Hunting in Korea
When my family abridged Joe B. Hopper’s memoir into the published Mission to Korea (1999), the hunting chapters were among the casualties. Here are both of them, transcribed from his unpublished manuscript, Thirty-Eight Years Below the Thirty-Eighth (1991). Like much of the memoir, they are built mostly from his letters home. Hunting was how this Southern Presbyterian church-planter in North Chulla Province spent his rare days off, almost always with his sons Barron and David.
Hunting
As I have already related, soon after arrival in Korea in 1948 I took up hunting as a sport, and continued to enjoy this as long as we were permitted by the Korean authorities to do so. Upon the return of our family to Korea in 1954, this also became a way of taking outings, particularly with Barron and David, but sometimes with the whole family. Saturdays and holidays were a time to go out with other men of the station (Paul Crane, Dr. Linton, Bob Smith, John Folta, and others). When I was travelling among my rural churches I carried a gun in the vehicle, and could often shoot game along the road side (against which there were no laws).
At the Kunsan Airbase PX I bought a 12 gauge Remington Wingmaster shot-gun and a 22 gauge Mosser repeating rifle with a telescopic lens. At times ammunition was scarce but I managed to keep some almost all the time. Initially I had trouble seeing game, particularly pheasants, although other hunters could spot them. But as the years went on I could see them anywhere, often at considerable distances. For many years I was a very poor shot, and missed far more than I hit, but by the end of my career I was a pretty good one and kept our home supplied with plenty to eat. As our boys grew larger they were avid companions on hunting expeditions, and later when they were in boarding school in Taejon would return on Saturdays for an all day hunt. When they were big enough, I let them shoot some too, which always gave them a thrill.
Occasionally Korean pastors would schedule some kind of meeting on the day we were going hunting. When I did not show up, there were questions asked about why a missionary would go hunting rather than attend some kind of church committee meeting … perhaps an implied criticism. But I would ask: “How many preachers’ sons do you know who have turned out badly in later life?” There would seldom be a very happy answer to that. I would say, “These boys of mine will not be with me forever, and when we go hunting is the best time for us to be together in a wholesome fellowship and sport. You pastors will regret it if you do not give time to your sons (and daughters) too!” Maybe this was just another way a missionary could set an example … I thought so anyhow!
I could never recount every hunt, but will give only some excerpts of my accounts in letters home.
1/23/55. Thursday I made a trip to Chung-oop… On the way home I shot a pheasant and a goose much to the delight of the children, and to the heightening of Daddy’s reputation in the eyes of his family. Then yesterday afternoon I shot down another goose, much bigger than the first, so Barron says, “Daddy is getting gooder and gooder!”
3/6/55. I believe we have had five helicopter landings on the Boys’ School field since I last wrote. Tuesday I happened to be down there in my jeep so drove out to see who had arrived and it was the commanding colonel from the (Kunsan) airbase, so I drove him down to the UNCACK. A couple of days later two helicopters came in at once and then returned again the next morning and waited practically all morning. The first trip had been to arrange the latter landings, apparently. The occasion was the arrival of General Partridge, commander of the Far East Air Force & accompanying brass for a hunt. I understand they flew a jet from Tokyo to Kunsan and then came over here by helicopter. I hear there were a total of 9 or 10 stars among the generals involved, but did not see them. They didn’t get much game, and what they got was pretty expensive if transportation is figured in. It makes us feel rather proud to have such famous hunting grounds.
1/5/56. Tuesday all the men in the station plus the visiting men went on an all-day pig-hunt but didn’t see any pigs. It was a nice warm day and we enjoyed the hike in the mountains.
1/28/56. On the way home (from a Sichal meeting in Namwon) I shot two cock pheasants and a nice duck.
2/6/56. On the way up the Chung-oop pass we saw a covey of three pheasants and I managed to get them all, with two shots. Coming around a curve on the way home (from Kwangju) we saw two deer in a barley patch close by the road, and would have had plenty of time to shoot except that none of us had loaded our guns, assuming that in the dark there would be no hunting.
11/28/56. Week-end before last, on my way to Namwon, I shot my first deer. I had seen no pheasants, but then saw two of them a hundred yards off. While walking through the pines I came on the deer and was almost as surprised as it was, but managed to get it with one shot. It took about all my secretary and I could do to drag it to the car. Elder Yoon in Namwon (our old Chidi-san man) cleaned it and strung it up until I came back through on my way home on Monday. Naturally I covered myself with glory in the sight of four little Hoppers. (Mr. Yoon, my secretary, and several others who participated in preparing the deer proceeded to drink cups of its blood … evidently good medicine!)
