Tparents.org Archive

Hee Jin Moon and Myung Hee Kim

Dan Fefferman
December 25, 1998

Question: Why did Father take a concubine Miss Kim who gave birth to their son Hee Jin while he was married to his first wife Song Gil Choi? Why was this never acknowledged?

Hee Jin Nim was acknowledged by Father as his son during his lifetime and honored publicly after his death. Some of Father's early speeches and prayers make reference to Hee Jin's death in similar terms to Heung Jin's. (both were "second" sons, both died tragically in accidents as teenagers.) When I was in Korea in 1970 Father, Mrs. Won Pok Choi and President Young Whi Kim explained the conception of Hee Jin in these terms: Father's first wife (the other Mrs. Choi) was in the process of divorcing him. The process is a long drawn out affair in Korean law. During this time in the mid 50s, Father began cohabiting with Ms. Myung Hee Kim. Because her pregnancy would have negative affects on Father both in terms of the divorce and in terms of criminal law, she moved to Japan to avoid getting Father in trouble. The baby was born there. However, while in Japan, she was either raped or seduced by a Japanese man. Father told us that if she had returned to him after that, he would have accepted her. However, she was so ashamed, that she hid from Father and stayed in Japan, returning only years later (perhaps after Father's marriage to mother.) She offered Hee Jin to Father, and Father accepted him as his son. So the answer is that

1) Father and his first wife were no longer married from God's viewpoint as Father understands it and

2) the relationship with Myung Hee Kim was acknowledged, but not at first, because of legal implications. BTW, this is the Ms Kim who was blessed on stage at MSG to Confucius. [correction about being blessed to Socrates, not Confucius]

Question: Why did Father say he needed 12 sons, not just 12 children?

I don't know, but later I heard him say that he used to think he needed twelve sons, but he realized that daughters are just as valuable as sons.