Growing Up in Korea

Title

Growing Up in Korea

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Identifier

Hong_WaunKi_20130916_Clip01

Publication Date

9-16-2013

Publisher

The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

City

Houston. Texas

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

So I wanted to ask you to start with just some personal background. Where were you born and when? And tell me a little bit about where you grew up.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Okay. I’m quite old; I’m not a youngster anymore. I was born in 1942, in a small town outside of Seoul, South Korea.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

What’s the name of the town?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

It’s a very long name for a small town outside of Seoul—that people can remember.

Tacey Ann Rosolowki, PhD

But for the record, actually, I’d love to have it. Just the name.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

The name is Chung Pyung.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Does it mean something?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

It’s peaceful and blue—or clear.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Peaceful and clear.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

That’s the Tao name. So I was born in 1942—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

And the date?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

August 13, 1942. That’s during the—you know—World War II. And so World War II was over in 1945, so I was a country boy from a small town. And I was six of seven children.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Was anyone in your family involved in the sciences?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yes. My eldest brother was perhaps the most prominent bio-scientist, and he was at Buffalo. He was at SUNY Buffalo Medical School. He passed away.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

I’m sorry. When did he pass away?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

I think about ten years ago.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

So how did he influence you?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

It’s an interesting story. After high school, my parents could not really afford to financially send me to college after school. But he got a PhD and also a faculty position at the University of Rochester and then SUNY Buffalo. And he returned to Korea in 1960 or 1959. He inspired me to go to medical school. So he was like my second father, because he picked me up and enrolled me in medical school, and so I graduated medical school in 1967.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

And this was the—well, you did your BS at the Yonsei University? And you got your BS in ’63, correct?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yes, that was the undergraduate—the pre-medical school.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Right, so there was a pre-med major?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yes, pre-med and engineering. Then I went to medical school. It was connected, pre-med and the medical school.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Oh, I see. That makes it convenient.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yes, it’s convenient, exactly.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

And I saw that you have your specialization listed as medical oncology, even during your MD. Tell me how you got to be interested in cancer so early.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

There was the experience that took place in Boston.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Okay. So was I mistaken then that you didn’t specialize in medical oncology for your MD?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

No, no. The MD is just medical doctor here in the United States

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Right. I don’t know where I got that from.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

So to be an MD you have to graduate medical school. You don’t have to do post medical school training.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

What specialty were you thinking about during your MD?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Well, at the time it wasn’t quite clear. And then—

[The recorder is paused while Dr. Hong takes a phone call.]

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

So we’re back on track and it’s1:27. I wanted to ask you—you know—you mentioned that you were born during the Second World War, which meant that your childhood was post war.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yeah, and then there is the Korean War that broke out in 1950, when I was eight years old.

Tacey Ann Rosolowki, PhD

So tell me about that experience of growing up in a war torn—

Waun Ki Hong, MD

It was devastating.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

It was devastating.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

I was not—I would not recommend any war. It’s just terrible.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Was your family—were there older siblings or your parents involved in it?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yeah, obviously, I think North Korea invaded the South. And we were with the refugees. And you see what the people—how much they struggled. And they destroyed everything—losing people. It’s just an absolutely devastating experience. And the interesting thing is, talking about the wars, in 1967, I graduated medical school, and then I had to serve a three-year term in Korea for military service. So I was deployed into Vietnam, and so I was a flight surgeon. With the job as flight surgeon I was responsible for transporting wounded soldiers from Vietnam to the Philippines, to Korea by airplane. Basically, I experienced three wars. All that I can’t remember came after World War II, but the Korean War I remember and the Vietnam.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

And certainly you grew up in a family that remembered the World War. Two questions following up on that. The first is, prior to the experience that you had serving in the military, how do you think that growing up in a family that was experiencing war in a war-torn country—did that have any influence on your career or your skills or your thinking about medicine?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Yeah, I think it’s—I was not really mature enough to think about those kinds of things. But I think definitely that I was affected and influenced by it, even though it was at a subconscious level.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

How do you think—how were you affected, do you think?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

I think the spirit of service—the spirit of collaboration came. Then I think when I experienced the transporting of the wounded soldiers, obviously, the feeling was so bad and so sad to see young people losing their arms and legs or with brain injuries from war. I think that has inspired me to think about human nature and human beings and humanity. And then I would say—again, that was later on, but I think maybe that inspired me to do some more research—patient care research.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Was there anything about your military experience that enhanced your skills as a physician or as a researcher, administrator?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

I would say that I think that experience—the military experience—I think has helped me to establish my own discipline and accountability and diligence. You do some military service, you learn something. It’s not a goal to participate in war, but I think it’s an experience in team effort and chain of command. I would focus more on the positive side.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Now, what led to your decision to come to the Unites States after your military service was over?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

At the time it was interesting. I married my wife in 1969 and came to this country in 1970 as an immigrant. At that time, it was open.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Can you tell me, what is your wife’s name?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

Mihwa. Do-re-mi-fa, okay? And the immigration door was open. At the time there was a shortage of medical doctors in the States, so they imported some more doctors from foreign countries. You had to pass a certain test. So I think I capitalized on that opportunity.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

And was it difficult to make the decision to leave Korea?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

No, I think I was determined. I was a bit of a brave person, because I like to tackle some challenging projects. Most people, they’re too conservative, and they don’t want a challenge, but I think I was considered a bit eccentric. So I saw this—and, again, nobody talked to me, but I felt that if you’re going to do something significant in the aspect of the medical field, then I think the United States is the right place to challenge yourself. I think that’s so neat. I set an ambitious goal and somebody could have said, “You’re crazy.” But that was motivation, because I want to swim in some big pond.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

So you came to the US. Now you were a rotating intern at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York. Now, did you have that internship set up when you came, or did you get that?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

No, you have to apply for the internship position.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

So you came to the US, and then you applied?

Waun Ki Hong, MD

No, no, from Korea.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD

Oh, from Korea, okay.

Waun Ki Hong, MD

So I was not able to obtain some internship position in a decent teaching hospital, because obviously as a foreigner there were some language barriers, and I didn’t go to medical school here, so there were handicaps. So some community hospital is not able to fit it.

Growing Up in Korea

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