Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee

It is June 1950 and Sora Pak and her younger brother Youngsoo are at the river: he is fishing and she is there to watch him and do the laundry. After fishing, Youngsoo races off to attend the Sonyondan Club meeting at the school led by his teacher, Comrade Cho. But twelve-year-old Sora no longer attends school, instead minding her two-year-old brother, Jisoo. Sora's mother is determined that she learn how to cook so they can marry her off in a few years but she wants to continue her schooling. 

Then as she's doing laundry, Sora sees an elderly woman rush to the river. Suddenly all the women at the river begin leaving for home and Sora races home as well. At home Youngsoo announces to their parents, Sangman and Yuri, that school has been cancelled because North Korea is now at war with South Korea. 

Korea was divided into two countries after World War II and the defeat of Japan, with North Korea a Communist dictatorship and South Korea a democracy. If North Korea wins, all of Korea will be Communist. Before the Communists, Japan occupied Korea. Sora's family, like other Koreans, were forced to adopt Japanese names and their Hangul language was banned. Youngsoo is thrilled that there is no more school, but Sora is worried.

Later that evening  Mr. and Mrs. Kim, their son Myung-gi and daughter Yoomee visit for dinner. Sora finds fourteen-year-old Myung-gi attractive. Like her, Myung-gi loves books and always carries around a bag of books. But today he shows Sora that his bag is filled with books about communism telling her he is "tired of reading the same mind-numbing rubbish. Marxist dialectics. Revolutionary principles. Everything for the collective."

During a dinner of rice, bean-sprout soup, kimchi and pancakes, the Kims tell the Paks they are planning to escape North Korea and travel to the South. Sora realizes if they escaped to the South they would have their freedom and not live in fear of their neighbours and maybe Sora could return school? Mr. Kim tells them they plan to settle in Busan on Korea's southern coast. Sora's father seems open to this idea and offers his wife's brother's house in Busan. But her mother is furious and tells the Kims they cannot possibly go with them, that it's too dangerous, and she admonishes Mr. Kim for telling them of their plans as it endangers her family.

Sora is devastated at her parents' refusal but she overhears her father give Mr. Kim directions to Uncle Hong-Chul's home. She knows that her mother's refusal is due to the fear over what happened to her own family: the execution of her mother's uncles, aunts and cousins because a relative was accused of being a traitor by the Communist regime. Sora's family was spared because it was not their family and her mother told the North Korean police her relative had broken into their house.

After this Sora's (mother) Omahni refuses to permit them from seeing or talking about the Kim's. When North Korea announces it has captured Seoul, Omahni insists that if they simply keep their heads down and follow the rules they will be fine. But Sora's father, Abahji isn't so convinced as he points out that under Communist rule they will not have free elections, there will be no contact with the outside world or freedom of speech. Abahji believes the Kim's will soon leave and that they will make it to Busan where it is safe.

Days later the Kim family is gone and rumours abound as to their fate. Because there is the belief that the Kim's are in a labour camp or worse, Omahni tells them that they are being shunned by association and she keeps Sora and her brothers inside.

By August 1950, Sora's village is emptying. Omahni insists that people are being taken by the police. When North Korea imposes a draft, Sora's family did a large pit at the edge of the millet field to hide Abahji in it for days at a time. In September 1950, they learn  that General MacArthur, head of the American forces and their allies have recaptured Seoul and Inchon. Then in October, with the Americans continuing to push north, Sora's village is bombed. Eventually Pyongyang is taken and soon American troops arrive in their village. 

 November sees China join the war on the side of North Korea and the tide turns against the Americans. Abahhi is insistent that they leave that night, ahead of the American retreat. He tells an angry Omahni that once the Americans are gone they will be trapped in North Korea forever. When Sora sides with her father, Omahni gives in and they pack and leave for the South. Although the Pak family will gain their freedom, it will come at a price they could not have imagined. For Sora and Youngsoo it will be a journey that will forever change them.

