Biography
He was born the second son of Prince Gang, the fifth son of Emperor Gojong.
At the age of five, he was adopted to be the heir of deceased Prince Jun (or Prince Yeongseon, 永宣君李埈 yeong seon gun i jun), the 3rd head of Unhyeon Palace and the only son of the elder brother of Emperor Gojong, Prince Hui (or Prince Heung, 興親王李熹 heung chin wang i hui or Yi Jaemyeon, Prince Wanheung of Korea, 完興君李載冕 wan heung gun i jae myeon). He was taken to Japan shortly afterwards in pretense of educational purposes.
However, unlike his elder brother, Prince Geon (李鍵 이건 i geon), he maintained his integrity as a Korean, despite his Japanese education. This made him the favorite son of his father, Prince Gang, who himself attempted to escape from Korea to join the exiled Korean Government. He overcame all attempts by the Japanese to marry him off to a minor Japanese noble, and married Lady Park Chan-ju, a granddaughter of Marquis Park Yeong-hyo who was a husband of Princess Yeonghye of Korea. They had two children, Yi Chung (李淸 이청 i cheong) (born 23 April 1936) and Yi Jong (李淙 이종 i jong) (born 9 November 1940 - 1966).
Prince Wu served in the Japanese Army stationed in China. Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1930s, he was promoted to Major by 1942 and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1944. While in the Empire of Manchuria, he was supposedly reported to have supported the guerrilla resistance movement by exiled Korean and Chinese people.
Prince Wu was transferred to Hiroshima in 1945, and on 6 August 1945, he was mortally injured by the atomic bomb blast on the way to his office, and died later that day at a medical aid station. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of Colonel. After his funeral, Adjutant Lieutenant Colonel Yoshinari Hiroshi (吉成 弘) committed seppuku on account of not being able to save Prince Wu. Thereafter his body was moved to Korea and was buried in Heungwon on 15 August 1945, the day the war ended.
Read more about this topic: Yi Wu
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