Deokhye The Last Princess of Jusun Dynasty

Deokhye The Last Princess of Jusun Dynasty

She was the Daughter of the famous King Gojong and was born in 1912. Later she was unwantedly taken to Japan in 1925 to Tsushima Island, where she was forcedly given to marriages to Yuki Takeda who was the descendant of the lord of the island. Besides, she suffered from the dementia and was exacerbated after marriage. Divorce and her daughter's suicide in 1962 were still making her worse at the time she returned home to her own land at the end of life. It was not easy to her till death.

May 25, 1912, the 26th king (emperor) met his 60th birthday and the King Gojong (高宗) gave birth to a daughter with (福宁堂) Yanggwiin of (福寧堂) Bokyeong-dang. Her mother was not the first wife and gave a title to the daughter Onju instead of calling her Gong-ju, the formal princess. Her mother was given a title after her birth and the daughter Deokhyeongju as the precious daughter was treated by King Gojong in that way. King Gojong had 4 daughter in all, but all were given to death within 1 year after birth. And she became one and only daughter to him. At one place named (卽 祚 堂) Jeukjodang of many in palace, he built a kindergarten for her and she attended here.

Deokhyeongju as the seonyeo (庶女) meaning of being a daughter from the second wife, wasn’t formally recognized as the royal family by the Japanese colonial government. King Gojong had a bad experience of losing his own son, the prince Ee-eun by forced relocation to the Japan territory for an arranged marriage. So she was struggling to avoid such a second bad case of giving the princess to Japan. King Gojong tried making his daughter marry to the nephew Kim Janghan (金章汉) of the royal chamberlain named Kim Whangjin, but soon failed the plan. And the man was forced not to go out of the palace Deoksu. And the year 21^st of January, King Gojon was dead all of a sudden.

In 1921, Deokhye Ongju, the princess attended Hinode elementary school in Seoul. At the time the Japanese Hinode elementary school was the place for the sons of the governmental high ranks and only a few Koreans could attend the school limitedly. Then she renewed the title from the Lady of Boknyeong-Dang to Deokhye as the title of being a princess. She was sadly relocated to Japan by the reason they say the royal family all should be educated in Japan at March in 1925. She was moved by ship via Busan to Shimonoseki [下关] and took a train to Tokyo. On her arrival on 30^th of March at 8 o’clock a.m., the Lady Bang-ja Lee met her at the station. The princess joined a school (여자학습원 – this means a school for women’s educations) and was said she was always so silent and not well mixed with classmates.

In 1926, the next King Soon-Jong was very ill in bed, she shortly returned to her country with her brother Ee-eun, but finally she couldn’t attend his funeral and just went back to Japan on May 10th. At that time Japan government didn’t allow them to attend the national funeral, but let her attend instead, on the day of the next year in 1927. Her real mother passed away from the breast cancer disease on 30th of May in 1929. Then she couldn’t see her at funeral, but should be returned to Japan. From 1930, she suffered from the emerging diseases of the Sleepwalking and she was given to the place of the King Yeongchin for treatment. The diagnosis was Schizophrenia and became better next year.

In 1913 May, she married to the lord of Tsushima Island Takeyuki [宗武志] as arranged marriage, and the next year, she gave birth to a daughter named Jung Hye in janpanese name that was Masae. But the marriage life became worsen after her disease got worse. While her husband found her not getting well, he hospitalized her to the district mental hospital in 1946. Finally, she was divorced reported one-sidedly, then, she transferred her official report to the name of Yang Deok Hye in family Yang to Japan registration. She was in the hospital Matsuja for about 15 years. (The correct year of their divorce was said to 1951 or 1953, but is reported to 1955 according to the Bangja Lee’s writing “As it flows”. The only daughter Jung Hye married in 1956, but soon failed and left a will before her missing at the mountain range of Japan’s Southern Alps. But she was misunderstood as she killed herself by throwing herself to the sea of Genkai.

The process of her coming back to her own country was not easy. At the time when the president Seung Man Lee’s political state was concerning her return, her return was rejected by him. Eventually on 26th of January in 1962, she came back, but she had to make her new citizen’s registration in 1982 as of the time passed 20 years, and suffered much with loosing languages and her own disease till she passed away in her age 76 in 21st of April in 1989 at NaksunJae. She was buried at Hong Yu Reung (洪裕陵) in Keum Gok Dong (金谷洞), Namyang-Ju shi in Kyunggui province, the republic of Korea.