The Tragic Story Of Korea’s Last Princess D
After decades away from her home in Korea, Yo-kai finally returned in 1962. But as the crowds finally caught a glimpse of their lost princess, their excitement turned to brutal shock. When we think of princesses, we imagine castles and happily ever afters. But for Diokai, the last princess of Korea, life was anything but a fairy tale.
Born into royalty, but raised in the shadow of occupation, Diokai’s story is filled with heartbreak and betrayal. She vanished from the public eye for years only to resurface in a place no one expected. After nearly four decades in exile, Diokai returned to Korea. But this wasn’t the fairy tale ending. Korea welcomed her home.
But her country had changed beyond recognition, and she had nearly been forgotten. She was born into luxury but lived a life of unimaginable grief. A princess in name but a prisoner in reality. This is the tragic story of Korea’s forgotten princess. Yokai was born in 1912 within the aged stone walls of Dukong Palace in Seoul.
A palace once vibrant with royal life but now dimmed under foreign rule. Her father was the emperor Gong Jang of Korea. So she should have had a life of silk robes and royal privilege. But instead, her story was destined to be one of sorrow. Despite her golden cradle, Dokai’s childhood was steeped in struggle from the very start.
Although her father ruled the nation, Diokai’s mother didn’t come from noble blood. She was a royal concubine, a mistress in a palace, not a queen. In the strict hierarchy of Korea’s court, that meant Diokai started life at a social disadvantage. Despite her imperial lineage, for the first 5 years of her life, Diokai didn’t have an official name, not a title, not even a nickname, nothing, not an auspicious beginning for the young Diokai.
But there was another far worse reason for this bizarro mission. Yokai remained nameless because the Japanese overlords who were tightening their grip on Korea refused to let her father name her. In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea. So, the royal family held no real power and the occupiers had no interest in honoring the last royal daughter of the house of Yei’s place in the dynasty.
The Japanese Empire didn’t want to recognize Giokai’s existence, not publicly at least. They refused to acknowledge her as royalty and delayed her naming for years. Her father begged for a chance to legitimize her, but the colonizers denied him. It wasn’t just just respect. It was an attempt to erase her completely.
In 1917, Japan finally allowed the to be recognized as a princess. But it was a calculated move, not an act of kindness. The title came with strings, and Japan still held all the power over her future. Even though the odds were stacked against Diokai, she defied obstacles from the start. Everyone saw that even from an early age, the Nameless Child was very bright, and her father was determined to give her the best.
He had a private kindergarten built just for her. Proof that even amid the political chaos, she was destined for more. And as we will see, she needed all of her wits to survive. Diokai’s charm and innocence captured the hearts of Koreans. She became a quiet symbol of hope and identity for a colonized people. But that popularity didn’t go unnoticed.
The Japanese authorities saw her as a threat and began hatching some chilling plans how to neutralize her. Young Diokai had no idea what they had in store for her. Sensing the danger, Emperor Go Jong devised a plan to secure her future and shield her from Japanese influence. Although she was just a child, he believed that arranging her marriage was her only shot at freedom.
Tragically, his plan never got off the ground. Japan had other plans for her. The Japanese caught wind of Gojong’s plan and swiftly put an end to it. They weren’t about to let theai slip away from their grasp. Coming under the protection of another family and possibly even rallying another nation’s support.
And then just when things couldn’t get worse, her father died suddenly under deeply suspicious circumstances. Rumors swirled that Go Jong hadn’t died of natural causes. Many believed Japanese agents poisoned him to silence his resistance. At just 7 years old, Yo-kai lost her greatest protector and she didn’t even have time to mourn as her life quickly took an even darker turn.
Immediately after her father’s passing, the Japanese decided that Diokai would go to school in Japan. But this move was in reality more like a kidnapping, removing the beloved princess from the public eye. The royal Diokai was too dangerous to keep in Korea. With Emperor Gojong gone, the throne passed to Diokai’s older half-brother, Sej Jong.
