Resistance To Reunion: When My Name Was Keoko By Linda Sue Park

Erica Pemberton English 10 May 15, 2023 Resistance to Reunion

According to the Oxford Dictionary, resistance comes in two forms. The first is “the refusal to accept or comply with something”. The second is “the ability not to be affected by something”. Both apply to the discussion of the book When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park. With courage alongside compassion for one's loved ones, three characters show great ways to resist. In the novel, the three acts of resistance which were the riskiest including having the greatest impact were as followed, writing the Korean name of an Olympian, conspiring to crash a Japanese plane, as well as writing for a resistance newspaper.

The first example of showing resistance

Tae-yul surprised his family because he’s already sent out his letter of supposed death. This meant his appearance was a shock, he and his family sat around while he told them about all that happened, along with his plan. “But I knew if I were to dive my plane just a few degrees off target, I’d miss and it would still look like I’d tried to hit it”(182). The dicey part of this plan was that if the army found out his whole family could be arrested on charges of treason. Another option would be to just kill him and arrest his family, both are equally bad which is why it was so risky and important that the army didn’t find out. This course of action didn’t end up happening of course but the idea itself is what matters. The reason it’s important is that he was ready to risk his life which would help Korea and hurt Japan. Crashing one of Japan’s planes would mean fewer aircraft for Japan and more for Allied aircraft. This ultimately helps Korea since if Japan loses they also leave Korea, which is the main goal of the book along with getting back their culture. It also helps to show how strong Koreans are to the Japanese and shows that they are just as capable as them. This demonstrates that conspiring to crash the plane was

When Tae-yul gets back, his thought process is that because his dad did seemingly nothing, he is a coward. He’s lost a lot of respect for him and even says “I think he was worse than the chin-il-pa!”(187). This reaction helps Sun-hee realize she has something to show her brother. She stands there, points to an article, and says “The one about education. He wrote that, Abuji.”(188). At first, Tae-yul doesn’t believe her and questions how she knew it. She tells how Abuji had told her something very similar to the article before. This act of resistance is risky because it could cause Abuji to lose his job, which would lead to hard times for the family and an even harder time for him. Another risk of this action is him getting arrested which also would lead to hard times for the family. A reason this is important is that it shows Abuji isn’t a coward. It also helps strengthen the bond between him and his son which ultimately strengthens the resistance. Another reason it’s important is that it helps Korean people reading it keep their culture, to remember the flaws in the Japanese system which will lead to even more loss of power for the Japanese. This is how writing for the resistance helped and was