Discussion

Brother's Keeper is Julie Lee's debut novel. Set in a Korea, divided by war, Lee chronicles the experiences of the Pak family's struggle to survive under the Communist dictatorship in North Korea,  their difficult decision to finally flee their home, and the journey of the oldest two children when they become separated from their family. Although Brother's Keeper is historical fiction, portraying real-life events that occurred during the Korean war. City bombings, refugees crossing frozen rivers in canoes and on ice floes only to perish and taking refuge in abandoned homes were just some of the situations refugees from the North, like Sora and Youngsoo encountered, in their rush to freedom. It is also based on the experiences of the author's mother, who was fifteen-years-old and living in North Korea when the war began, and who also made the harrowing journey south as a refugee.

Set against the backdrop of the Korean war, Lee also explores the themes of filial duty to tradition and the place of women in Korean society through the character of  twelve-year-old Sora Pak. The Korean people have spent decades under Japanese occupation , during which the Japanese attempted to eradicate Korean culture. Their native language was suppressed and Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names. There is also an indirect reference to the possible use of comfort women when Sora states that "Japanese soldiers even kidnapped several girls from the high school." 

When the Japanese were defeated, Koreans were allowed to resume their Korean names and language. As the country came under the control of the Communists, Koreans would be eager to continue their cultural traditions despite the restrictions imposed on them. One of these was for girls to marry young, often at the age of sixteen. It was not uncommon for young girls to be pulled from school at a certain age to be trained in domestic duties like cooking and caring for children, in preparation for marriage. Sons were more valued than daughters and to have a son was considered a great blessing.

In Brother's Keeper, as the title suggests, Sora, who loves school and is a good student, has been pulled to care for her younger brother Jisoo who is two years old. It is her duty to do so. Sara feels "a twinge of loss....For all the learning I was missing. Math. Geography. Science...." Whenever she can, Sora hides behind the willow tree near the school window to listen in on the class. Helping her in this regard is her friend, Myung-gi Kim who leaves books for her beneath the willow tree. But Sora still dreams, even imagining herself one day graduating from high school. 

Instead of school, Sora finds herself forced to do child care and cooking and her lack of interest means Sora has difficulty mastering this task, which makes Omahni critical and abusive towards her. She wonders when Sora will learn to cook and how she will ever marry her off.  Omahni even comments on the colour of Sora's skin, "How is it that my daughter got the tan skin while my sons inherited my fair complexion?" 

Omahni is even critical of Sora in front of the entire Kim family, telling them, "No, our daughter is terrible in the kitchen, ... She's a clumsy girl who hates housework. I'm sure we'll never be able to get her married off when she's older."  Sora feels betrayed even though it is the custom for "humble parents always criticized their own children in front of others. It was the polite thing to do..."

When the Kim's reveal their plan to escape from North Korea, Sora is hopeful because she knows that there is more freedom in South Korea. Even though she realizes her being pulled from school has nothing to do with communism, she wonders, "What if one kind of freedom led to another?" Sora siding with her father who desires to accompany the Kim family, invokes Omahni's wrath. "Do you think South Korea is some magical place to cure all your ills? she hissed, her eyes wild with fear. 'It's mad of the same dirt and rock as here. Nothing will change for you. You'll still be a daughter. You'll still be a noona. You must still follow our traditions. You can't get out of those responsibilities, if that's what you're thinking."

However, things become so bad that the Pak family finally decide to leave North Korea. On the way, Sora and Youngsoo become separated from their parents and Jinsoo. It is now up to Sora, a twelve-year-old girl to not only find their way to Busan but also care for her younger brother who becomes seriously ill. As they endure starvation, cold, and even attempts by Koreans to kidnap them, Sora and Youngsoo struggle through the horrors of war.

