Talk:Yang Kyoungjong

Identification problems

This article has some issues and concerns that an internet legend has grown around it even though there is very little evidence that this person exists. The archived talk pages bring these points:

1) The exact name of 'Yang Kyoungjong' seems to have originated on the internet in 2005 from Axis History Forum poster 'Kim Sung' in this thread [1]. Later he posted that the information he provided was "not confirmed" [2]

2) The Korean documentary concluded that although there had been Asian soldiers in the German Army during World War II, there was no clear evidence for the existence of Yang Kyoungjong. [Referenced in the article]

3) Chicago Tribune archives on Newspapers.com, have been checked and there is no mention of anyone named Yang in April 1992.

4) User:Harizotoh9 put in a request in the Evanston, public library to search for obituaries around Yang's supposed death, and they found nothing.

The original caption of the photo read:

W 727680  New York Berueau
Capture Japn In Nazi Uniform
France--Fearful of his futur, this young Jap, wearing a Nazi Uniform, is checked off in a round up of Greman prisoners on the beaches of France. An American Army Captain 
takes the Jap's name and serial number.

5) FindAGrave is not a RS.

For these reasons, the man in the famous photo has not been identified. -- Thats Just Great (talk) 00:18, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

The Americans on D-Day : a photographic history of the normandy invasion

The book The Americans on D-Day : a photographic history of the normandy invasion by Martin K. A. Morgan is used as a reference throughout this article for things that are not in the actual book. The entry reads:

Brigade collects information from German prisoners on Utah Beach shortly after June 6. The soldier with the Asian features has been the subject of much speculation in the decades since this photograph was taken. The official caption identified the man as a “young Jap,” but he was most certainly not of that extraction. In the 1990s, a theory emerged that he was a Korean impressed into the Japanese Imperial Army and then captured by the Russians before he was captured and conscripted into the service of the Third Reich. In recent years, he has even been identified as Yang Kyoungjong: a Korean conscript in the German Army who moved to the United States in 1947 and died in Illinois in April 1992. Since no evidence supporting this identity has been produced, the more convincing probability is that this soldier was a member of the 795th Georgian Battalion, a supporting unit in the German 709th Infantry Division composed of ethnically Georgian osttruppen [Eastern troops] positioned near Utah Beach at the time of the invasion. U.S. Coast Guard Collection in the U.S. National Archives 26-G-2391

Therefore I am removing all citations of his book except those that the one that says, no evidence has been produced -- Thats Just Great (talk) 00:22, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Personal details

I'm removing details that I can't find any RS for:

• He moved to Illinois, United States, where he lived until his death, in 1992.
• He was born March 3, 1920

If any RS can be found these can be added back in--Thats Just Great (talk) 01:28, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Antony Beevor and Steven Zaloga

Both of these authors mention Yang Kyoungjong. Beevor in The Second World War talks about him almost like a metaphor on how international the German defense of Normandy was. Steven Zaloga in The Devil's Garden is writes about him almost in passing, talking more about the movie that was to be released. Both accounts do not source where they got their info. -- Thats Just Great (talk) 01:56, 17 August 2022 (UTC)