Reference
This book provides historical perspective on what it was like to be Korean in Japanese controlled territory during WWII. The author takes the reader through his life as his family struggles to survive through political strife. The author's father, a political dissident, is jailed several times for upholding his Korean culture and his Christian beliefs. In the Korean community he is hailed as a hero and highly respected.
The story opens with the boy as an infant in his mother's arms while his parents flee to Manchuria to teach in a missionary-run school. After several years, they decide to return to Korea to help in the family apple orchard and with the farming. The remaining chapters of the book are focused on his life in Korea during the Japanese occupation.
The author connects the historical events with his life in an appropriate manner so the reader can grasp a better understanding. His strong will and determination provide him a status in his class as class leader and respected by his fellow students. Just as his father, his fellow classmates look to him for answers as the Korean community looks to his father for leadership and answers.
One of the most moving chapters in the book is when they must go the the police station to register under their new Japanese names. All the students who had not registered their new names were asked to leave school and return as soon as they were registered. The father takes his son to the police station to register his father proudly announces the new family name as "Iwamoto" meaning foundation rock. His father used the reference from the Bible "upon this rock I will build my church..." The new name is another indicator of the strength of his father that will be passed on to his son as the reader soon learns.
Throughout the oppression, Korean was forbidden to be spoken in schools or public, The Thought Police arrested and beat dissenters, the school children were mandated to bow at the shrine of the emperor, they were required to gather all the rubber balls in the village because of a shortage of rubber, all Korean magazines and newspapers were banned, and the farmers were required to sell their rice to the Japanese forcing many of them to grow just enough to sustain their families.
This book is appropriate for any student studying U.S. history from middle school to high school. It is important for students to learn about both sides of the story including the mind-set of the Japanese and their propaganda which become important in the struggle for the Koreans to survive under Japanese oppression.
