Patriot / Overseas (Americas) / Order of Merit for National Foundation, Commendation (2008)
| Life | 1922 ~ 1982 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 밀양 박씨 |
Park Hyeong-mu (1922-1982), of the Miryang Park clan and known by the pen name Sanu, was born in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province. Conscripted as a student soldier late in the colonial period, he was sent to Burma, and in March 1945 escaped a Japanese cavalry unit in the Kume area and surrendered to British forces. Together with Park Sun-dong and Yi Jong-sil, who had escaped a week earlier, he was handed over to American forces in New Delhi, India.
The three traveled via Cairo and Washington to Santa Catalina Island off Los Angeles, where from June to September 1945 they took part in the Napko Project, training in weapons, radio operation, and parachuting for a planned infiltration of Korea. When Japan's surrender canceled the infiltration mission, the trainees were transferred to a POW camp in Hawaii, where Park and his fellow trainees produced a circulated weekly, Jayu Haninbo (Free Korean News), which ran to seven issues.
He returned to Korea in June 1946, joined the National Defense Guard and then the Republic of Korea Army, and was discharged as an army sergeant in March 1949. He later served as an administrative committee member of the Korea Independence Party and the Liberal Party, and died in Seoul in 1982. The government posthumously awarded him the Order of Founding Merit in 2008.