But it was all for show. The Japanese controlled everything, and Sejong had no real power to save his little sister from exile. The royal family had become nothing more than a decorative relic under occupation. At age 13, Diokai was ripped from her home and sent to Tokyo. The goal was clear.
Disconnect her from Korea, erase her influence, and turn her into a silent, forgotten figure in a foreign land. Yukai didn’t go willingly, but in 1925, the Japanese took her away. Alone and heartbroken, she boarded the ship to Japan, leaving behind the palace, her people, and everything she knew. Life in Tokyo was cold, isolating, and cruel.
Diokai, a princess by birth, became a political pawn. Watched constantly, surrounded by strangers, and stripped of her identity. She was to become slowly, indistinguishably Japanese. She learned their language, their customs, their mannerisms, but her letters home were filled with longing and sadness. In 1929, she finally got permission to go back to her beloved homeland, but it was under tragic circumstances.
She was allowed to attend the funeral of her mother, Lady Vulong, but was immediately whisked back to Japan. When she returned to Tokyo, Yokai went to live with her halfb brothertherong. Technically, I was king of Korea, but he was a king without a crown. And although he served in the Japanese military, he had no power to help his sister when she received a disturbing diagnosis.
Years of trauma, grief, and oppression had taken a toll, and Yo-kai began to suffer from severe mental illness, eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. Her once sharp mind unraveled, and the world moved on as she slipped into obscurity. In addition to her deteriorating mental health, Diokai struggled to fit into her new home.
Japanese nobles looked down on her. So her capttors decided that the best way to deal with her would be to marry her to a Japanese nobleman, Count So Fakiuki. But not everyone approved of the marriage. Her brother tried to stop the wedding, claiming that the marriage was unbefitting a royal princess.
That was the point, to further humiliate the Korean royal family and assimilate them into Japanese society. In 1931, she was married, making it clear that the Korean royal family were not the equals of the Japanese Empire. Although the marriage triggered salacious rumors, the camp was kind to her in the beginning and for a while the couple was happy.
But sadly, the good times did not last for long. Yokai was isolated, miserable, and increasingly unstable. And predictably, her marriage began to fall apart. She reportedly made attempts to run away, even trying to flee back to Korea, but every door was slammed in her face. To make matters worse, in 1941, Japan entered World War II and Japanese culture was turned upside down.
And when the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Allies abolished Japanese aristocracy, leaving her husband with no title, no power, and no money. A crisis that added to the already tense relationship between the couple. The war came and went. Japan fell. Korea rose, divided and bleeding, but free.
After Korea gained independence, her brother tried to get them back home. But the new South Korean government wanted nothing to do with the royal family. They feared it would destabilize the fragile New Republic, so they shut the door in their faces. Yo-kai was shunned again. She had no option but to remain trapped in her marriage and exiled in Japan.
[Music] In the end, the count divorced her. In a cruel end to their unhappy marriage, he called it quits in 1953. While she was recovering in a mental hospital, broken and battling for her sanity, Count Takayyuki decided it was the perfect time to say, “I’m out.” He divorced her just like that. No support, no kindness.
And if it wasn’t enough salt in the wound, he started dating someone almost immediately. At the time, divorce was considered scandalous, especially among Japanese nobility. So, the divorce officially ruined any remaining hope that Diokai would find her place in Japanese society. In the midst of all this darkness, there was one bright spot.
Her daughter, Mas, also known by her Korean name, Jongghai. Yokai loved her deeply and clung to her as the last piece of joy in her life full of sorrow. In 1955, she graduated with a literature degree and also tied the knot. It was the same year her dad remarried. So for Diokai, this was a bittersweet victory.
Her world was crumbling, but at least her daughter was finding happiness, or so it seemed. That hope didn’t last. One day, Masai disappeared without a trace. No note, no goodbye. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. The silence was deafening. And deep down, Yokai feared the worst. Some say she ran away.
