Notes from a YouTube interview with Eugenia Kim:
Based on Kim's real sister. To this day she doesn't know that she was adopted. She has dementia.
"Blackest Day of My Life". Really didn't eat on the plane to US.
Real grandmother lost all of her toenails to frostbite. She brought rice to her daughter in Japanese prison. Included a bible verse in the food.
Real sister came over when Kim was five and sister was eleven. Later they lived together in college and still never talked about it.
2005 went to Korea to research her book and sister went as translator. The trip was very distressing because she remembered that for two years when she came to America she dreamed about going back to Korea. She had a full happy live in Korea- Very close to family.
Didn't go back until early twenties, but she married a man that had business interests in Korea and they would go back each year.
She's available to book clubs via Skype. She brings Korean dumplings if it's in the area. Lives in Tacoma Park, MD.
Calvin separated for nine years during WWII. He was studying theology in US.
Wife in jail for three months because the Japanese thought that she must be a spy since husband in US.
because he was working for the army he was able to get a travel visa after the war. Wanted to bring his wife because of this separation.
Inja has the emotional support in Korea.
Wife is collecting book of American colloquialisms.
Secrets kept not out of malice, but for protection.
Do you protect the person that it had been kept for so long? That can damage as well.
Thought the would be in US a year or two, but it was fifteen years.
Inja misses her uncle greatly.
Book teaches about the Korean war. Korean war isn't that widely told and the veterans are dying.
"Always trauma when you leave a country (as in immigration)- Loss is always part of the picture".
Took her seven years to write this book- 15 years for the first book, CALLIGRAPHER'S DAUGHTER. She was a graphic designer and a 'complicated' son. Only able to write a couple of hours a day.
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Can't leave the adopted child because that would be a signal that they wouldn't return.
'Darkest Day' when she was separated from her uncle. The US family she only knew by photos and packages.
Cook and Yun left behind because they thought they would only be gone a week.
*****Eugenia Kim is also a designer of women's accessories, bags, and hats.
Can't leave the adopted child because that would be a signal that they wouldn't return.
'Darkest Day' when she was separated from her uncle. The US family she only knew by photos and packages.
Cook and Yun left behind because they thought they would only be gone a week.
*****Eugenia Kim is also a designer of women's accessories, bags, and hats.
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