Yang Kyoungjong: The Soldier Who Fought for Three Armies

Captured by the Japanese

Yang Kyoungjong, a Korean man born in 1920, was forcibly conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Japan controlled Korea at the time, and he was sent to fight in Manchuria against the Soviet Union in 1938.

Taken by the Soviets

In 1939, Yang was captured by the Soviet Red Army after Japan’s defeat at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. Sent to a labor camp, he was later forced to fight for the Soviets when Germany invaded the USSR in 1941.

A German Uniform

Yang was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was captured again—this time by the German Wehrmacht during the Third Battle of Kharkov in 1943. Needing more soldiers, the Germans conscripted him into their ranks and sent him to defend Normandy.

Captured by the Americans

On D-Day in June 1944, Yang was captured by American troops in France. Initially mistaken for a Japanese soldier, he was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in England before eventually settling in the United States.

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