Quick Facts
Biography
Irma Tam Soong (15 July 1912 – 11 January 2001) was a Hawaiian historian specializing in Hawaiian-Chinese history, notable for writing about her experiences during World War II in China during Japanese occupation.
She was the founder and executive director of the Hawaii Chinese History Center (HCHC) in Honolulu, Hawaii. She established the center on October 31, 1970 and incorporated it on March 17, 1971 with the help of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the United Chinese Society. The goals of the center are to stimulate interest and research about Hawaiian-Chinese history, assist and guide Chinese Hawaiians to make their experiences available, and collect, inventory, record and preserve historical materials, documents and photographs related to the Chinese in Hawai'i.
She was a distant relative of Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen.
Published works
Soong devoted most of her life writing about her experiences during World War II in China during the Japanese occupation.
Proceeds of her war memoir went to Mills College, the Community Church of Honolulu and the Hawaii Chinese History Center.
"Five Hsing Chung Hui Men of Valor" is a history of the revolutionary society founded in Hawaii by sun. The book was printed as part of the 200th anniversary commemoration of the arrival of Chinese in Hawaii.
| Year | Title | Co-Authored by |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Chinese-American refugee: A World War II memoir | |
| 1989 | Five Hsing Chung Hui Men of Valor: The Chinese in Hawaiian 200 Years (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition) | Wei-tun Lin |
| 1991 | Christian leaders of the Hsing Chung Hui | |
| 1979 | A study of the meeting records of the Ket Hing Society, Kula, Maui, 1913-1947 | |
| 1976 | A nostalgic play: "The yellow jacket" | |
| 1980 | The history of the Hawaii Chinese History Center, 1970-1980 | |
| 1973 | East Maui Chinese history |
Soong wrote the foreword of Tin-Yuke Char's autobiographical The Bamboo Path.
She wrote "Sun Yat-sen's Christian Schooling in Hawai'i" (1997) published in The Hawaiian Journal of History about Dr. Sun Yat-sen's four years as a sojourner in Hawai'i in 1879-1883 and his attendance at three Christian educational institutions.
Personal life
In her early life, she was a resident of Hong Kong. Soong was raised in Chinatown by Cantonese-speaking parents. She loved to read as a child and later wrote poetry as a young woman. She had five siblings: sisters Pina Lee, Fannie Ching, J.C. Lee; and brothers James S.T. Tam and Edward S.T. Tam.
She is the mother of one son—Dr. Colin Soong—a physician in Carson City, Nevada.
Soong taught English at Hwa Nan College in Fuzhou, China, Pomona College in Claremont, California, and Kaimuki High School in Honolulu, Hawaii. She retired from teaching in 1970.
Education
She achieved her Master's degree in English at Mills College in Oakland, California.