Shadow of Empire
I FIRST VISITED DAEGU, a city in southeastern South Korea, in the autumn
of 2013, wandering the city after its early sunsets and long, frigid evenings.
It was a place noisy with cars and people and yet tinged with a forlorn
emptiness. I was there to document the early history of Samsung. But my
quest proved difficult.
“Where’s the home of Lee Byung-chul?” I asked a taxi driver, pointing
to the identifying dot on a tourist map.
Despite my hard-earned ability to speak passable Korean, he shrugged
and drove off.
Daegu was a trading hub under the Japanese empire, where prosperous
Korean traders and businessmen, taking advantage of its link to the nation’s
early railroad system, built their early fortunes on the back of their colonial
master’s might. I was surprised at the apathy toward the home of Samsung’s
founder.
I wandered for at least an hour through the biting wind of a ramshackle
industrial neighborhood.
“I’m looking for Lee Byung-chul’s home,” I would ask random
passersby, pointing to my map, which listed no address but only a rough
location. The house was unmarked on my GPS; no one seemed to know
what I was talking about.
“Lee Byung-chul? Samsung?”
I got more shrugs.
Then I got lucky.
“Ah, Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung! But you are a foreigner.
Why are you interested in Samsung?” a frumpy middle-aged woman with a