By Nam Hyun-woo
Kim Deok-hwa, 99, will finally receive her middle and high school diplomas 85 years after her middle school was closed, as the faculty and students refused to worship at a local Japanese shrine during Japan's colonial occupation of Korea (1910-1945).
According to Gwangju's Speer Girl's Middle and High School, it will hold a homecoming day event on Saturday where it will award Kim honorary middle and high school diplomas.
Born in Yeongwang County, South Jeolla Province, Kim attended Speer Girl's School, which is equivalent to middle school, but had to leave the school in 1937 due to its closure when she was 14.
According to the school's paper on its history, imperial Japan coerced Koreans to worship the Japanese emperor in the later part of its colonial rule and began to build shrines across the country.
In Gwangju, a shrine was built in 1935, and authorities ordered students at local schools to pay their respects to the shrine.
The faculty and students of Speer Girl's School and a number of others operated by Presbyterian Church missionaries refused to worship at the Japanese shrine, out of both resistance to Japanese colonialism and due to their religious beliefs. The school closed on Sept. 6, 1937, which had been designated as a day of worship.
Though Korea was liberated in 1945, and Speer Girl's School was reopened in December of that year, Kim could not continue her studies because she married at the age of 18 and continued working. She raised eight children as a widow after her husband died when she was 43.
Her story first received public attention after she appeared on a TV show, introduced as a "99-year-old grandmother who plays the piano."
She taught herself to play the piano at the age of 71 and spends most of her time playing the instrument. She can still sing the school song, according to school officials.
Along with attending the homecoming day event, she will also visit the church where her father, Kim Jong-in, served as a pastor.
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| Kim Deok-hwa / Courtesy of Gwangju Speer Girl's Middle and High School |
According to Gwangju's Speer Girl's Middle and High School, it will hold a homecoming day event on Saturday where it will award Kim honorary middle and high school diplomas.
Born in Yeongwang County, South Jeolla Province, Kim attended Speer Girl's School, which is equivalent to middle school, but had to leave the school in 1937 due to its closure when she was 14.
According to the school's paper on its history, imperial Japan coerced Koreans to worship the Japanese emperor in the later part of its colonial rule and began to build shrines across the country.
In Gwangju, a shrine was built in 1935, and authorities ordered students at local schools to pay their respects to the shrine.
The faculty and students of Speer Girl's School and a number of others operated by Presbyterian Church missionaries refused to worship at the Japanese shrine, out of both resistance to Japanese colonialism and due to their religious beliefs. The school closed on Sept. 6, 1937, which had been designated as a day of worship.
Though Korea was liberated in 1945, and Speer Girl's School was reopened in December of that year, Kim could not continue her studies because she married at the age of 18 and continued working. She raised eight children as a widow after her husband died when she was 43.
Her story first received public attention after she appeared on a TV show, introduced as a "99-year-old grandmother who plays the piano."
She taught herself to play the piano at the age of 71 and spends most of her time playing the instrument. She can still sing the school song, according to school officials.
Along with attending the homecoming day event, she will also visit the church where her father, Kim Jong-in, served as a pastor.
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