hankyoreh

Just three days ago, the family of Cho Sung-tae, 61, was well settled in the Korean community of Northern Virginia. His family lived in a two-story townhouse in the Washington suburb of Centreville. Cho’s daughter, 26, graduated from Princeton University and his son, 23, were students at Virginia Tech.

Even though one could hardly say he had fully realized the ‘American dream,’ Cho Sung-tae was said to have gotten on his feet financially after coming to the United States with nothing. His children were a reflection of this, attending prestigious universities, a dream of the more than one million Korean immigrants in the U.S.

In 1992, Cho and his family left their home in a Seoul suburb - Chang-dong of Dobong-gu - and headed for the U.S. After immigration, Cho and his family did not have a lot of money as they tried to get their dry cleaning business off the ground. But the family seemed to have known this kind of struggle even before they left South Korea. Cho’s family was believed to have rented a low-income, two-room basement apartment in Chang-dong before seeking a new life.

Cho Seung-hui’s maternal grandfather, living in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, told the Hankyoreh on April 18 that his son-in-law had run a small bookstore in Seoul, which he had opened with money earned as a construction worker in Saudi Arabia before marriage. "One of the reasons he went over to the United States was that he wanted to give his children a better education."

Neighbors in Virginia said Cho and his wife, now 56, dedicated themselves to taking care of their two children. Neighbors say the Chos often drove their son down to Virginia Tech at the start of the semester, though it is an eight-hour round trip.

However, the dream of the Cho family suddenly collapsed on April 16, when the gunman responsible for the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history was named as 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui. The tragedy left 33 students and faculty at Virginia Tech dead, including Cho.

When did things start to go horribly wrong? Cho’s maternal grandfather remembered that "Seung-hui was so quiet from the beginning - compared to his sister, who was very smart - that I thought he might lose the ability to speak."

Cho attended two years of elementary school in Seoul. Cho’s 65-year-old former homeroom teacher, only identified by the surname Roh, told the Hankyoreh on April 18 that, "As I don’t remember Cho especially, I think he was a very ordinary student. If he had been introspective or problematic, I would have remembered him at least a little," Roh said.

The 67-year-old owner of the apartment where the Cho family last lived in South Korea told Yonhap News Agency that, "I remember he was a very quiet boy. I am so stunned he caused this tragedy."

On April 18, American media reported that Cho had shown erratic behavior leading up to the tragedy. He did not talk with his fellow dorm mates and avoided eye contact with anyone, according to the reports. On April 17, a student who had attended a screenplay class last fall with Cho said the gunman submitted violent plays, including ’Richard McBeef’ and ‘Mr. Brownstone.’ The writings were filled with images of violence, sexual molestation, and murder.

Lucinda Roy, chair of the English department at the time, said Cho’s writing was so problematic that in 2005 she had gone to the campus police to seek advice and had urged Cho to attend counseling, but to no avail. Also in 2005, two female students reported to the police that Cho had annoyed them with unsolicited calls or Internet messages. Soon after those incidents, his dorm roommate reported to police that he thought Cho might be suicidal, and police took Cho to a mental health facility for a few days, where he was evaluated as mentally ill.

Cho’s high-school classmates also remembered him as a quiet and sullen student. An ethnic Korean high-school classmate, only identifying himself by the surname Park, said, "He always quietly sat in the front seat of the school bus. He didn’t mix with Korean students and was always alone."

Joseph Aust, an electrical engineering student, shared a bedroom with Cho at Harper Hall dormitory. Aust told the Los Angeles Times that Cho spent a lot of time downloading music files, gave just one-word answers and tried not to carry on a conversation. Aust said he knew barely anything about him.

Police suspect that Cho, despite his apparent erratic mental status, might have deliberately prepared the rampage. He purchased two guns beginning in February, as under Virginia state law someone without a criminal record is allowed to buy one gun per month. A rambling note saying, "You caused me to do this" was left at Cho’s desk.

However, it is uncertain whether we will ever understand Cho’s true motive. Some in South Korea have cited the identity crisis facing Korean children immigrating to the U.S. There has been no word yet from the Cho family, who watched their 15-year American dream collapse into horror.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]