When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

When My Name Was Keoko tells the story of a Korean family during the period of Japanese occupation in the Second World War. Author, Linda Sue Park uses two voices to tell her story, that of Kim Sun-hee and her older brother Kim Tae-yul. 

In 1910, when Sun-hee's father was a boy and her uncle was a baby, the Japanese took over Korea. With the Japanese came many new laws, such as Koreans could not be in charge of any businesses or schools. 

Sun-hee's father was a great scholar but he could not be the principal of her school. The principal is a Japanese man, the father of Sun-hee's friend, Tomo. Her father is the vice-principal. Their lessons are in Japanese and they study Japanese language, history and culture. They are not allowed to learn about Korean history or language. There are ffew Korean books or newspapers and Korean folktales are forbidden. Nevertheless Sun-hee and Tae-yul loved hearing the folktales their uncle tells them.

However, Sun-hee and her family spoke Korean at home, but were careful to speak Japanese in public. If they were caught speaking Korean in public they would be punished by the military. 

Sun-hee hears her father and uncle loudly discussing something but cannot discover what they are talking about. However, Sun-hee's father and her uncle, Kim Young-chun usher her, Tae-yul and their mother into their sitting room. From the newspaper he reads aloud, "By order of the Emperor, all Koreans are to be graciously allowewd to take Japanese names." While their uncle is enraged, their father explains they must all go to the police station in the next week to register and those who do not will be arrested. Sun-hee, whose name means "girl of brightness" cannot imagine doing this. Nor can Tae-yul whose name means "great warmth". It was a name his grandfather chose, as was the tradition of Koreans to have the grandfather give the name. 

However, Sun-hee's father comes up with a novel solution. Their family name of Kim reflects their heritage: all Kims lived in the mountains and they took the word for gold as their family name. He decides their Japanese name will be Kaneyama: Yama for mountains and ka-ne for gold in Japanese. The Japanese will not know this but it will the way they can honor their family history. He also states that they will randomly choose their first names as they are not their real names. Tae-yul's name becomes Kaneyama Nobuo. Sun-hee and Tae-yul remember how Korean marathoner Sohn-KeeChung was forced to compete under the Japanese flag in the Olympics as Kitei-Son and how their uncle was brought home badly beaten after Sohn's Olympic victory. He and his friends had altered the photos of Sohn to have the Korean flag and used his Korean name in their newspaper.

At school the new names cause confusion and Sun-hee gets into trouble when she mistakenly calls out a friend's Korean name. She receives a canning only because the man who is the Japanese military attache for her school, Onisha-san is in the classroom. This year is Sun-hee's last year of elementary school. In junior high, boys and girls attend separate schools. Sun-hee's Japanese friend Tomo has told her that in the larger cities there are separate schools for Japanese and Korean students. In school, Sun-hee has had to learn three kinds of Japanese writing. One was Kanji which uses a separate picture-character for each word. There are almost fifty-thousand characters but Sun-hee has to learn about two thousand. Sun-hee enjoys learning these characters which she describes as magic to her. Her father Abuji is helping her to learn them by explaining how the characters are formed.

At the end of her fourth year of school, Sun-hee is given a badge for being best in her grade at Japanese. This causes problems for her: on her way home she has stones thrown at her and is taunted with chants of "Chin-il-pa! Chin-il-pa!" which means "lover of Japan". This deeply upsets Sun-hee and she wonders if she is a traitor. Noticing her distress that night during their Kanji lesson, Abuji explains to Sun-hee that character writing has been borrowed by both Korea and Japan from China. The Japanese have adapted it to their alphabet. He tells her that for centuries Koreains have "considered Chines the highest form of learning...'To excel at character writing is to honor the traditions of our ancestors.' " This knowledge helps Sun-hee to understand that she is not a traitor.

Tae-yul considers Kanji "a complete bore" and unlike his grandfather and father he is not "scholarly". He prefers mathematics and science to character writing, although Abuji never complains about his marks.  Instead Tae-yul loves anything mechanical including cars and scooters that can travel fast. He enjoys working with Uncle Kim Young-chun in the workplace at the back of their house, especially working to rebuild an old bicycle. 

There is now a way going on in Europe but also one closer; the Japanese are fighting the Chinese in Manchuria. Because of the war, life begins to change for Sun-hee and her family. Once they ate rice, then barley mixed into the rice, then only barley, and then millet which was usually used for chicken feed. Fortunately they have plenty of vegetables from Omoni's garden. Yet another order comes in that all Rose of Sharon trees weee to be removed and cherry saplings planted throughout the town. Omoni has Tae-yul salvage a young Rose of Sharon tree.

