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It broke Jason Ahn’s heart when he found out that his late grandmother, who emigrated from North Korea to the U.S. in the late 1970s, was never able to reunite with her sister after they were separated during the Korean War.
Although it was too late to help his grandmother, Ahn, MD, MPA, a third-year Emergency Medicine resident at BWH, wanted to do something to help other Korean-Americans find their family members in North Korea.
“It was my grandmother’s dying wish to see her sister, and it was painful for our family that it never happened,” he said. “There are an estimated 100,000 first-generation Korean-Americans with immediate family members in North Korea.”
With a strong interest in film, advocacy and global health work, Ahn was inspired to create a documentary about Korean-Americans’ search for lost relatives in North Korea 60 years after Korea became a divided nation. It seeks to raise awareness about this reality and advocate for a resolution that encourages North Korea to consider family reunions with Korean-Americans. Ahn became interested in divided families when he was a Fulbright scholar in Korea from 2006 to 2007.
The film, called “Divided Families,” directed by Ahn and Eugene Chung, chronicles the stories of three Korean-Americans separated from their families. Ahn says there are no formal programs set up to assist Korean-American family members in the U.S. in reuniting with their families. Some separated family members in the U.S. have tried contacting their families through informal paid brokers, but because this is an uncertain avenue, many end up losing money and left in the dark. Ahn said viewers don’t have to be Korean-American to understand the story and the emotional struggle that comes along with searching for loved ones.
“All of us come from families, and we can empathize with how it feels to have family members in different places,” he said.
As for finding the time to create a documentary while in medical school and residency, Ahn said it hasn’t been easy, but it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life. With the help of more than 100 volunteers, donors and filmmakers, the documentary, which Ahn started working on about five years ago, was recently completed.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; time is running out for my grandmother’s generation of Korean-Americans,” Ahn said. “I hope this documentary makes an impact.”
To learn more about “Divided Families” and Ahn’s work, visit www.dividedfamilies.com.