Bound for Japan
On the second of November, Ki-jo set out for Gimpo Airport with Choong-hoon.
They were bound for Japan, to take up the question of building a steel mill with Japanese industrialists.
In the car on the way to Gimpo, Choong-hoon spoke.
“Hard to say whether we’ll end up on the same plane as the private negotiating delegation. I heard those fellows are leaving the country today too.”
“Are they?”
Ki-jo nodded as he drove.
The Private Negotiating Delegation, drawn from the businessmen of the Korea Employers Association, was being sent ahead of the government’s Loan Negotiation Mission to open preliminary talks overseas before the official party departed in search of foreign credit.
“Everything but steel, they say—fertilizer, cement, coal fields, telecommunications, rayon. Word got out that we took the steel business, and I hear the Association is good and angry. The mood seems to be we’ll see about that, but what can they do? The man at the top put it in our hands. Isn’t that so, Ki-jo?”
Choong-hoon said it with a broad, easy laugh.
Ki-jo answered with a wry smile and a nod of his own.
The private delegation still seemed to nag at Choong-hoon, and he went on.
“They’re headed for West Germany, and President Lee Byung-chull is going with them. Samsung tried to land a loan in Italy a while back and failed, didn’t they?”
“They did.”
“So this time Samsung looks to be digging in for real. Rumor has it they’ve settled on fertilizer as their next flagship and mean to push it with everything they’ve got. After seasoning, we’ll be up against Samsung in fertilizer too.”
“I don’t see it as a competition. The fertilizer Cheongsan turns out can’t meet the whole of the demand. For the country’s sake, Samsung has to build a fertilizer plant as well.”
“Well, that’s true enough. But if Samsung jumps into fertilizer, they’ll build bigger than Cheongsan and beat the price down. You really all right with that? That’s how Samsung does things.”
“I’m all right with it. If fertilizer comes cheaper, so much the better.”
Choong-hoon studied the unhurried younger man.
“I’ll be damned. You of all people seem to have all the time in the world when it’s a fight with Samsung. Let Samsung so much as step into their line of work and other companies start shaking in their shoes.”
Ki-jo kept his counsel.
He had no intention of losing a contest with Samsung, but he thought of them as companions who would haul the Korean economy forward alongside him.
“Here we are.”
The Gimpo parking lot came into view, and Choong-hoon said it.
Ki-jo pulled in, stepped out, and handed the keys to Dae-ik, who had ridden along in the back seat.
“Dae-ik, I’m counting on you to look after the company while I’m gone.”
“Yes, sir. Don’t worry. Come back from overseas sound and well, without a single ache.”
“I will.”
Ki-jo smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.
Every time he looked at Dae-ik, the young man felt as steady to him as an eldest son.
He sent Dae-ik off—the man had wanted to see them all the way to the gate—and went into the terminal with Choong-hoon.
The place was packed.
The private economic delegation, the staff attending them, and the reporters assigned to cover them had filled the hall. The Employers Association had splashed the private loan venture across the papers, and interest in the delegation was running hot.
Ki-jo and Choong-hoon finished the departure formalities and stood watching the fervent press scrum.
“Chairman Lee Byung-chull, what sort of results do you expect once you’re overseas?”
Several reporters had Lee Byung-chull hemmed in and were putting questions to him.
“Well now… one won’t know until one goes, mind you. As the Employers Association has already made plain, we mean to negotiate loans on the order of two hundred million dollars in all.”
“Have you been promised that the government will give you active support in securing them?”
“Of course. The government has promised to stand guarantee in full. Unlike the last administration, this government, as I understand it, has a firm philosophy of economic development, the will to pursue it, and a genuine intention to lend its support.”
Lee Byung-chull did not forget a gracious word for the government.
They had been watching the interview from a distance and were starting toward the departure gate when a reporter recognized Ki-jo, came over, and greeted him warmly.
“President Lee! Are you leaving the country as well?”
“Ah, yes.”
Ki-jo took the man’s hand and smiled.
He did not say that he was going to Japan on account of steel.
“Where are you headed?”
“Japan.”
“Japan? What’s taking you there?”
“I’m going to pick up canning technology.”
“Canning?”
The reporter lowered his notebook and laughed.
He had come hoping for a story and looked plainly disappointed. A canning venture fell a long way short of the heavy and chemical industries the Employers Association was pushing.
“President Lee, there’s a rumor that Cheongsan shoved Samhwa aside and is moving ahead with a steel business… Is it true?”
“First I’ve heard of it. As far as I know, nothing has been decided yet where steel is concerned.”
Ki-jo shut it down flat.
In the climate of the day, to announce that one was off to Japan to borrow great sums of capital and technology was to invite public condemnation, and he preferred to handle the matter quietly.
“I see…”
The reporter nodded, then asked,
“Cheongsan still hasn’t joined the Employers Association. Any plans to?”
It had the sound of a question tossed out in the hope of salvaging even a single line of copy.
“Not at present.”
“Is there some reason?”
“No. No particular reason. If it becomes necessary, I’ll consider joining.”
Ki-jo was trying to slide past the membership question with a vague answer when President Lee Byung-chull came over.
Lee Byung-chull smiled and offered his hand. Ki-jo took it in both of his and bowed.
“I hear you’re off to Japan?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“I’d hoped Cheongsan might join the Association and come along with the private delegation… but it can’t be helped. Cheongsan has already brought a loan home from West Germany, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Since Cheongsan has left us so fine a precedent, I expect it will be of some help to our Association as well. I hope you meet with good results in Japan.”
When Lee Byung-chull offered the blessing of an elder of the business world, the reporter beside them smiled as well. A photographer even raised his camera and caught the two of them standing there in conversation.