One night after dinner, Uncle tells Abuji that a visitor named Lim has suggested he expand his business. Tae-yul believes that what Uncle is saying is that he wants to take on more Japanese customers. The two brothers continue to argue about something, although neither Sun-hee nor Tae-yul know what is going on. They are determined to find out. Then in late 1941, they learn the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, meaning that Japan is now at war with America. As the war continues on life becomes more and more difficult and the Japanese even more repressive. When Uncle is forced into hiding and the Japanese begin to harass Tae-yul as to his uncle's whereabout, Tae-yul makes a decision that may have dire consequences for himself and his family.

Discussion

When My Name Was Keoko is a short novel about the occupation of Korea by the Japanese during the years of World War II. It covers the years from 1940 to 1945.

In the mid-1800's, Korea was one of the last Asian countries still refusing to open to the West. In 1854, Japan finally agreed to establish trade and diplomacy with the West. However, when the Americans, French and British attempted to force Korea to do the same, they were met with strong resistance. The Koreans fought off the Americans and the French in the late 1800's. 

Korea was eventually forced to open their country by Japan, whose influence in the region had grown considerably. The Treaty of Kanghwa was signed by Japan and Korea in 1876 and gave Japan many rights in Korea that were not reciprocated in Japan. Japan fought two wars, against China (1894-95) known as the Sino-Japanese war and Russia (1904-05) known as the Russo-Japanese war for control of Korea. They won both wars and Korea became a "protectorate" of Japan throught American-mediated Treaty of Portsmouth.

In 1910, the Empire of Japan annexed Korea as a colony through the Japan-Korea Treaty. This meant that Korea was controlled by Japan until Japan was defeated by the Allied Forces on August 15, 1945, the end of World War II.From 1910 to 1919, Korea was ruled by the Japanese Military Police.  During this period, the Japanese destroyed many cultural and historical buildings including the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Of its over five hundred buildings, only forty percent remained by 1945. Korean customs and language were forbidden and Korean currency was abolished. The Japanese constructed new infrastructure such as roads, railroads and ports, and built up the country's industry, in effect modernizing the country. 

When the Japanese Emperor died in 1919, the March First Movement for Korean independence was brutally suppressed. After a national protest in 1919, military rule was relaxed and Koreans were allowed extra freedoms. With the advent of the Second World War, a return to stricter military rule began. In 1937, Koreans were forced to worship the Japanese Emperor at Shinto shrines.  In 1938, as means of strengthening the war effort the Japanese began a more strict policy of assimilation in Korea. In 1939, Koreans were pressured to change their names to Japanese, abandoning their use of clan-based Korean names.  Korean newspapers ceased publication in 1940. By 1943, the teaching and speaking of Korean was made illegal. Korean men were conscripted into working in factories and mines in Korea and Japan. It is estimated over five million Koreans were conscripted.  Initially Koreans were coerced into the military by a variety of means (as Park portrays in her novel) but in 1944, Korean men were conscripted to fight.  Tens of thousands of Korean girls aged twelve to seventee were forced into sexual slavery as "Comfort Women." to Japanese soldiers. 

In When My Name Was Keoko, the story is told from the narratives of Sun-hee and Tae-yul. Through the experiences of Tae-yul and Sun-hee Linda Sue Part portrays what it was like for the Korean people to live under the rule of Japanese and their struggle to maintain their culture and national identity. They were not alone as Japanese occupation included Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, The Philippines, and New Guinea. Sun-hee, as a scholarly young girl, views the Korean occupation and the war from a more philosophical perspective asking questions regarding identity and the effect of war.  Tae-yul is more mechanically minded, liking math and science. He is able to engineer a bicycle out of spare parts and pipes and his fascination with an airplane foreshadows his role later on as a kamikaze pilot. Not scholarly like his sister, Tae-yul is more concerned with honour and resisting the Japanese.

In the novel, Linda Sue Park portrays Korean resistance through almost all her characters. There are many examples of this resistance. Sun-hee's Uncle Kim Young-chun placed the Korean flag in photographs of Korean marathoner Sohn-KeeChung and printed his Korean name rather than his Japanese name of Kitei-Son and was badly beaten. He is part of the resistance publishing a secret newspaper. Sun-hee's father devises a way to keep alive the remembrance of their Korean names. Omoni has Tae-yul save one of the Rose of Sharon trees that they must cut down and destroy on orders from their Japanese occupiers. It is a small tree that they place into a pot and hide when the Japanese soldiers come to inspect their land.When the Japanese order that almost all metal be turned over, including jewelry, Omoni saves a dragon brooch by hiding it in her clothing. Tae-yul carves the Korean flag into the bottom of the gourd bowls he is carving. And Abuji writes articles for his brother's resistance newspaper.  Tae-yul commits the most daring and sacrificial act of resistance by enlisting in the Japanese military to protect his Uncle Kim Young-chun. 

