Joanna Kim-Selby
One reader was very touched by a story in our January-February, 2015 KWMF Newsletter.
Joanna Kim-Selby is Executive Director of the East Bay Korean-American Senior Services Center in Oakland, CA, and a generous KWMF donor. She recently read our story about the SS Meredith Victory, the “Ship of Miracles” that rescued 14,000 Korean civilians fleeing the Chinese Communist invasion. And when she saw the December, 1950 photo of the Korean refugees on the deck of that ship, she was moved to tears.
Korean refugees on the main deck of the SS Meredith Victory
The story and the photo brought back a flood of sixty-five-year-old memories about her own ordeal and that of her family during that same month of December, 1950. Joanna was 18 years old at the time, and had just started her studies at Ewah Women’s University in Seoul. As the invading Chinese Communist forces approached the city, Joanna and her family were forced to flee south to Busan. The only transportation available was an open flatcar on a train jammed with thousands of other refugees, all exposed to the harsh winter conditions.
Joanna huddled on the freezing flatcar with her parents, her 11-year-old brother, and her 9-year-old sister. Her baby sister came down with pneumonia en route, and later developed tuberculosis of the spine as a result of the cruel conditions. The family survived, but at a terrible price. This is why Joanna says that for her, this was not “The Forgotten War,” but ”The Remembering War.” Joanna now devotes her time to providing loving care and social services for Korean-American seniors in Oakland and elsewhere in the East Bay.
After reading the story, Joanna posted it on the wall of her East Bay Korean-American Senior Services Center, and then wrote an emotional letter to KWMF Secretary John Stevens. Here is a copy of that letter:
[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.kwmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/5-3_joanne-kim-selby_letter_opt.pdf”]
Thank you, Joanna, for sharing your story with us at KWMF and with our readers.