Description of the interview: Maija Rhee Devine loved literature and earned a Master’s in English. But she resisted for 25 years her husband’s encouragement to write about her life, a story that starts with her as an infant being given away by her biological family while they kept her twin brother. Once she began writing, The Voices of Heaven and her poetry book Long Walks on Short Days were published. She discusses the culture and history of South Korea that shaped her writing–the effects of patriarchy in all aspects of Korean life, gender and population imbalance issues, the impact of the Korean War, and the future of South and North Korea relations. She also talks about her works-in-progress on Comfort Women of WWII, all stories of the past keeping powerful rein on the present and future.

Zoom reading: COVID anthology, When the Virus Came Calling: COVID-19 Strikes America, editor, Thelma T. Reyna (Golden Foothills Press, CA). Lake Como poets’ group zoom reading, hosted by Armando Sanchez, 10/18/2020, Sunday, 2pm PST. Now on youtube, 10/24/2020:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lake+como+poets

or

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTQviL0Lg

My portion of the Zoom reading: (1) intro of me by the editor, Thelma T. Reyna: 22:40

(2) my reading of 2 poems: 27:50-18:04

(3) my concluding remark: 43:29

DoveTales, A Writing for Peace Literary Journal of the Arts, Issue III, August 1, 2020, RESISTANCE, guest editor, Brad Wetzler. https://writingforpeace.org/resistance-dovetales-literary-journal-of-the-arts-is-live/  

Maija’s nonfiction, “The Korean War and Chocolate Candies,” https://writingforpeace.org/maija-rhee-devine-3/

 DoveTales, A Writing for Peace Literary Journal of the Arts, Issue III, RESISTANCE, Aug. 1, 2020, , guest editor, Brad Wetzler. https://writingforpeace.org/maija-rhee-devine/

 

Death By Sex, Death By Corona                   Maija Rhee Devine

We survived, haven’t we, the forced sex pandemic
sex at gun points 70 times a week, the lowest
number among so many scholars’ ways of counting.                                                Whores*!
238 of us, tears of shame, told our stories
six, now housemates in House of Sharing,
bit our lips to pulp when these happened:

K, “comfort woman” at 15, in two years, 7,280 sex acts
L, at 15, three years, 10,920 times
P, at 17, four years, 14,560 times
C, at 27, two years, 7,280 times                                                                               Lying bitches*!
H, at 13, two years, 7,280 times
L, at 12, three years, 10,920 times

At 90 through 104 now, who could’ve imagined
our faces turning blue again, this time, killing micro-machines
death dust blowing into our lungs any moment, deadlier                                       Kill yourselves*!
than guns, more sure-handed than our own hands
that tried to tear open our necks people now call
mooshoi mokseum, “iron necks.”

*The voices of Japanese conservatives slung at Korean ‘comfort women’ visiting Japan on their trips to present testimonies of their lives as ‘comfort women’ of WWII.

 Museum of Sexual Slavery by Japanese Military, Seoul, Korea

A painting by former Korean comfort woman Kim Wha-Sun who passed away in 2012.

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Maija’s poem “Comfort Women of WWII” was published in Pleiades (the literary journal of Central Missouri State University), summer 2020, and was a featured poem of the week , September, 2020: https://pleiadesmag.com/featured-poem-comfort-women-of-wwii-by-maija-rheedevine/?fbclid=IwAR1KoXiHO1RtLqvhD6eER1qALG9T9gltdJrVoSuQgdxs0H4YTSLGHVDCt5Q

Maija’s 3 poems were published in an anthology, When the Virus Came Calling: COVID-19 Strikes America (Golden Foothills Press, CA, 2020). 11 of the 46 writers are poets laureate, including Richard Blanco, the US presidential poet laureate at Obama’s 2^nd inauguration.

https://www.seattlen.com/m/bbs/board.php?bo_table=News&wr_id=32526

COVID anthology available at:

(1) Golden Foothills Press

http://www.goldenfoothillspress.com/Our-Books-and-Authors.html

(2) Amazon

(In Korean) The SeattleN news, as well as CBS, carried news about Maija’s 1-minute video story of the first woman voter in her family and other 1-minute video stories by 99 American women, including 4 former First Ladies (Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Rosalyn Carter, and Laura Bush).  https://www.seattlen.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=Headline&wr_id=5669

8/26/2020: Celebrating the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage, 100 1-minute video stories were posted on a website established by Washington Post in cooperation with 4 former First Ladies, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com.
My video/story is at: (https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/educationandarts/maijarheedevine. 

Other videos include:

Laura Bush: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/first-ladies/spp13dt2jtkktiqlgax74hfkalv4q4 

Rosalynn Carter: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/first-ladies/rosalynn-carter 

Hillary Clinton: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/first-ladies/hillaryclinton 

Michelle Obama: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/first-ladies/michelleobama 

Madeleine Albright: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/publicservice/madeleinealbright 

Condoleezza Rice: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/publicservice/condirice   

First Daughters: Lynda Bird Johnson Robb: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/firstdaughters/homagetoladybird 

Lucie Baines Johnson: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/firstdaughters/homagetoladybird   

Tricia Nixon Cox:  https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/firstdaughters/forpatnixon 

Rev. Bernice A. King/Coretta Scott King: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/ 

Roslyn Brock, Chairman, the NAACP National Board: https://www.firstwomanvoter.com/  

Categories include: First Ladies (4); First Daughters (3); Business and Community Leaders (17); Allies and Advocates (12); Public Service (19); Journalists (30); Education and the Arts (23); Roslyn Brock (Chairman, the NAACP National Board); and Rev. Bernice A. King/Coretta Scott King. 

The SeattleN news (that is published in Korean), as well as CBS, carried news about this.

https://www.seattlen.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=Headline&wr_id=5669

Mark DePue, military historian and director of Oral History Program at the ALPLM, posted a condensed version of Maija’s 10-plus hours of interviews conducted several years ago, which have been transcribed and archived on the Museum’s website (www.oralhistory.illinois.gov), into an “Oral History Spotlight” in August, 2020, and posted it on the Museum’s Facebook. The link is: https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/museum/blog/Pages/blog110.aspx (It includes 10 audio clips.) Here’s the beginning story. The interviews include Maija’s stories as a child survivor of the Korean War, her post-war experiences through the secondary school and college years in Korea, her later immigrant life in America and her career as a writer. Illinois men and women dedicated their lives to the defense of democracy for South Korea by fighting during the Korean War and their stories are important part of the Oral History Project of the ALPLM. Maija feels honored to have been one of the interviewees and that her stories are preserved in the distinguished ALPLM. Deep gratitude goes to Mark DePue and outstanding staff.

E-news from the ALPLM (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum), Springfield, IL       ALPLM ORAL HISTORY PROJECT A Childhood Surrounded by War   To say Maija Devine’s childhood was defined by war would be an understatement. She was born in Manchuria during World War II to Korean refugees fleeing a brutal occupation of their homeland by the Japanese.  Maija was soon given up for adoption and eventually returned to Korean, only to see her life upended yet again when North Korea invaded the south in 1950 and occupied Seoul where Maija’s family lived.  >>>>>Learn More about Maija’s life story, in her own words – a story also told in her award-winning novel The Voices of Heaven.     Maija Devine was born in 1943 as her parents fled Japanese-occupied Korea.   Maija met a young American Peace Corps volunteer named Michael Devine in 1970 and the two were soon married.   Maija wrote an award-winning novel based on her life: The Voices of Heaven.

This was published 6/23/2020 in The Korea Times, Seoul, Korea.

Link:

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2020/06/162_291430.html