Sung Hee was a happy girl getting good marks in high school. In fact her teachers held her up as a model student. But after two years of outstanding study she developed a skin disease that was diagnosed as leprosy. This was 1943 when the Korean government segregated quickly all those with Hansen's Disease(leprosy). Once committed to the isolated island of So Rok Do in Cholla Nam Do , she was forcibly sterilized like all the other men and women there, marriage Yes, children No!
But this is 2009. The Korean Government has finally yielded to the long protests of these people treated so unjustly. On April 20th, the Korean Prime Minister, Han Sung Soo, in a formal session with a Special Commission and in the presence of 150 H.D. people, issued a solemn apology for all past injustices- also with a plan for financial compensation.
However good... too late for Sung Hee. Her right to family life, given to her by God, had been tragically violated. How could any words or money ever compensate?
But she remarked: "It's all hard to forget, but I am a Person of Faith, a Christian,... I must forgive!"
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