When they arrive at their uncle's home in Busan, the reunion in bittersweet. Omahni is overwhelmed at seeing her precious son but doesn't give much thought to Sora. It's obvious that Youngsoo is ill so Omahni, thinking only of her eldest son's welfare, asks Sora to attend the third grade class nearby. She doesn't care for Sora's education but wants her to attend so that she can help Youngsoo catch up. Sora is struck by just how much more valued Youngsoo as a son is, compared to herself, a daughter. She watches her mother making rice porridge for him, a dish that requires constant care. "Had she ever made rice porridge for me? A quick radish soup, maybe, when I was nine and had drenched my nightclothes in fever.But never the loving, labored devotion of rice porridge." When the conversation turns to consulting the matchmaker in a few years, it is more than Sora can bear. She flees after seeing her mother chop the head off a fish. This is a metaphor for how Sora sees her future. The loss of school and the expectation of forced marriage make Sora like the fish - her life is over.

As the reality of Youngsoo's illness becomes apparent, Sora is overcome with guilt as she questions whether his illness and death was due to her lack of care for him. She also believes that if she had sided with Omahni rather than Abahji, they would never have made the journey and Youngsoo would be alive. Sora experiences intense survivor's guilt believing "It should have been me instead of Youngsoo...Her precious son."  Later on, Sora overhears Auntie talking to a woman in the market about the loss of Youngsoo and that at least they still have one son. The woman then sympathizes, "Can you imagine if she'd lost her only son and was left with nothing." implying that Sora has no worth because she's a daughter. Sora wonders what she has risked everything for as it seems Omahni won't relent. "I'd risked everything -- including my brother's life -- to get here, thinking one kind of freedom would automatically lead to another, that I could go to school, that I could write, that we would be happy. But I was wrong."   At this point Sora realizes she is going to have to fight for what she wants.

In a scene that is absolutely heartrending, Sora finally confronts Omahni during a cooking lesson, over Youngsoo's death and her desire to return to school. After telling her that she did her best to care for Youngsoo, Sora also states that she is forcing her to be someone she is not and that she just wants to do something different. But Sora's mother sees this as a negative reflection on her own worth, that Sora is ashamed of her because she is uneducated. Because Sora is always doing the opposite of what she asks, Omahni inadvertently reveals that this is why Sora is her least favourite, a revelation that deeply hurts Sora as it seems to confirm what she believes. Sora tells her mother she is worth something. 

From their heated exchange it is evident that Omahni is acting out of fear for her daughter and her own insecurities. Her experience of being judged and found wanting by her mother-in-law and therefore  unworthy, leads her to want to save Sora from this fate. So she overcompensates by attempting to teach Sora to be a perfect cook, something Sora has no interest in. Omahni sees her actions as preparing Sora to survive in a world that is harsh towards women. Sora tells her mother she will survive because she's taught her to be strong and work hard.

Brother's Keeper is a well written novel that explores the Korean War from the point of view of children, portraying the devastating effects of war on families, women and children. Lee has provided her readers with a realistic portrayal of the war and the plight of Korean refugees as they struggled to escape the brutal Communist regime. All of the novel's characters are believable and unique. Sora, as the protagonist, is compelling as she fights for what she truly wants in her own life, going against the conventions of this era.

Seventy years later Korea remains divided, with families now separated over several generations. Life in North Korea under the communist dictatorship is harsh with no contact with the outside world and few freedoms. Considering what little is known about life in North Korea, it is understandable why so many wanted to flee, leaving homes and family behind.

To help her young readers orient themselves, Lee has provided a map of the Korean peninsula showing Sora and Youngsoo's journey to freedom. Also included are a Glossary of Korean Words and a Timeline of the Korean War. The informative Author's Note, with black and white photographs of the author's mother, helps provide the necessary historical background for the novel. 

Brother's Keeper is historical fiction at its very best.

Book Details:

Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee
New York: Holiday House    2020
314 pp.

