Book #10, When My Name Was Keoko
I am 1/5 of the way there! I'll still need to pick it up to hit 50 though. XD Maybe I'll get some quality reading time on our vacation in June. Also note - Generator Gawl icon!
Book 10 was When My Name Was Keoko, by Linda Sue Park. It takes place in Japanese-occupied Korea during WWII - the title is referring to when the Japanese forced everyone in Korea to take a Japanese name, so the main characters Sun-hee and Tae-yul had to go by Keoko and Nobuo. Almost all of the resources of Korea were diverted towards the Japanese war effort, which resulted in a continually plummeting quality of life for the Koreans.
This is a young adult book, but wow, it was kind of scary. I mean, Tricia would probably be able to handle it, but it's the level of book I was reading at about eight and I think it would have traumatized me. The simple language almost made it worse; it was so matter-of-fact and to the point as it discussed the propaganda shown in the schools about how Americans wanted to kill "everyone with black hair, even babies," and the girls' school going outside to sharpen bamboo sticks and practice bayoneting straw dummies in case the American came to attack. They kept the bamboo sticks leaning against the wall of the school for ready access. Then, Tae-yul ends up in the Japanese army on a kamikaze mission. Serious stuff. All in all, it was very good - the beginning is pretty slow and I almost didn't bother finishing it, but after the location and situation is set, things really pick up. And in retrospect, that's a good thing, since it's certainly not a setting I'm familiar with. Now I'm poking around at some of the author's references to maybe do some more reading into this time period.
Also, I kept envisioning Generator Gawl's Kouji as Abuji. Their personalities were just so similar. I tried the whole time to not picture Kouji and just picture a Korean man, but it just didn't work.
Book 10 was When My Name Was Keoko, by Linda Sue Park. It takes place in Japanese-occupied Korea during WWII - the title is referring to when the Japanese forced everyone in Korea to take a Japanese name, so the main characters Sun-hee and Tae-yul had to go by Keoko and Nobuo. Almost all of the resources of Korea were diverted towards the Japanese war effort, which resulted in a continually plummeting quality of life for the Koreans.
This is a young adult book, but wow, it was kind of scary. I mean, Tricia would probably be able to handle it, but it's the level of book I was reading at about eight and I think it would have traumatized me. The simple language almost made it worse; it was so matter-of-fact and to the point as it discussed the propaganda shown in the schools about how Americans wanted to kill "everyone with black hair, even babies," and the girls' school going outside to sharpen bamboo sticks and practice bayoneting straw dummies in case the American came to attack. They kept the bamboo sticks leaning against the wall of the school for ready access. Then, Tae-yul ends up in the Japanese army on a kamikaze mission. Serious stuff. All in all, it was very good - the beginning is pretty slow and I almost didn't bother finishing it, but after the location and situation is set, things really pick up. And in retrospect, that's a good thing, since it's certainly not a setting I'm familiar with. Now I'm poking around at some of the author's references to maybe do some more reading into this time period.
Also, I kept envisioning Generator Gawl's Kouji as Abuji. Their personalities were just so similar. I tried the whole time to not picture Kouji and just picture a Korean man, but it just didn't work.