The actions the characters in the story took to protect their culture deomonstrated how far the cruelty of the Japanese had driven them. She describes how all Koreans were forced to take on Japanese names, speak, read and write in Japanese, and unwillingly adopt the Japanese culture while discarding their own. These events played an important role in Parke's Korean heritage and was evident in her writing. This part of Korean history is often discarded from history books, especially those in Japan. As a history teacher, this story was particularly interesting to me, since WW2 told from the Korean perspective is not something that is widely known.
She meshes actual historical events with her own story to help the reader imagine what a typical Korean family went through while under Japanese rule. Linda Sue Park expertly narrates the fictional story of her mother's experience with the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War 2. So, I say this to the author Linda Sue Park: It inspired a deep pride in my Korean heritage and really, this is something no book has ever done for me before. But since I am, I just connected to this book on such a personal level. Tae-yul was alright, but I didn't like him as much). I admit, the writing can be dry at times and the characters aren't the most lovable (although I did like Sun-hee. I think if I wasn't of Korean descent, my rating would be much lower. And the last sentence of the book, where Sun-hee begins to teach Tae-yul Hangul (the Korean alphabet)? Dear lord, that just hit me hard emotionally. There were times I was close to tears, because this book just reminded me of my heritage in a way no book has ever done before. 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 book had been sitting on my TBR list for ages.
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