In The Tunnel by Julie Lee

In The Tunnel is the follow-up novel to Julie Lee's debut, Brother's Keeper.  The novel opens in October, 1952 with sixteen-year-old Myung-gi Kim and other young South Korean soldiers running up a hill when a grenade flashes in front of him. He falls down the hill breaking his ankle and rolls into part of the enemy tunnel dug by Chinese soldiers. The tunnel collapses trapping Myung-gi in a portion that is four feet long by five feet high. In other parts of the tunnel, Myung-gi hears South Korean soldiers fighting North Koreans and their Chinese allies.

Now trapped, Myung-gi flits back and forth between the present situation and the years leading up to this moment. These memories begin when he was nine-years-old in 1945 when he had the Japanese name, Ichiro and Korea was occupied by Japan. On August 15th, the Japanese surrender, having lost the war in the Pacific. His father, Kim Junho (Ahpa)  tells Myung-gi his real name is Kim Myung-gi and that his seven-year-old sister's name is no longer Hideko but Yoomee. They live in Changang Province. Myung-gi is smart, loves to read and gets good grades in school.

But for Myung-gi and his family, freedom lasted only one night, as the Japanese soldiers were replaced by Soviet soldiers soon they learned "that Korea had been divided in half at the 38th parallel...the Soviets occupying the North and the United States occupying the South." While some believe the Soviets are their liberators from Japanese oppression and protecting them from the imperialist Americans, Myung-gi notices Ahpa isn't happy. He tells them the Soviet soldiers are looting homes and decides they will get rid of their valuables. Ahpa also makes Uhma remove her makeup and her jewels and to wear only her plainest clothing so she doesn't attract the attention of the Soviet soldiers.

A year later, life under Soviet rule is even worse than under the Japanese. The soldiers take what they want including most of the harvest, leaving little food for the Koreans. As a result, people are starving and factories close. Ahpa's fabric business has closed because people cannot afford new clothes. He now works as the principal of the boys' school that Myung-gi attends. Ahpa and Myung-gi travel by bus to the city where visit a bookseller. On the bus Myung-gi tells his father he aspires to be a writer. Myung-gi loves "...al kinds of books - history books, fantasy books, even the nonfiction ones that made his eyes grow wide in wonder." At the bookshop, the shop owner tells Ahpa that the authorities told him he cannot sell European American or Japanese books or even Korean books if they are against communism.

By 1948, North Korea is now a Communist state, twelve-year-old Myung-gi meets his friend Sora, bringing her a folktale book and a book of Kim Sowol's poems. As they sit underneath the willow tree, Myung-gi is attacked and beaten by a group of boys accusing him of wanting the Americans to save him.

In September of 1949, Myung-gi witnesses an older boy, Yongshik from his school, kidnapped by soldiers on his way to school. That evening Ahpa brings Myung-gi more books: Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea and Ivanhoe. Ahpa has taught Myung-gi several language including English. To hide these banned books, Ahpa cuts a hole in the wall behind Myung-gi's wardrobe.

In June of 1950, Myung-gi is now fourteen years old. He has read through a large number of banned books from Frankenstein to Kim Yeoung-nang's poems. Then one Sunday morning upon arriving at the school for the mandatory weekly communist youth meeting, Myung-gi encounters a huge commotion. Comrade Lee announces that South Korean forces have invaded the North and also that the boys' school has a new principal, Comrade Ahn. This shocks Myung-gi and he races home.

At home, Ahpa tells Uhma, Myung-gi and Yoomee that he was let go and that his work organizing student protests and getting banned books may be to blame. Uhma is terrified at this revelation, worried that Ahpa may be taken away. But Ahpa tells her he has been planning their escape to the south for years, and now with the war as a distraction, it is time to leave. They are to head one hundred miles south, to the mouth of the Yesong River at the Yellow Sea. From there, boats are smuggling people south, to the west coast of South Korea. They will then take a boat to Inchon and walk to Busan on the southern coast.

