Within the heart aching memoir of Masaji Ishikwaka, A River of Darkness, the transformation of a Japanese returnee family is written from the perspective of their young son. The son grows into a damaged man during his short time in North Korea. He experiences incredible losses and hardships throughout his life until he finally escapes. Even then he is still in a desperate fight for survival. Throughout the story the main character experiences blemishing blows to the heart and mind. He reaches rock bottom multiple times but pushes through unlike those around him who fall victim to their environment. Everyone has a breaking point, but some are closer than others. In the memoir Masaji Ishikawa portrays himself as an empathetic survivor who undergoes …show more content…
For example ¨Ï just stared at the doorknob which was so polished I could see my reflection in its gleaming surface. Him describing how clean and shiny the doorknob showed that he had not experienced cleanliness since moving to North Korea. This quote allowed readers to fully understand the low point of the character's life. Ishiwawa uses sensory imagery to describe what he wants but ultimately cannot have. ¨The sweet smell of candy permeated the air¨. In this quote the character describes the sweet smell of candy in a desiring way knowing he can not have it. He allows the reader to understand how restrictive his life is from a simple …show more content…
This simple sentence holds immense emotion. The metaphor used explains that Ishiwawa is struggling as a father to take care of his son, this being his greatest hardship. Another example is when he states, ¨sadness and gladness follow each other¨(58). The author wrote this to explain his philosophy of life from a North Korean perspective. The reader can infer that every good time the character experienced a bad time soon followed. The use of simile is also evident in the text: ¨he picked it up and ate it like a pigeon¨ (129), The he mentioned was a starving boy who picked some leftover food from the floor and ate it. This simile shows the animalistic ways humans turned to in the desperation to stay alive. It also shows the effects of the poor decisions made by the North Korean Government that leaves country people overworked and
This book reflects the author’s wish of not only remembering what has happened to the Japanese families living in the United States of America at the time of war but also to show its effects and how families made through that storm of problems and insecurities. The story takes in the first turn when the father of Jeanne gets arrested in the accusation of supplying fuel to Japanese parties and takes it last turn when after the passage of several years, Jeanne (writer) is living a contented life with her family and ponders over her past (Wakatsuki Houston and D. Houston 3-78). As we read along the pages
The book contains Jeanne Wakatsuki‘s wartime autobiographical memoir during the incarceration at Manzanar, which was a Japanese-American confinement camp. It takes us through how her father was arrested by the FBI who allegedly claimed that their father was supplying the Japanese with oil that’s why they had attacked the Pearl Harbor, thus he was imprisoned at Fort Lincoln in North Dakota. This book brings out the experience the Japanese-American underwent when the Americans were at war with the Japanese and what happened in the aftermath of the war. Not only does she bring out what her family underwent but also she tries to incorporate what her fellow internments underwent and how some bit of justice shone in their way after a long time of
“The Scar” Topic: The Scar relives through the events of the Hiroshima bombing through the eyes of a Japanese survivor, Emiko Okamoto. Thesis: The Hiroshima bombing is a shameful spot on the humanity’s conscience. Techniques:
His father was taken away in the middle of the night for something he didn’t do. The boy watched as his father left with only a bathrobe and slippers on as he was denied his dignity and stripped of his humanity. This occurred in Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine, a book that depicts a family of Japanese Americans that were torn apart and sent to an internment camp. They experienced prejudice and racism while living in conditions that weren’t fit for thriving. This book represents the thousands of Japanese Americans that suffered during World War II because of the fear that stemmed from the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan.
Chang’s retelling of the violence used by Japanese soldiers through the use of interviews of victims and extremely graphic pictures. Interviews with comfort women and other survivors from the event detail the uncurtailed violence that the Japanese Imperial Army used against the Nanking residents. The use of pictures throw the reader right into the event - an event of such brutality that it is hard to interpret through words alone. The ambiguous figure of John Rabe particularly stood out to me when reading the book. A staunch supporter of Hitler and Nazism, John Rabe established the Nanking safety Zone, sheltering chinese residents, particularly women and children from the Japanese army (Chang, 109).
