Early life and education Lee was born in the suburb Nakkakawachi’kun Korean, Osaka, Japan (now Hirano-ku, Osaka). In the birth certificate its Japanese name is Akihiro Tsukiyama. At that time his father, Cheun’u Lee, worked as a laborer on a cattle ranch in Japan. His mother, Taewon Chae was a housewife and devout Christian. Lee is the 5th. of 7 children, has three brothers and three sisters. At the end of WWII in 1945, his family returned to Pohang, hometown of his father in Gyeongsangbuk, South Korea. The tragedy, however, surprised them again, this time in the shape of the Korean War. On 25 June 1950, the North Koreans launched a surprise invasion of South Korea. Because of the war, Lee’s father lost his livelihood and the family had to move and make their home in an abandoned temple. The family lived in poverty. At school, Lee could not even dream of eating a proper lunch.This period was very different from when the family lived in Japan, where his father could afford to send money home and even take their cousins to study in Japan. So it was a very young Lee learned the value of hard work. By the time he had completed primary school, had already made all possible jobs. He sold matches, rice rolls sold in the outskirts of a military base, even sold cakes until he was arrested by military police. Even when I was in high school continued to work hard to live. In those hard times, secondary education was a privilege only for the chosen few. In a large family like Lee, the older brother was considered the hope of the family. This often meant that the other brothers sacrificed their own education to support the schooling of their brothers or sisters, so Lee did not expect to go to school. Instead, he planned to help his mother and selling bread and get money for tuition of his brother.However, his teacher suggested allowing Lee to attend the Business Institute in Pohang, with a full scholarship, thereby Classes attended night that allowed him to work during the day and studying by night. A year after graduating from high school, Lee won admission to the University of Korea. During his third year of studies in 1964, ran for Student Council leadership for which he was elected. In his autobiography “No Myth” Lee recalls carry out all possible jobs to gain entry into university. That same year he participated in student demonstrations protesting the normalization of diplomatic relations with Japan, led by President Park Chung-hee in Seoul-Tokyo Talks. For this he was accused of insurrection and conspiracy and sentenced by the Supreme Court of Korea to five years probation and three years imprisonment, of which he served just under three-month sentence in Seodaemun Prison in Seoul.That year, with the student demonstration for democracy reached its fullest expression a sense of public opinion against the Seoul-Tokyo talks, which resulted in a huge boost to investment to boost infrastructure development. Lee led a student demonstration was attended by 12,000 students in Seoul in June 1964 and served his sentence in Seodaemun prison on charges of conspiracy and insurrection. Since then, assumed the title of the first generation of democratization. Lee is married to Kim Yun-ok (1947) and has three daughters and a son. Declared Christian and member of the Presbyterian Church in Seoul Somang.