Reading about Sun-hee's experiences, which were similar, just reminded me of my own grandmother. She grew up in Seoul during WW2, and I remember her telling me stories about how she had to help with war preparations at school as a child. I connected to this book on a personal level that no book have ever been able to achieve for me. But I decided to start it today, and I'm so glad I did. Even when I finally checked it out of the library it took weeks for me to actually start reading it. This beautifully crafted and moving novel joins a small but growing body of literature, such as Haemi Balgassi’s Peacebound Trains (Clarion, 1996) and Sook Nyul Choi’s The Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Houghton, 1991), that expands readers’ understanding of this period.This book had been sitting on my TBR list for ages. Like the Rose of Sharon tree, symbol of Korea, which the family pots and hides in their shed until their country is free, Sun-hee and Tae-yul endure and grow.
Yet in both cases they develop subtle plans to resist the enemy. Each of them reacts to the events in different ways–Sun-hee takes refuge in writing while Tae-yul throws his energies into physical work. What is outstanding is the insight Park gives into the complex minds of these young people. Tension mounts as Uncle, working with the Korean resistance movement, goes into hiding, and Tae-yul takes a drastic step that he feels is necessary to protect the family. They describe the hardships their family is forced to face as Japan becomes enmeshed in World War II and detail their individual struggles to understand what is happening. Sun-hee, now called Keoko, and Tae-yul, newly named Nobuo, tell the story in alternating narrative voices. To add to their unhappiness, everyone, adults and children alike, must give up their Korean names and take new Japanese ones. Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, still go to school every day, but lessons now consist of lectures and recitations designed to glorify Japan. Gr 6-9– Living in Korea in the 1940s was difficult because the Japanese, who occupied the country, seemed determined to obliterate Korean culture and to impose their own on its residents.
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