This 99-Year-Old Grandmother Finally Receives A Diploma, After Her School Closed 85 Years Ago

Illustration. (Unsplash / @ city_child)

JAKARTA - Getting a school diploma at an old age, decades after the school was closed, during the war against the invaders would certainly be something this grandmother never imagined.

At the age of 99 years, this grandmother received a junior high and high school diploma, 85 years after the high school where she was closed by the Japanese colonial occupation government, reported the Korea Times May 12.

It is Kim Deok-hwa, a grandmother whose school was closed because the administrators and students refused to worship at a local Japanese temple, when the Land of the Rising Sun occupied Korea between 1910-1945.

According to Gwangju Speer Girl Middle and High School, they will be holding a Homecoming Day event the following Saturday, where they will present their middle and high school diplomas in Kim's honor.

Born in Yeongwang County, South Jeolla Province, Kim attended Speer Girl's School, which is the equivalent of high school. However, he had to leave the school in 1937 due to closure, when he was 14 years old.

Kim Deok-hwa. (Source: Gwangju Speer Girl's Middle and High School via Korea Times)

According to a school paper on its history, the Japanese empire forced Koreans to worship the Japanese emperor in the latter part of his colonial rule and began building temples all over the country.

In Gwangju, a temple was built in 1935, and authorities ordered students at local schools to pay homage to the shrine.

Teachers and students of Speer Girl's School and a number of other schools operated by missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, refuse to worship at Japanese temples, either because of resistance to Japanese colonialism or because of their religious beliefs. The school closed on September 6, 1937, which had been designated as a day of worship.

Although Korea was liberated in 1945, and Speer Girl School reopened in December of that year, Kim was unable to continue her studies because she married at 18 and continued to work.

Kim is known to have raised eight children as a widow after her husband died when she was 43 years old.

Her story first gained public attention after she appeared on a TV show, being introduced as a "99 year old grandma playing the piano."

He taught himself to play the piano at the age of 71, spending most of his time playing the instrument. He can still sing the school song, according to school officials.

In addition to attending the homecoming day, Kim plans to visit the church where his father, Kim Jong-in, serves as a priest.