My family moved around a lot. Perhaps, in my retrospect, we did seven or eight times. According to my parents, since they got married, my family has moved 11 times. The reason is that our family livelihood was jeopardized once my father lost his job. It all happened when I was little, so I do not remember how severely poor we were. Actually, as time went by, we continuously moved into newer, bigger houses, and consequently, I never felt uncomfortable as growing up. But, at the age of five, my older sister had to watch helplessly as unknown people taking her white piano out of her room. She asked,

“Why are they taking my piano?” “Yoo-Jeong, the piano is broken, and they need to fix it,”

answered my mother instead of giving her detailed account.

Graduating from Chung-Ang University with B.A in Journalism, in 1974, my father joined MBC, one of the three major broadcasting stations with SBS and KBS in Korea. In 1980s, Korea was in a state of disorder. On October, 26, 1979, the former president Chung-hee Park was assassinated by Jae-kyu Kim, his right arm as well as the director of KCIA, Korean Central Intelligence Agency. The following year, Doohwan Chun, the military dictator came into power with a military coup on December 12^th, which is more well-known as 12.12 among Koreans.

Under the dictatorship, freedom of speech was suppressed, and press of reports was controlled. Civilians started being outside on streets and revolted against military regime. On May 18^th, 1980, a pro-democratic resistance movement firstly began in Gwangju, and it spread like wildfire over the country.

While all organs of public opinion were pressured, CBS, Christian Broadcasting System, and Dong-Ah Daily Newspaper were merged into KBS, Korea Broadcasting System. In Busan, my hometown, Kookje and Busan Daily Newspaper were amalgamated. In those days, Busan-Jin police office, my father’s news beat, was the largest official institute where newsmen from fifteen major media organizations were accredited for reporting. With Gap-Jee Cho, who was a journalist at Kookje Daily Newspaper, but later suddenly turned to conservative side, my father wrote a draft of the Journalists’ Declaration of Conscience. It was signed by journalists of the national press and published in the Association of Journalists Newspaper. Eventually, the military regime infringed on freedom of the press, and under the surveillance and command of KCIA, a great many reporters and writers got informed that they were fired. Some of them got divorced or committed suicide as suffered from the hardship of life. After radio news reports on August 11^th, 1980, my father also got a letter of dismissal. Afterwards, in order to support family, he entered Dong-Yang Construction, a big company and worked there for a year, but he was discharged due to the supervision of KCIA. Then, he tried to continuously join a company but got dismissed as a result of his record. Hence, my parents were saddled with debts and could not help selling the white piano their daughter loved to buy rice and dry milk.

My mother needed to support our family during the time that my father took care of my sister and me at home. First, she gave piano lessons in music school. And, later she sold glassware made of crystal. She ran her business really well, but one day as the parent company went bankrupt, all the checks bounced like a scrap of paper. A wretched circumstance at the time attracted my parents to think about suicide.

The only place where they could lean on was church. She said they sought solace in religion, and decided they would endure any kind of suffering for my sister and me, listening to minister Pildo-Jeong’s sermon even though they did not go to church when young. As a matter of fact, my mother had totally different home background from my father’s. Unlike him, who grew up in poor family as the eldest son out of seven children, my mother spent her childhood in a wealthy family. Owned and managed a car factory in 1950s, my maternal grandfather was a successful businessman to such an extent as to have many imported cars such as Mercedes and Chevrolet. Thus, it was said that my mother’s family were adamantly opposed to the marriage. For that reason, I still dream of true love for my marriage although it is naturally acceptable to get a “suitable” match for one in terms of marriage.

The ties my mother had with a friend decisively had a great impact on my father resuming his seat. She helped my parents keep in touch with Young-Il Kim, a presidential secretary for civilian as well as her near relative. Among many journalists who were wrongfully dismissed from MBC, my father was the only one reinstated at the time. Till then, my mother’s sacrifice for the family was so great that it almost defies description. Though it was not a good idea economically, as soon as my father returned to his work and saved money, the first thing my parents bought was a white piano. It was the present from their heart for their daughter. The piano, not sounding good and already faded into beige by many years, is still in the corner of my sister’s room in Busan, keeping my family company down through the years we had moved seven times.