Hunting (1959–64)
2/5/60. I returned from Soonchun late last night with Paul Crane. We had gone down there day before yesterday, hunting along the way but getting only two pheasants. Yesterday I went on an all day hunt with Paul, Pete Mitchell, and Dwight Linton. We went to an island just off the mainland below the leper colony and had quite a day of it. Paul got a deer and all together we got four geese, seven ducks, three pheasant and a couple of hawks. My feet and legs got pretty tired and sore and are a little stiff today.
2/27/60. Tuesday afternoon a little after four I took Barron out of town about five miles and returned at six. We succeeded in shooting down four geese during that time, somewhat of a record for me. Naturally Barron was excited about the whole affair … especially since one bird was only slightly injured in the wing muscle so that Barron captured him alive and still has him out here in the backyard with every prospect of his not dying … at least not from the wound. David was in bed that day with a bad cold but seems all right now.
10/10/60. This morning after breakfast (at Sam-gye, Imsil County) I went out of the village about a mile and shot three pheasants within a half hour. In fact I got up so many I ran out of ammunition, or I might have gotten more. On the trip in I got another, making four to the delight of the boys here. We got three when I took them out on Saturday afternoon ten days ago.
10/18/60. Wednesday morning Ronnie Dietrick and I took off at five in the morning and met Hugh Linton at 7:30 down near Kurei in San-dong Myun. I shot two pheasant on the way that morning. We climbed up into the mountains to a peak called Man-pok-tai [the thousand blessings peak], about three miles from Chidi San and almost as high. We hunted up the mountain that day, and all over the mountains the next day, going over fairly close to Chidi San and back down toward Pan-yak-bong. Unfortunately the deer were rather scarce although I did have a good shot at one nice big one but missed. The only deer was bagged by a Korean hunter who was working with us. The leaves were beautiful, with maples turning, and the weather was good … not too cold. However we nearly walked ourselves to death and my feet and legs were pretty sore from going up and down the mountains all day … Friday morning Stan Topple and Ronnie and I hunted down the mountain and all the way back to Chonju getting some more pheasant but no deer.
12/6/60. Saturday morning early and again in the afternoon I took the boys hunting but we only managed to get one pigeon. Yesterday I had a meeting in Namwon. It was raining and snowing and I was in a hurry both coming and going to the meeting but shot three cocks enroute. They seem to like nasty weather.
10/12/60. Saturday morning Barron and David and I got up at six and went for an all day hunt in Imsil and Namwon. The weather was warm and sunny and we had the time of our lives, seeing about 100 pheasant and shooting 13 of them (11 cocks and 2 hens). I believe this broke known records for one day around here. Naturally the boys had a big time, especially running and picking up the birds that were shot. I wish you could have seen them as they carried them all into the house … almost more than they could carry.
1/4/61. Saturday Ronnie and Daly Dietrick, Lane Holdcroft (USOM, no kin to the former missionary), and my two boys and I went hunting down in Namwon. We had some trouble with tires early in the day, but managed to get 11 pheasant, a duck, a rabbit, and a pigeon. My contribution was four pheasant and a pigeon.
2/27/61. (This entry from Dot, his wife.) Saturday afternoon Margaret and I asked to go hunting with Joe and the boys. We hunted geese out on the dikes and got three (two of them with one shot out of the air).
1/7/62. Last Monday I took the boys and picked up a soldier at the missile base and went hunting all morning. Did not see as many birds as I had hoped but I managed to get one cock. The minister of agriculture and forestry finally ordered the local officials to give us our guns, and after due delays because of the New Year holidays and official red-tape, we finally have them. The trouble now is trying to find some time to go hunting.
1/22/62. Alice and Barron came down Friday evening and I met them in Iri. Alice went back to Iri Saturday to spend the week-end with the Canadians there. Ronnie and Dwight and John MacBride came up from Kwangju Friday afternoon bringing four sons, spent the night here, and then all of us and John Folta (making 5 men and 6 boys) spent the whole day Saturday hunting, with the Kwangju car going on from Namwon to Kwangju late that afternoon. We got 20 pheasant during the day and the others may have gotten more on the way to Kwangju, so all had a big time. The weather was perfect, with a little snow on the ground. I have been out again this morning with Barron and David, hoping to find geese but didn’t get any. We did get two more pheasant.