Ahpa tells them they will leave in a few days after he's confirmed the boat and speaks to the Paks to offer them the chance to accompany them. Ahpa also tells his family that should anything happen to him. they should leave at once and follow the escape route. He tells Myung-gi not to be afraid to go on without him and that they should ask for Ko Jusung when they get to the Yesong River.

For several days, Myung-gi goes to school while his mother packs rice, clothing and money. After school one day, Ahpa tells Myung-gi to keep watch for anything suspicious while he continues to pack the jigeh back carrier.  So Myung-gi takes a book about the solar systme with him and sits behind the house on the other side of the wall to read. As a result, he doesn't see the army men creeping along the side of the house and doesn't warn Ahpa. He learns of their presence by the sounds of struggle inside the house. Too late, he sees Ahpa being pushed out of the house, his hands bound behind his back, his eye swoolen and his face bruised. His father is pushed into a car and taken away. Shame floods Myung-gi. He was supposed to keep watch. When Uhuma and Yoomee arrive home, Myung-gi tells them what happened.

Shock quickly leads to indecision as to what to do. Myung-gi tells them that Ahpa has said if anything should happen to him, they need to follow the escape plan and he would meet them in Busan. After careful consideration, Uhma decides they will do what Ahpa asks.

For Myung-gi, the journey south is filled with anger and shame that he failed to protect his father and that he is not the man his father is. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself, he signs up to fight the Communists will be the beginning of self-forgiveness, acceptance and learning to live amid profound loss. 

Discussion

In The Tunnel is the second book about the Korean War written by Julie Lee. The novel was born out of Lee's research for her first book, Brother's Keeper which showed that stories like Myung-gi's were a reality: children who were never reunited with family, and child soldiers who were used in a war and never later acknowledged. Lee decided she had to write a story "...in which wrongs inflicted upon the characters were never righted... about this history, because sometimes life is terribly unfair, and I needed to figure out a way to reconcile this reality with being able to move on and be happy..."

The novel features a story within a story, opening with sixteen-year-old Myung-gi Kim fighting the North Koreans in a battle that came to be known as The Battle of Triangle Hill which occurred in the Osong Mountain region from October 14 to November 25, 1952. This was a fierce battle that saw the United States and Republic of Korea Army gain ground, forcing the Chinese to hide in the tunnels they had dug. During the night, the Chinese would regain the territory they lost during the day. Myung-gi, who joined the ROKA with the objective of finding his father, is trapped in one of these tunnels during an attack on the hill. While in the tunnel, Myung-gi remembers back to how this all started in 1945 with the end of World War II and the retreat of the Japanese who had occupied Korea. But instead of freedom, Myung-gi and his family experience increasing oppression and terror as North Korea becomes a communist state. The two stories eventually merge with Myung-gi struggling to survive in the tunnel, while at the same time talking to an enemy Chinese soldier trapped in a separate but adjacent part of the tunnel.

In the flashbacks, the reader learns that Myung-gi's father is kidnapped by North Korean soldiers for his anti-communist resistance. His nose in a book, Myung-gi fails to warn his father of the soldiers and as a result he blames himself for his father being taken. But prior to this, Myung-gi is already filled with self-doubt, believing he doesn't measure up to his father. On a trip to the bookseller to buy books banned by the state, Myung-gi's father questions him about which career he aspires to, principal or professor. Myung-gi reveals he wants to be neither, but instead a writer. Ahpa's response to this makes Myung-gi wonder, "Maybe a writer wasn't big enough, important enough." Later on when Myung-gi is badly beaten by a group of boys, he lies to his parents about what happened because he is ashamed about not being able defend himself. "Ahpa would've never lost a fight, not with his judo and street smarts and muscles."

