SEOUL: A slice of Korea’s royal history was revived on Sunday in a funeral for Lee Ku, who spoke almost no Korean and lived in obscurity in Japan but was the last direct heir to the throne of Korea’s last dynasty. The Japanese-born Lee, 73, had been the only surviving son of Korea’s last crown prince of the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910). He died alone in a Japanese hotel room on July 16 and his body was transported to Seoul last week.
Mr Lee’s funeral was held at a palace in Seoul where his ancestors lived until Japan took control of the peninsula. Japan ended the dynasty with assassins, coercion and forced exile of royal members and started a period of colonial rule over Korea that lasted from 1910 to 1945.
Relatives and political leaders, flanked by men wearing the garb of civil servants in the Chosun period, said Lee’s life was symbolic of the pain Korea suffered under colonial rule. “He couldn’t help living a life that was filled with the pains of our modern history. The world has been forgetting the existence of him, the last crown prince,” said You Hong-june, the head of South Korea’s cultural heritage administration.
Mr Lee’s father, a crown prince, was taken to Japan and married Princess Masako Nashimoto, a relative of the Japanese emperor. The couple had two children, a son who died under suspicious circumstances as a child and Lee Ku, who grew up in Japan while Korea was under colonial rule.
Relatives of Mr Lee’s mother came from Japan to attend the funeral. After Korea was liberated from Japanese rule, South Korea’s political leaders did not want Lee to come back to the land his ancestors ruled for centuries because they feared his presence could present a challenge to their authority.
With the help of US General Douglas MacArthur, Lee moved to the United States.
He studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and married an American woman.
He lived in South Korea for a few years and tried to run a business that eventually failed.
Lee returned to Seoul last year and was able to feel the life of a crown prince for a day when he took part in a royal parade. He wore the traditional robes of a crown prince and was carried through the streets in a palanquin.
“I have no regrets,” Lee said in an interview with the South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo during his return last year about taking part in a royal ceremony.
“As a member of the family, I feel that I should inherit the culture. I am doing this for the benefit of the Korea,” he said.—Reuters