Tragically, many believe Masay took her own life. Was it the trauma of her parents’ divorce or the immense pressure of being caught between two worlds? Whatever the truth, Diokai never saw her daughter again. Losing Masai shattered what little was left of her spirit. By 1956, Dokai was divorced and childless.
And with her mental health in freef fall, Yokai was once again committed to a psychiatric hospital. There she stayed for years, forgotten, hidden, and isolated. Her name faded from headlines. Her country moved on. Korea forgot its princess. A princess in a padded room far from the land of her birth. While she languished in obscurity, most of Korea believed she was dead.
Rumors of her fate circulated, but no one could confirm anything. It it was as if she had been erased from history. In the 1960s, the South Korean government finally had a change of heart. They wanted to reconnect with their heritage. So, they reached out to find their long-lost princess, only to find no one knew where she had gone.
Supporters of the former Korea monarchy had sought out Giokai’s location for years, but unfortunately for them, the trail had gone cold, but in a twist that feels straight out of a mystery novel, a Korean diplomat and journalist tracked her down in a psychiatric hospital in Japan. She’d been missing for over a decade, but there she was, drugged, disorientated, and forgotten.
When asked who she was, she simply replied, “I am Princess Diokai of Korea.” But if you think that’s the wildest twist in Princess Diokai’s story, just you wait. The journalist who rescued her, Kim Uluhan, was linked to her past. He was the brother of the boy Dyokai’s father had tried to marry her to. It was a remarkable twist of fate.
Thanks to him, the gears finally started turning for her return home. In 1962, she once again set foot on Korean soil. But she did not return as a monarch, and she was a shadow of her former self. Silent, fragile, haunted. She bowed deeply, touched the ground, and wept. She was finally home. Although the government didn’t recognize her as a princess anymore, her old court ladies sure did.
They bowed and treated her like royalty when she landed in Seoul. It was an emotional moment for her, but also painful, a reminder of everything she had lost. But her former ladies in waiting were not the only ones eager to see her. Reporters swarmed like vultures, shoving cameras in her face and shouting questions.
But Diokai, hollowed out by years of trauma and medication, just stared blankly. The public quickly realized their lost princess was mentally broken. Even though Korea’s last princess was finally back where she belonged, the tragedies in her life had taken their toll and she was immediately admitted into Soul National University Hospital where she stayed for 10 years.
Slowly trying to recover from years of heartbreak. After a lifetime of suffering, Diokai was finally able to scrape together some sense of peace with for herself in her final years. Even though there was no longer Korean monarchy, she lived in Chongjuk Palace in Soul with her brother and his family.
Yokai spent the rest of her life in Soul, mostly out of the public eye. She lived quietly, surrounded by distant relatives and former palace staff. She spent her days walking in gardens, tending flowers, and writing poems in the script of her childhood. A faded figure from a bygone error. However, these days of peace did not last very long.
In 1989, the Yokai passed away quietly at the age of 76. There was no national morning, no state funeral. She was buried quietly alongside other members of the royal family. With her death, the last living princess of the Josong dynasty was gone. In her final years, her illness left her barely able to speak. But even then, her heartbreak still had a voice.
Before she died, Dioi whispered her last sorrowful words. I missed my motherland even while I was in my country. Even in Korea, she still felt exiled. She had returned, but never really belonged. After her death, the world forgot about her again. The monarch was a relic, and her tragic life was barely a footnote in Korean history.
It would take a work of fiction to bring her back into the spotlight. In 2010, the novel The Last Princess hit bookstores and it exploded in popularity. Suddenly, Koreans were talking about Tioai again. Her story was adapted into a hit movie in 2016 and later a musical. The princess was finally remembered, but she’s still not fully honored.
Even now, Dyoki doesn’t get the acknowledgement that she deserves. She’s still called unju, a title given to daughters of concubines instead of gongju, the term for daughters of queens. Even in death, her secondass status lingers. She may be remembered as the last princess of the Joong dynasty, but destiny stole from her the chance to be remembered as a queen.
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