Once  Myung-gi and his family are safely in the south and living in Busan, he continues to struggle with what he believes was his failure to protect his father, with the cultural expectations as the only son and with what his father told him, "Don't be afraid to go on without me." Several times, every day, Myung-gi visits the church where refugees are camped on the lawn, asking if anyone has seen his father. Unable to sleep, and not interested in school Myung-gi begins carrying water to make some money for his family. When Myung-gi is identified as one of several boys who are recommended to take the specialty high school entrance exam in a month's time, he is filled deeply conflicted,  "Because the idea of applying to a specialty high school felt a lot like moving on...which felt a lot like giving up on Ahpa... He wasn't ready to start something new without Ahpa."

After Uhma cuts her hair to make money to buy them new shoes, Myung-gi decides to leave school. He is still overwhelmed with guilt for reading when he should have been watching for the North Korean soldiers and cannot bear to pick up a book. He also learns that with the Chinese joining the war, Northern refugees can no longer cross the 38th parallel anymore, meaning that the likelihood Ahpa will escape is now slim. In desperation, Myung-gi decides to enlist, with the hope that being in the North he will be able to find Ahpa and bring him back. "It was his fault Ahpa got taken -- now it was up to him to get his father back. If something happened to Myung-gi in the process, well, that would be the punishment he deserved." This desperate act shocks Uhma, Yoomee, Sora and their families.

Trapped in the tunnel and facing death, Myung-gi faces the prospect of dying alone. With only a small mouse for company, Myung-gi begins to remember some passages from the banned books he's read like Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and The Hobbit by Tolkien. He realizes that as Victor Hugo wrote in his novel,  his own father loved him in spite of all his weaknesses and inadequacies. And after three years  of futile hoping and wishing, Myung-gi remembers to words of Victor Hugo,  "... that it is frightful not to live." As Myung-gi comes to the realization he will not be able to find his father in this war, he want his father to be happy and to live his best life. "But if you're alive, don't be sad, don't stop living, don't spend your days alone. Find a family you can love, and who will love you back -- because we can't be with you anymore. I can't be with you anymore. Be happy!"

As Myung-gi is being rescued his entire perspective has changed: he will live his life as it is now, to the fullest. "And soon he will be set down in the right place -- at home, in Busan, where he will hug Uhma tight and thank her for being both mother and father. Where he will tell his artist sister how proud he is of her and then gaze upon her portrait of their father. Where he will go to Sora, the girl he will always love, and finally say he is sorry...Where he will dig up that book from Teacher Chun and read it from beginning to end. Where he will take that entrance exam and hope for the best. Where he will write their history, his family's, the one he already started. Where he will finally do as his father said and not be afraid to go on without him." Myung-gi, being extracted from the tunnel, experiences a rebirth, coming to accept what he cannot change, that his father is gone and that they likely will not meet again in this life. He realizes that he must go on and live his life and that Ahpa foresaw this possibility and gave him the permission to do so. In the Epilogue, readers learn how well Myung-gi fulfilled his father's desire for him.

The Korean War ended in a stalemate, with an armistice signed on July 27, 1953 in Panmunjom by officials from North and South Korea, The People's Republic of China and the United States. According to the Korean Red Cross, nearly ten million families were separated due to the Korean War. What was originally believed to be a temporary situation has resulted in these millions being denied the basic human right to reunification of their families for the past seventy years. Although there have been some state-sanctioned visits, as the years pass, older members of families are passing on, while younger members suffer from the lack of connection with older family members like grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles. There is not only this trauma, but brief, temporary reunification of families also causes tremendous trauma. 

In The Tunnel portrays the trauma of separation experienced by Myung-gi and his family but also the trauma he experienced as a child soldier. Myung-gi was one of at least thirty-thousand child soldiers conscripted into the war by South Korea. Some of these soldiers enlisted, intent upon finding lost family members as Myung-gi did.  

In The Tunnel is one of several recent novels to explore the Korean War from the perspective of children. The novel offers readers the themes of forgiveness, the effects of war on civilians including the separation of families, the refugee experience, and living without a resolution to that separation.

Book Details:

In The Tunnel by Julie Lee
New York: Holiday House    2023
332 pp.