The novel Farewell to Manzanar follows the story of a seven year old Japanese-American girl, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and her family's life struggles within the Manzanar internment camp. Written by Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston, this book is a dramatic autobiography that takes place mainly in Owens Valley, California, when the Japanese-American families arrive at Manzanar. Jeanne Wakatsuki narrates this novel and describes her life in the internment camp over a span of three years. In the following analysis of the Houston’s work, Farewell to Manzanar, I will offer a summary of the novel, the weaknesses, such as the authors’ failure to mention in-depth details about life in the internment camp, the strengths of the book, which include the authors providing background information on the War, and the significance of this certain era in American history.
The novella when the emperor was divine by Julia Otsuka is about a Japanese family’s survival during the time of world war two and internment camps although their family has been separated from their father. They continue to keep living their life and surviving the treacherous times. The book further uses symbols to show many depictions of hope, discrimination, and disconnection between many peoples relationships. But most importantly, Julia Otsuka uses names to demonstrate the loss of identity, ultimately suggesting how the internment disconnected themself from their identities. The effect of the internment on the family’s identity had changed from the beginning to the end of the novel.
One example of the loss of humanity under the North Korean regime is: "We were nothing but a bunch of ravenous ghosts. The barely living dead (126). " Here Ishiwawa alludes to zombies with his comments about the "Barely living dead," comparing the appearance of the starving masses to the decayed facsimiles of life. One example of a comparison of seeming paradise to the hellish conditions of North Korea is: "I looked around and wanted to weep at what I saw.
Making a connection with the first quote, Candy's insecurities run deeper, also tying into his old age as well. Candy's fear is beneficial to himself and the people on the
Candy recognizes that no matter what he does it will be painful for himself; however, he realizes that he
Stephen has his loved ones in danger and seeing others suffering. Finally Matsu has much of his past congested in suffering. Throughout the novel there are still instances for the trio of characters where cheerfulness is present in a world of hate, pain, and suffering.
Escape from Camp 14 is the true story of Shin Dong-hyuk, who is the only known person to have been born in and escape from a North Korean labor camp. After numerous interviews, the book’s author, Blaine Harden, details the reader about Shin’s life both inside and outside the camp as he assimilates into different societies. As critical information is revealed, Harden uncovers the corruption in the political landscape in North Korea. Shin’s life in Camp 14 accentuates the struggles to gain basic human freedom and elucidates food as an even more precious commodity. The straightforward diction and intriguing combination of rhetorical devices effectively expresses the brutality and oppression in the North Korean prison camp.
“Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” Nam Le’s “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” is categorized in “ethnic story” narrated his Vietnamese life in order to meet an upcoming deadline even though finally he can’t submit his story because his father burns his work. Throughout the story, Nam the narrator talks about “the past” which he experiences when he was young including the recent experience that he has got from his father reunion. Not only does the story tell us about the past which, but it also shows a connection of time between past, present, and future. Likewise, the story shows the relationship between son and father which is the main theme of this story; and shows how the past is important and affect to them differently. Also, the story of the past could lead to the end of the story that can be interpreted like a prediction of the direction of their relationship in the future.
In the poem, “A Hymn to Childhood,” Li-Young Lee talks about having fragmented individuality from childhood due to war. He is lost in perception of a traumatic childhood caused by war and a normal naïve childhood. Lee depicts the two diverged childhoods from his memory through the use of antithesis to emphasize the world perceived by a self fragmented individual. Throughout the poem, he consistently presents two opposing ideas to show what it feels like to grow up with emotional trauma.
Throughout the book, A River in Darkness, Masaji Ishikawa presents the readers with the difficult topic of the struggles of living in North Korea. He discusses the struggles in different ways, which can bring light to his personal problems with living in North Korea. Ishikawa's character is able to be shown, especially when discussing family, and his dreams for the future. He is able to give the reader a description of his life in North Korea, and is able to make the reader feel the pain that he experiences. Ishikawa's dream to have a better life is constantly crushed by the reality of his life, yet he still manages to have some hope in a supposedly better life, even if it's not achievable.