A Long-Awaited Family Reunion
—As told by In-Bok Kim in Korea
‘THIS is like welcoming someone back from the dead!’ That thought kept running through my mind when I embraced my younger sister, In-Soon, whom I thought had been dead for over 30 years. Choked with emotion, we both cried like the little children we were when we last saw each other.
Our reunion was the outcome of a program sponsored by the Korean Broadcasting System that dramatically brought together over 11,000 family members long lost to one another. But before I tell you how my sister and I became reunited, let me take you back to the tragic events that separated us as well as millions of other Koreans.
Early Memories
I was born in the port city of Inch’ŏn, Korea, in 1936. As the second of three children in the family, I had a happy childhood. Then, suddenly, tragedy struck. The year I was nine, our mother died. The very next year our father also passed away. All of a sudden, it seemed, we had become orphans. Our older sister had married by this time. So it was decided that In-Soon and I would go to live with our older sister and her husband. We moved in and began adjusting to our new life as best we could.
One day, when I came home from school, I was told that In-Soon had been sent away to live with relatives of my brother-in-law in a town in central Korea. For me, a boy of 13, this came as a crushing blow. My parents had been taken away from me, and now In-Soon was gone. My older sister comforted me by promising that as soon as things became more settled we would be able to visit each other. From that day on, I longed for the moment when I would be with my little sister again. But that moment was not to come for a long time—33 years, to be exact. For in just a few months, in June 1950, the Korean War broke out.
Devastation of the War
The war took a terrible toll on everyone. The seesaw warfare between the north and the south devastated the whole country. About one million civilians were killed in South Korea, a substantial loss in a country of some 20 million people at that time. Cities and villages were destroyed. Families were uprooted. Husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers and sisters were scattered. Our whole society was torn apart.
The ravages of the war did not pass us by. Word came from relatives that In-Soon and the whole family she had been living with were killed. Ironically, as I learned later, she was told by one of our neighbors, who had fled the area, that I, too, had been killed when our refugee boat was blown up. So for 33 years each of us believed that the other was dead.
Changes After the War
By July 1953 the war came to an inconclusive end. The country tried to pick itself up from the ashes. I spent about a year and a half in an orphanage, and finally a wealthy businessman took me in. He wanted to raise and train me to run his business. I did well in school, and my future looked promising. Nevertheless, my thoughts were always troubled. “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” I often thought. “If there is a God, why does he allow wars and such things? What is the meaning of all of this?”
Soon, while still in school, I was contacted by Jehovah’s Witnesses and started to study the Bible. It was as if a light began to shine on my mind and heart. Now, at last, I found the answers to my questions. I learned from the Bible the reason that wars and suffering exist, as well as the solution, which is near at hand. This put an end to my plans for a business career. I was now determined to serve this God of comfort, Jehovah. I soon progressed to the point of dedication and baptism. By the time I was 20, I was appointed by the Watch Tower Society as a special pioneer, a full-time minister.
My first assignment was to the area where my sister had been living when the war broke out. I tried very hard to find her, but no one knew anything about the family. I became more convinced that she must be dead. So many others had lost their loved ones in the war. I, too, must accept the reality.
Literally millions of people in Korea have gone through the same experience that I did. Over the years, they have tried various ways to locate their lost family members but with little success. Ads in the newspapers or announcements on the radio proved ineffective. One reason is that the war literally crippled the nation’s communications and transportation systems. Only recently have these been rebuilt. Another reason is that in South Korea, which now has a population of over 40 million, there are only 258 family names. More than half of the people have one of the five major family names—Kim, Lee, Park, Choi and Chung—and many of them also have the same first, or given, name.
A Unique TV Program
Recently, however, something new was started—a program utilizing television and computer technology. Sponsored by the Korean Broadcasting System, it began as a TV documentary on the Korean War. A two-hour segment on separated families unexpectedly drew such a flood of inquiries from viewers that it had to run for 20 hours that first day. Then it continued for 14 hours a day through the next week and eventually became a weekly feature for about five months.
People looking for lost relatives contacted the TV station. They were then assigned a number and given a date to appear on TV. Meanwhile, their names and other details were fed into a computer to see if they matched up with others searching for a missing relative. If this proved unsuccessful, then they went on the air. Each person appeared on television holding a large card showing the assigned number and his name, the name or names of the missing person or persons, their hometown, their parents’ names and any other details they could remember.
The broadcasts were nationwide. Anyone watching the program and recognizing the person or circumstances could contact the station and be reunited right there at the studio, with the whole nation looking on—tears, cries, hugs and all. People living in different parts of the country were reunited by two-way TV monitors. According to the Korean newspaper Choong Ang Ilbo, the program brought together 11,089 people out of the 53,535 who sought help.
The Korea Times of August 16, 1983, reported: “Never before in their history have the Korean people shed so many tears of joy spontaneously and simultaneously. Never before in the 5,000 years of the Korean history has the entire population had the emotional experience of unity and oneness as from the thousands of their brethren having tearful reunions with their separated kin.”
An Unbelievable Reunion
Seeing the emotional but happy reunions on TV, including those of relatives long thought dead, old memories began to stir in me. Could it be possible that In-Soon was still alive? I had to try just once more to find her. I went to the station and had our names and other details entered into the computer. I was given a date to go on the air a month later. Then I went home—and waited.
Five days before I was to appear on TV, a phone call came from the station. They told me that my sister had been located and that I should come to the studio to meet her. Unbelievable as it seemed, she had gone to the station to have her name fed into the computer the very same day that I was there.
On the way to the station, old memories flooded my mind. I began to feel confused. I only remembered a young girl of 11. Would I recognize her now? How could I know for sure that it was my sister? If it was not, then I would have relived all the old sorrows and painful memories for nothing.
When they brought us together, In-Soon recognized me right away. But I was apprehensive and nervous. Meeting someone you loved but for 33 years had been sure was dead was no easy thing, to say the least. Was she really In-Soon? How could I be sure? After talking for a while, we decided to visit our hometown Inch’ŏn, about 25 miles (40 km) away, where my older sister lives.
On our way there, we began reminiscing about our childhood days. We talked about our house in Hwapyung Dong, a section of Inch’ŏn. We remembered that it had a black galvanized tin roof. When it rained at night, we would be so frightened by the sound of the raindrops hitting the roof that we would jump in the bed and hide under the covers together. We recalled how our neighbor, whose house also had a galvanized roof, but painted red, lost all his hair because of typhoid fever, and how shortly thereafter our mother was stricken with the same disease and died.
Such recollections convinced me beyond all doubt that this was indeed my younger sister whom I had been looking for. Tears of joy came to our eyes. We could no longer contain ourselves. Together we cried over our joyful reunion.
Greater Joy Ahead
My joy has been increased since our meeting that day. Now In-Soon has begun studying the Bible. She, too, will come to know the reason for all the suffering in the world and what she must do to be included in the grand purpose that Jehovah God has for all those who love and obey him.
While thousands have experienced the unspeakable joy of being reunited with long-lost family members, there are still millions who have yet to do so. Some say that about ten million people are separated from their families by the boundary between North and South Korea. With no communication across the border allowed, many do not even know if their relatives on the other side are dead or alive.
For these and others like them, however, there is a hope. The Bible tells us that soon God’s Kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ will do away with political and all other boundaries that keep the human family divided. (Daniel 2:44) Then also will be seen the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise at John 5:28, 29: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” What a time of rejoicing that will be! For then, at last, the long-awaited family reunion of all mankind will be realized.
[Blurb on page 19]
For 33 years each of us believed that the other was dead
[Picture on page 20]
People searching for lost relatives appeared this way on TV