One man's life through 5 regimes revealed in book, lecture

Dr. Kim, right, poses with his mother in Daejeon in October 1953. Courtesy of Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

In March 2006, Dr. Kim Kyoung-jin, then nearly 70, decided to take a Russian language class at the Continuing Education Center at Sangmyung University, only to discover that the class was no longer available. Instead, he enrolled in an English language class in which students read newspaper articles together and discussed them. It was there that he met his instructor and future biographer, Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

Over the course of many years, in class and afterwards during lunches with his students, Denny got to know Kim and delighted in the stories he told him about his life. After almost two decades of friendship, Denny decided to record the details of Kim’s life and publish his biography, “Five Nations, One Life: The Extraordinary Journey of Dr. Kyoung-jin Kim.”

The cover of “Five Nations, One Life: The Extraordinary Journey of Dr. Kyoung-jin Kim” / Courtesy of Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

Born in 1936 to parents who had emigrated to Manchuria, Kim was raised in Changchun, then renamed Shinkyo by the Japanese, where his father worked as a public servant in the local administration. Manchukuo had been established as a puppet state in 1932 by the Japanese Kwantung Army, which installed Puyi, the deposed last emperor of China, as its figurehead ruler. Kim enjoyed telling the story of the day a procession with Puyi passed by and he, unlike the others all bowing at 90-degree angles, dared to look upon Puyi’s royal countenance as he passed by.

The Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 brought to an end his life there, as he and his mother were sent south in what was intended to be only a temporary separation from his father. He never saw him again.

Soon after they arrived in Korea, then still Japanese territory, the radio broadcast Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s surrender, which ushered in the American occupation of southern Korea, where Kim settled with his mother. With the advent of the U.S. Military Government in Korea, Kim began his life under a third regime, following life in Manchukuo and Japanese-controlled Korea, which then turned to a fourth nation when the Republic of Korea was founded in 1948.

Dr. Kim Kyoung-jin skates on the Han River in Seoul in the 1950s. Courtesy of Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, Kim saw fighter jets over the skies of Seoul that looked familiar, as he had seen them during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria five years earlier. Living under North Korean occupation, he experienced living under the fifth regime in as many years.

Dr. Kim Kyoung-jin sometime in the 1940s or 1950s / Courtesy of Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

“Five Nations, One Life” provides readers with not just descriptions of Kim’s experiences during these years, such as when he encountered a friendly North Korean soldier, or how he befriended American soldiers and helped them carry out their orders in return for food, pay and shelter, but also his experiences in the years since, most dramatically when he took part in student demonstrations in 1960 against South Korean President Syngman Rhee’s rule, which left him hospitalized.

Aided by numerous photos, Denny goes beyond biographical details to capture the joie de vivre with which Kim lives his life, showing his ability to captivate those around him by telling tales or bursting into song, including Japanese songs he was made to learn in school as a child. While readers might wish the book was longer, “Five Nations, One Life” sheds light on Korea’s complicated past by viewing it through the eyes of a man who lived through some of the most momentous events of 20th century Korean history.

Kim, now 89, will discuss his life with Denny for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea starting at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday. The lecture will be in the basement of the Seoul Public Activities Center near Exit 8 of Samgakji Station on Seoul Metro lines 4 and 6. Entry costs 10,000 won, or 5,000 won for students of all ages with valid student ID, and is free for RAS Korea members. Visit raskb.com for more information.

Dr. Kim Kyoung-jin, left, and Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr. Courtesy of Samuel Alexander Denny, Jr.

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr, and co-author of "Called by Another Name: A Memoir of the Gwangju Uprising."