Seung Hie Kim

Seung Hie Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, during the Japanese occupation. Recounting her childhood memories, she describes what school while under imperial control, such as how penalties would be imposed on students who spoke Korean in the classroom—not even an “Um-ma! Oops!” went unnoticed. She speaks of the Japanese name and identity given to her (“Ido Hoshiko”), and feeling sadness and confusion while listening to Hirohito’s surrender broadcast as she’d considered herself to be Japanese by the war’s end. After liberation, her family was subjected to kidnappings and arrests owing to her siblings’ Communist ties, and during the Korean War she fled from Seoul to Yeoju-si. Shortly after the war ended she met her husband, who had returned from military academy in the United States. The couple married in 1957 and later moved to the U.S. in 1972, settling in Baltimore where fortune granted them a business opportunity in managing a large department store in the greater Baltimore area.