Japan Mourns Korean Student Who Died Trying to Save a Life

TOKYO - Japan is mourning Lee Su-hyon, 26, a South Korean who was studying there and who sacrificed his life while vainly attempting to rescue a drunk Japanese who fell onto the tracks at a Tokyo subway station.

The Korean and a Japanese, Shiro Sekine, were killed Friday with the drunk when they could not pull him from the tracks before a train roared in and hit them all.

Mr. Lee, a senior on leave from Korea University, had been studying Japanese since last January and was planning to return to his homeland in July for an economics degree. After graduation, he intended to enroll in graduate school in Japan and study e- commerce.

The Japanese media reported Mr. Lee's death and the story of his parents' grief as a major news event and many Japanese have been offering donations and making supportive phone calls. The Mainichi newspaper opened a donation account Sunday.

Many netizens also left messages of condolence on Mr. Lee's personal home page ( blue.nownuri.net/~gibson71). One grieving person, Kim Yeong- uk, wrote, "We should make this home page a place to remember him forever and introduce him to young Koreans as a true hero." "I am proud he was a Korean," wrote a Korean from New York.

Mr. Lee himself left this message: "I want to live never having to regret the past. I will overcome hardships and obstacles as part of life."

His family back- ground sheds more meaning on his deed. Lee Seong-dae, Mr. Lee's father, said, "My grandfather died in Japan and my father was drafted to work in a Japanese coal mine under Japanese rule and suffered greatly."

"I myself was born in Osaka and moved to Pusan, Korea, at the age of 6 in 1944. It is a strange coincidence that Su-hyon should have gone to a heroic death in Japan despite his family's sad past with Japan."

The funeral will be held Monday at Mr. Lee's language school in Tokyo and his parents will return to Pusan on Tuesday after cremating his body.

by Oh Day-young