Sun-hee and Tae-yul have different responses to the events that occur within the short years recounted. Sun-hee struggles to maintain her Korean identity and wonders what makes her Korean. She wonders whether it is possible to write Korean thoughts in Japanese. She wants to learn how to write Korean. Her rebellion is quiet and personal. But she also faces inner conflict because she loves learn kanji but is labelled "Chin-il-pa" by her classmates. Her father explains that although this looks like she is a traitor, learn the characters is honouring their ancestors.

When the Japanese soldiers destroy Sun-hee's diary, she doesn't give up. She begins a new diary and pens this poem:

"You burn the paper but not the words.

You silence the words but not the thoughts.

You kill the thoughts only if you kill the man.

And you will find that his thoughts rise again

in the minds of others -- twice as strong as before!"

Sun-hee wonders about what life will be like if the Japanese are defeated. It would mean that they could regain Korean culture: they could use their real names and learn Korean history and use the Korean alphabet again. Sun-hee understands why the Japanese have taken away their words. 

"How could an alphabet --letters that didn't even mean anything by themselves -- be important?  

But it was important. Our stories, our names, our alphabet. Even Uncle's newspaper.  

It was all about words. 

If words weren't so important, they wouldn't try so hard to take them away."

As the war continues on and Sun-hee struggles with exhaustion and hunger she wonders, "If a war lasts long enough, is it possible that people would completely forget the idea of beauty? That they'd only be able to do what they needed to survive and would no longer remember how to make and enjoy beautiful things?" To counter this Sun-hee tries to think of beautiful things every day: the dragon broach buried in their backyard, how the rose of Sharon trees looked when in full bloom.

After the dropping of the leaflets by the Americans telling them they knew that Koreans are not Japanese and they they will not be bombed, Sun-hee wonders, "What did it mean to be Korean, when for all my life Korea had been a part of Japan?"

Tae-yul, on the other hand, is more open about his opposition to the Japanese. He tries to resist when Japanese soldiers take away his homemade bike. When students are given rubber balls in honor of the conquest of Malaya, Burma and Singapore Tae-yul responds  "What they take: our rice, our language, our names. What they give: little rubber balls. I can't feel grateful about such a bad deal."

He makes a courageous decision to enlist in the Japanese military, against the wishes of his parents and his sister who cannot understand his decision.  Park creates tension in the novel as to why Tae-yul might be doing this. Is it his love of planes and his desire to become a pilot? As it turns out that is not the reason Tae-yul volunteers. It is to protect his uncle. "I believe in Uncle and the things he believes in.I'd do anything not to betray him. Anything. Even join the army of his sworn enemy."  Before he leaves he explains to Sun-hee why he has decided to enlist: thet the police know his uncle is working for the resistance, that he is a problem for the Japanese  and they want to stop him. He tells Sun-hee, . "That means his work has been successful, Sun-hee -- that he's still printing the newspaper. And it must be reaching hundreds of people. Maybe thousands. Even if -- if something were to happen to me, it's of no importance compared to what the independence movement would suffer if Uncle is arrested...If they catch him, they'll kill him. The paper he prints-- the truth in words--it must hurt the Japanese as much as a thousand guns." It is a sacrifice that almost costs Tae-yul his life, although he has no intention of dying if possible. 

This leads to a wonderfully crafted climax to the novel as the fate of Tae-yul seems sealed. However, author Linda Sue Park ends the novel happily with the surrender of Japan, and the Kim family being reunited.

Park is direct about some of the brutality suffered under Japanese occupation such as beatings of civilians and hints at others such as the comfort women - the recruiting and wholesale kidnapping of young Korean women for the sole purpose of working in brothels for the Japanese army. The latter is hinted at when the Japanese round up all the young women who are sixteen years and older and ask for volunteers to go to work in textile factories making uniforms. When only a dozen girls volunteer, the Japanese angrily choose more girls to send. Sun-hee doesn't know what this means but she knows it is not as the Japanese are saying.

Although When My Name Was Keoko is fictional, it takes some of its basis in the events that were experienced by the author's parents, Eung Won and Joung Sook, while growing up in Korea and some of the events, such as Sohn Kee Chung who was forced to use his Japanese name of Kitei Son when competing in the 1936 Olympic marathon, and the dropping of leaflets into Korea actually happened. When My Name Was Keoko offers a good starting point for young readers to learn about Korea during the Japanese occupation. 

Book Details:
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
New York: Clarion Books 2002
199 pp.