Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

This is a very moving account of a young girl's struggle to survive during the Japanese (and later Russian) Occupation of North Korea. The main character was so mature for her age--her life depended on it. If I think back to when I was ten, I remember spending a majority of my time playing outside, reading, playing with friends and family, or watching TV. All of these activities were completely removed from the narrator's childhood (no TV anyway). If actions didn't support the Imperial Emperor's quest to defeat the White Devils, there was no use for it.

I find it hard to connect any personal experiences with that time period because in history classes we seldomly beyond WW2 in the European theatre. Being unfamiliar with the specifics about the Korean occupation and role in the war left me pretty open to learning. I can't imagine being so poorly treated and then tricked into buying rice half filled with sand as a reward for my hard work. Being an American, I sometimes forget how lucky we are in this country for our everyday freedoms--the family in this novel were stripped of all of these daily choices as a way of creating dependance and fear for the Japanese.

Even though life was hard and they were without a father or brothers, Sookan's family was very strong and determined. This family showed their strength in many small ways--from avoiding Japanese school, reading Korean, keeping the silver hair clip, and filing the glass to make jagged edges smooth. In such scary times, I don't know that I would have been able to do something against the Japanese for fear of retaliation--they seemed to know how to hit the Koreans in just the "right" place for maximum pain.

I was astonished at how patient they were--constant reminders from Aunt Tiger that "the war will be over soon. The Japanese aren't doing well" seemed to be enough to keep them going. Even after their sock girls were taken to the front lines to be spirit girls, Grandfather died, food was almost impossible to find, and their home had been ransacked by the Russians, Sookan's family remained solid in their faith for better times and eachother.

"How inviting that barbed-wire fence seemed!" I can't imagine being that excited to see something so jagged and menacing. Sookan and her brother had come so far and a new start was just past their last test of endurance--the fence could either stop them for the coming Russians or lead them to a land of new beginnings. This is a powerful mental picture and important observation from such a young, mature little girl.