Poems: Story from My Heart

Peace, peace, peace

Where are you?

I have been looking all over for you

Wherever you are

Please come on out

Please dwell in us

As our family

From my childhood, yearning for peace and the brotherhood of mankind has been in my heart.

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 to 1945. During WWII, my father, a Korean Christian minister, was taken to prison because he refused to walk up to the Shinto temple and bow down to the picture of their emperor. My brother, my best friend, volunteered to join the Japanese army in the hope of having his father released from prison. He left home as a vibrant 15-year-old boy and returned home as a worn-out, injured 18 old man. He died a year later. Then during the Korean War, my father was taken away by the North Korean communists. He never returned. Also during the Korean War, I let my dog, my best friend, go because Mother said we did not even have enough food left for people. Through her travails, my mother led us onward with love and grace.

Now in my twilight years, I, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering, who once was an authority in his field, have decided to share what is in my heart. Not only on topics related to war and peace but also other life experiences through the medium of poetry.

A native of Seoul, Korea, Hi-Dong Chai was educated in the United States. He received a PhD in electrical engineering. As an engineer, he worked nineteen years with IBM and fifteen years as a professor of electrical engineering at San Jose State University. He was recognized as a leading authority of magnetic actuator design. He published extensively in the field of magnetic aspects of electromechanical devices, including a book, Electromechanical Motion Devices, Prentice Hall. He is a holder and co-holder of fifty-two inventions that were either published in the IBM Invention Disclosure Bulletin or filed for U.S. patents.With all his professional accomplishments, he did not forget his life’s journey through Korea as the last son of a Christian minister. He did not forget his father in prison under Japan’s rule. He did not forget his fifteen-year-old brother, volunteering to join the Japanese military in the hope of having his father released from prison, coming home after World War II, and dying from his injury. He did not forget his father who was taken away by the communists during the Korean War, never to return. He did not forget his mother whose life had been shattered by the wars, but who led her last son with love and wisdom.After retiring in 2002, he decided to spend his remaining years sharing his life stories with the world. My Truest Hope was published in the August 2012 issue of Guideposts magazine. My Truest Hope won the award for Writers talk Challenge for Memoir by South Bay Branch of California Writers Club in February 2013. Also, Blossoms and Bayonets co-authored with Jana McBurney-Lin was e-published in October 2012, and the print version was published in 2013.Sustained by Love Through the Wars is a formally edited version of Shattered by the Wars, a self-published memoir published by Inspiring Voices of Guideposts magazine in 2013.Also in 2022, Austin Macauley Publisher in New York published his Poems: Story from my Heart.