Former Islander taking a whirl in diplomatic world
| • | Special report: 100 Years of Dreams, Accomplishments |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
McKinley High and University of Hawai'i-Manoa graduate Yang Jung-jin is a third-generation descendent of Korean immigrants who came to Hawai'i in 1904, a former teacher with three master's degrees and a doctorate in comparative and international education, and a diplomat's wife.
As the wife of Yang Sung-chul, South Korea's ambassador to the United States, her formal name today is Yang Jung-jin, but she's known as Daisy Lee to relatives and longtime friends in Hawai'i.
In this year marking the 100th anniversary of Korean immigration in the United States, Yang Jung-jin said she has reflected on the benefits she has reaped from her grandfather, Kun Shim Lee, and father, Edward Waigi Lee.
Her brother, Robert Lee, and sister, Susie Lee Birdsong, are UH-Manoa graduates. Robert Lee is president of a local construction company while Birdsong has a master's in social work.
"All of us were fortunate to receive the education my grandparents and parents had no opportunity to receive because they were too busy working," she said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "Had I not received the kind of education I did, I would not have had a career at the University of Korea."
Yang Jung-jin and her mother have established a fund to introduce programs on Korean history and culture at the Smithsonian Institution.
Yang Jung-jin's grandparents left northern Korea for Hawai'i on the second boat carrying immigrants to the Islands. Her father was the eldest of nine children, all of whom were born in Kohala on the Big Island.
In the 1930s, Yang Jung-jin's grandparents and their children returned to northern Korea, where they owned a ranch. Following the death of her husband, Yang Jung-jin's grandmother came back to Hawai'i with seven of her children. Her father and his youngest brother remained in Korea.
In 1945, Edward Waigi Lee started a trucking business in the south. During the Korean War, he served as a civilian interpreter for the U.S. Air Force. Lee worked for the Air Force until he moved with his wife and two daughters to Hawai'i in 1958, when Daisy was 15.
She met her husband in 1966 at the Manoa campus when he was an East-West Center grantee. The couple have been married since 1967 and have two adult children. Their son, 34, is a cardiology fellow at Stanford University while a daughter, 31, works in Seattle.
"I have fond memories of Hawai'i and over 200 relatives there," said Yang Jung-jin, who is attending the Korean Centennial Celebration festivities in Hawai'i with her husband.
She has been a complement to her husband's mission. A former Korean national assemblyman and dean of academic affairs at the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Yang Sung-chul has been stationed in Washington since July 2000.
Her husband's mission has given Yang Jung-jin opportunity to socialize with world leaders and their wives. At a dinner in Seoul last February, she sat between Ri Hui-ho, wife of the South Korean president, and Laura Bush.
Both Yang Jung-jin and Laura Bush are former librarians. "It was a good opportunity to talk with her for an hour or two about children, food and other things," Yang Jung-jin said.
When her husband's diplomatic mission is over, she would like to pursue a career as a translator.
"Sung and I are different from regular diplomats because our life for a long time was academics," said Yang Jung-jin, who taught English at Korea University. "We're still regular people. I buy my dresses on sale."
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