But the looks the other businessmen turned on Ki-jo were not kind. They stared as if Cheongsan were standing in the way of the Association’s work.
Under those stinging glances, Ki-jo and Choong-hoon left the departure hall and took their place at the back of the line of passengers waiting to board.
The aircraft Ki-jo was to take was a Northwest Airlines flight bound for the United States by way of Japan. The private delegation headed for Germany would ride the same plane, touch down in Japan, continue on to America, and there transfer to a flight for Germany. In those days there was no direct route from Korea to Germany.
When the airliner taxied in toward the gate and the boarding stairs were set in place, airport staff held the ordinary passengers back.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please wait a moment. The private economic negotiating delegation will board first, and the rest of you will follow.”
At the staffer’s words, some of the passengers burst out in complaint. They had been standing in line all this time—why should those people go first?
A man who looked like a civil servant stepped forward.
“These businessmen are going abroad in the service of government policy, so let’s give them the priority. Bear with it a little.”
Not long after he finished, the businessmen came crowding up and ranged themselves in a row atop the stairs. Then they turned toward the photographers waiting at a distance, smiled broadly, and waved. They were posing for publicity pictures.
Ki-jo watched in silence, but Choong-hoon clicked his tongue.
“They really will try anything. If they need a photograph, they could wait and have it taken while they board last. What kind of stunt is that?”
A man nearby agreed.
“You’re telling me. People who were being hounded as illicit fortune-builders until just the other day are playing the patriot now. Honestly.”
Once the businessmen had all gone inside, the ordinary passengers climbed the stairs. They shot glares at the men settled in the best seats at the front and made their way aft.
Ki-jo and Choong-hoon, who had been at the rear of the line, came aboard and sat in the row directly behind the businessmen. Choong-hoon frowned, as if the seats did not suit him.
They had hardly sat down when voices from the row ahead began to grate.
“The president of Cheongsan is on the plane too. What’s he so proud of, going his own way? He was lucky enough not to be branded an illicit fortune-builder, so I suppose he doesn’t care to keep company with the rest of us.”
“Looks like he got in good with the government and walked off with the steel project. For a young man, his maneuvering is something. Must have a line in with the soldiers. Samhwa Steel is the one that took the real hit.”
“A man ought to have a conscience. He hasn’t even tried the steel business, and already his appetite is—well.”
It sounded as if the words were meant for him to hear, but Ki-jo closed his eyes and pretended he had not.
Choong-hoon could not let it pass. He shot to his feet and faced the men of the Employers Association.
“That’s going too far! Maneuvering, appetite—what are you talking about? Can any of you go abroad and actually bring a loan home? If you’d had any mind to do a thing that hard, shouldn’t you have gone to President Lee, who’s already secured a commercial loan, and asked him how he did it? You haven’t even done that, and now you’re sitting with your backs to a man and running him down!”
Ki-jo tried to restrain him.
But the businessmen, who had been staring blankly at Choong-hoon, let out sneers.
“And who might you be, raising your voice like this on an airplane?”
They seemed to know perfectly well who Choong-hoon was, and were only pretending otherwise. Hanjin Trading, though, was not yet of a size to elbow its way into the Employers Association. It was making a fair amount of money, but it had not a single factory—only trucking work for the U.S. Army and a few light aircraft it had brought in. A second-division businessman, nothing more.
“This is President Cho Choong-hoon of Hanjin Trading.”
Ki-jo rose and introduced him, then looked to Lee Byung-chull.
“We’ll move our seats. You have a long journey ahead of you—please travel in comfort.”
“No. No need for that. People who tear others down ought to be made to shut their mouths. Why should we be the ones to move?”
Choong-hoon refused. Ki-jo caught the agitated man by the arm all the same and drew him toward the rear of the cabin.
He approached a young couple in the very last row.
“I’m sorry to ask, but would you be willing to switch seats with us? We’re in a bit of a situation.”
He told the man where their seats were. Perhaps because they were the better places toward the front, the man responded favorably. He conferred with the woman, then said they would.
“Thank you.”
The couple gathered their bags and went forward, and Ki-jo and Choong-hoon sat down in the last row.
“Ah… I’m really boiling. There’s a limit to looking down on people. How can they tear into a man right to his face!”
Ki-jo closed his hand firmly over the back of Choong-hoon’s and said,
“Thank you for getting angry on my account, hyungnim. There’s a saying—even if the dogs bark, the train goes on.”
The words were rougher than was usual for him, and Choong-hoon looked at him in surprise.
“You know how to talk like that?”
“Of course. I’d like to say worse, but we’re on an airplane, so I’m holding it in.”
“Is that so?”
Choong-hoon laughed, a deep, rolling chuckle. When the laughter had run its course, he said,
“Those fellows couldn’t begin to guess who we’re going to meet. Remember the politician we ran into when we went to get the Korea Shipping vessels back from Japan?”
“Mr. Kakuei Tanaka?”
“That’s the one. We’re going to see him again, and right now he’s doing very well for himself in Japan.”
Choong-hoon said Tanaka now held the post of Minister of Finance. The Ministry of Finance was the elite organ of the Japanese bureaucracy, the body that handled the national budget. It was a ministry with great sway over Japanese business, and through Tanaka one could meet industrialists with ease.
“Just recently, you know, Mr. Tanaka has been pushing the Shinkansen. The scale of the thing is decades’ worth of Japan’s railway construction costs. A man with real nerve. He hasn’t a fine academic pedigree like ours, but he’s a leading candidate for the next prime minister. If Mr. Tanaka calls, the presidents of the steel companies will come running to Tokyo.”
Choong-hoon talked on with gusto, as if to lift Ki-jo’s spirits after the slight.
At length the airliner began its run down the runway, and the Northwest flight lifted into the sky, bound for Japan.