[interview] 'my Father Was Idealist and Optimist'

This is the second in a series of articles highlighting Korea's overseas independence fighters to mark the centennial of the March 1 Independence Movement ― ED.

Ahn Chang-ho's youngest son recalls patriotic father, his legacy

By Park Jin-hai

Los Angeles, CA ― Ralph Ahn, 92, the youngest son and only surviving child of independence activist, educator and politician Ahn Chang-ho, better known by his pen name Dosan, has little memory of his father

The youngest child of the activist was unable was able to meet his father while he was alive, because Ahn had been preoccupied all his life with fulfilling his lifetime mission ― Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule.

'My siblings have told me he was a good father though,' Ralph Ahn said during a recent interview with The Korea Times at his home in Mission Hills in California 'He was always busy traveling but he always talked to them about love, love for the country. He always preached be truthful.

Communicate accurately. That was very important.

' Ralph Ahn lives there with his wife and daughter

He was born in 1926 in the Ahn family's California home while his father was traveling in China Ahn Chang-ho was a key member of Korea's provisional government in Shanghai, which was established in 1919 on the heels of the March 1 Independence Movement.

He was arrested in China in connection with independence fighter Yun Bong-gil who set off a bomb to kill a high-ranking Japanese official in Shanghai in 1932.

Ahn served four years in prison, but after his release he was arrested again. Due to frequent imprisonment and torture, his health deteriorated, eventually leading to his death in 1938.

It was only in 1963 when his youngest son finally connected with his father, who had been buried in the Mangwoori Public Cemetery, for the first time. Ahn was honored posthumously with the Order of Merit for National Foundation by the then Park Chung-hee government the previous year

Living without his father in the United States, the onus of taking care of the family was on his mother's shoulder Her eldest brother Phillip also helped out.

'We resented that the pressure was so hard on our mother Helen. She had to raise five kids, her English was very limited, but she had to do housework, work at laundries and hospitals.

'But the fact that they never complained and that she always stressed father's work was very important kept us going. We were living in poverty, but I was happy, because I had the support of the...