not grow up speaking Japanese but had to learn the language.

Hahn graduated from high school in 1950. Two months after his graduation, the Korean War broke out. During this time, Korea did not have a stable government, so there was turmoil throughout the country. The North Korean army, known as the Korean People’s Army (KPA) invaded Seoul and trapped all of the citizens inside the city. The KPA tried to recruit people to their army, but Hahn hid from them. Most of his classmates either willingly joined or were forced to join.

He hid under the floor of his house, where the heating pipes were, for three months until American military forces landed in Inchon to attempt to liberate the country. Hahn hid with his younger brother Yuhak Hahn, whom me and my family call Uncle Huggy, throughout this period. The two had no help and had no clue what was going on outside. During these three months, they had very little food, and he never left hiding except briefly to see what was happening outside. At the time they were both in their late teens to early twenties. They had to forage food, and some periods they did not eat for days. 

After three months, he stated, “people began to find out that we were hiding, so we fled for the mountains twenty miles north of Seoul.” While in the mountains, they found a farmer that took care of them and provided them with shelter and food. A large number of South Koreans were hiding in the mountains, but the KPA swept through the mountains and brought them to jail.

They were taken to a jail in the nearest city, where there were about one hundred prisoners. He was there for about four days, with guards watching them at all times. He stated that “they told us that sooner or later we were going to be shot, because they told us we had no use.” On the third day, Hahn, Huggy, and his friend were all taken to be interrogated for about an hour each. His friend, who was also his neighbor, was a refugee from Pyongyang, North Korea. He told Hahn that the head of the jail was his friend from high school, so they knew each other. “It was a miracle. They told us three that we were released, and that the only reason they let us go was because of my friend’s relationship with the person in charge. Everyone else that was in the jail was killed.”

Upon release, they went back to the mountains for a period of time, then returned to Seoul once the U.S. forces liberated the city in the spring of 1951. The KPA were chased out of Seoul and pushed all the way back to the most northern part of the Korean peninsula. Unfortunately, the Chinese came and recaptured Seoul shortly after.

His family then packed up all of their belongings and went to Busan, South Korea, which was the last city that had not been captured. However, he did not go. He and his uncle put their family members on a train for Busan. This train was the last train before the railroads were blown up.

Hahn (left) during the Korean War.

As time passed, Hahn made his way to Busan, where he reconnected with his family. His mom found a friend that was working for the US Marines. The Americans lost many men and supplies while in the North and had to regroup in Busan to resupply. While regrouping, the Marines tried to find Koreans to join the army, and Hahn was one of them. He was assigned to a transport battalion, tasked with resupplying the front lines with ammunition, food, and other necessities. Hahn stated, “Since I was one of the few Koreans in this battalion, I was tasked to navigate the battalion.” The battalion traveled back and forth between towns. He was the navigator, so had to be in the first jeep. Hahn mentioned, “I had a gun with me at all times, but being in the first car was always the most dangerous.” Hahn was with the Marines until the end of the war and then traveled back to Busan.

Hahn’s USC graduation.

Hahn was trying to figure out how to travel to America, and he was reconnected with a friend from before the war that lived in America. He was told that Pepperdine, a college in California, was giving scholarships, and Hahn was granted one. Hahn arrived in the US in 1953 and went to Pepperdine University in Los Angeles for one year before enrolling at the University of Southern California (USC). Hahn studied physics, completed all of his requirements, and was able to graduate in two years in 1956.

At USC, he received a graduate scholarship as an undergrad, and taught freshman and sophmores in physics to earn a living. In 1956, Hahn applied to graduate school. “I got sick of Los Angeles and the west. I heard of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, so I applied to them, but did not know much about them. I took the GRE and got into Yale and Harvard.” Hahn chose Yale, receiving a fellowship, and he was also granted two full scholarships. 

Three generations of Hahns.

Hahn graduated from Yale in 1961 and went to NYU for four years to teach. In 1965, Hahn landed a job at the University of Connecticut, and then in 1972 he was promoted as a professor of physics. From 1972 to 2001, Hahn worked in Connecticut until retiring and coming to Richmond, where he now resides. Hahn now continues to research many topics and has published research papers. Currently, Hahn is writing one on his theory of UFO’s.

At the end of my interview with my grandfather, I asked one final question. What is one message you would like to leave the reader with? Hahn thought for a minute, then answered. “I worked all my life studying physics and publishing papers, but in the end you have to do something you love, or try something new. Something that you are interested in. Once you are doing something you want to work on and love, everything is exciting. Once you have something of your own, it becomes fun. You have to do something you love and enjoy. That is life. What is the point of living if you don’t enjoy or love what you are doing?”

All photos courtesy of the Hahn family.