2/4/62. David and I met the train in Namwon yesterday and picked up Hugh and his two oldest boys and we hunted down there all day. It was a beautiful day, with lots of game. David and I got 5 cocks in the morning, and Hugh got two in the afternoon. We would likely have gotten more in the afternoon, except that we let the boys have a try at some that would have been easy for Hugh and me to get.
3/11/62. Yesterday Barron and David and I went hunting all day and got a crow, a magpie, a hawk, two ducks and four pheasant. Barron and David each got a pheasant, shooting from the car at birds by the roadside, which made them both feel happy and all pronounced the hunt a success.
11/25/62. We returned yesterday morning from our visit to Kwangju over Thanksgiving. The children got home on the Tuesday night train. The two Linton boys came here with them and spent the night, catching the 4:30 AM train the next morning to Soonchun. That is about the only way they can get home without wasting a whole day. Our family went to Kwangju on Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed our visit at the Browns’ new house very much. Tommy and I and our boys spent all day Thursday and all day Friday out hunting along with quite a crowd of others, including several out of town guests at other homes. I got several pheasants each day, and I suppose the total number must have been 30 or 35, plus two deer that some of the others got.
12/4/62. I have just had a bath and rest after being in the country since Saturday… None of the churches had stoves and the rooms were none too warm at night either. Fortunately I seem to have gotten along without catching cold. I shot seven pheasants, four of them this morning. Actually I shot down another and had him in the pouch of my hunting jacket as I was walking over some hills for ten or fifteen minutes. When I took the birds out of the pouch to put them into the car one of them accidentally dropped to the ground and took off flying without even stopping to say good-bye.
12/26/62. Saturday I took the boys and went hunting all day and we came back with five pheasant. We tried hard to get a deer and saw two nice ones, one in the morning and one late in the afternoon. We had the latter all lined up to shoot when some Korean boys scared him too soon and we didn’t get a shot.
1/2/63. The Browns arrived last Wednesday afternoon and stayed with us until Saturday morning. Thursday Paul and two oldest children, John Folta, Tommy and two boys, and my two boys and I went hunting all day. We got a total of 19 pheasant, 2 deer, 2 duck, and a rabbit which made everybody happy. John and Tommy got the two deer. It was a very mild day and we hiked all over the mountains so were pretty tired when we got in. Since I took the party to my private hunting preserve in Namwon I was gratified that the amount of game lived up to my expectations.
1/19/63. I took the boys and went hunting all day. About ten miles out of town the snow got very deep in most of Imsil and Namwon counties, averaging about 10 inches. With considerable wind there were also large drifts. As we topped the pass just before Kwanchon, we noticed footprints in a small field alongside the road. I started to drive on when David exclaimed, “Daddy, there are footprints in the field but none going in or coming out!” This made me stop to examine what had appeared to be a small boulder or rock on the far side of the field. Looking through the scope of my 22 rifle, I saw that instead of being a rock it was the head of a deer. I fired, and the deer jumped up and fell over dead. As usual I lowered the rifle, putting on the safety, but at that moment another deer which had been beside the first one jumped up. I aimed and tried to shoot, but had forgotten that the safety was on. By the time I released the safety and fired again the deer was running. We got out and chased him up the hill, firing as we went. We could see spots of blood on the snow and knew he was wounded. But in that deep snow we could not make much time, and after moving slowly at first the deer revived his strength and took off and we never saw him again.
1/27/63. Monday night while I was at a ministers’ meeting, some GIs from the missile base brought a whole truck load of food for the leper colony orphanage and stacked it here in the hall, so early in the morning the next day I took it out to them. Shot two ducks on the way back and three pheasant on a little ride that afternoon along the dike outside which Dot and I took. Friday was Korean New Year’s Day and I had asked Ronnie Dietrick and Joe Cameron to come and go hunting. They couldn’t come so Paul and I went. It was so cold and snow so deep that it took us several hours to get warmed up but we wound up with me getting five pheasant and Paul ten.
Transcribed from Joe B. Hopper, “Hunting” and “Hunting (1959–64),” in Thirty-Eight Years Below the Thirty-Eighth (unpublished manuscript, 1991). Both chapters were dropped from the abridged published edition, Mission to Korea (Providence House Publishers, 1999).