<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19046"></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Book Antiqua; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 14pt" id=role_body bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document color=#000000 size=4 face="Book Antiqua">
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Many thanks to Kwang-On Yoo for this and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>all the other materials he kindly shares.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I was wondering where this came from.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>It wasn't hard to find. The link is:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.asian-studies.org/eaa/lostname.htm">http://www.asian-studies.org/eaa/lostname.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Best wishes</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Aidan FC</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3>Aidan
Foster-Carter<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3>Honorary
Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University,
UK</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 6/16/2011 09:14:55 GMT Daylight Time,
lovehankook@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Hello,
<BR><BR>Dr. David Kim's announcement also brought to our attention the passing
of Professor Richard Kim in 2009.<BR>In memory of Professor Kim, I would like
to share following...<BR><BR>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=5>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="100%">
<P align=left><IMG alt="Lost Names: Scenes From A Korean Boyhood" align=left src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kim.gif" width=559 height=120></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><FONT face=Times>
<DIV align=right>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></FONT>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=5>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="70%">
<P align=left><SMALL><I>Lost Names</I> is a useful, rare, and wonderful
book for several reasons. The book’s title reflects the Japanese Pacific
War policy of forcing Koreans to replace their own names with Japanese
ones. <I>Lost Names</I> is the story, as recounted by a young boy, of
one Korean family’s experience during the war years. Although <I>Lost
Names</I> is technically a novel, according to author Richard Kim, " . .
. all the characters and events described in the book are real, but
everything else is fiction." Never in my time in Asian Studies has one
work been so applicable to such a wide range of students as is the case
with <I>Lost Names</I>. </SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>In the pages that follow, we feature an interview
by <I>EAA</I> editorial board member Kathy Masalski with Richard E. Kim
and essays by a junior high, senior high school, and university
instructor on how they have used <I>Lost Names</I> as a highly effective
teaching tool. We sincerely hope this special feature encourages
teachers at all levels to read <I>Lost Names</I> and consider using it
with students. </SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><I>Lucien Ellington</I></SMALL></P></TD>
<TD width="30%">
<P align=center><IMG border=1 alt="Lost Names" align=center src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/lostname2.gif" width=188 height=282></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="80%" noShade>
<P align=left> </P>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=3>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="25%">
<P align=center><IMG border=0 alt="Kathleen Woods Masalski" align=center src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kathy.jpg" width=138 height=182></P></TD>
<TD vAlign=top width="75%" align=left><FONT color=#008000><SMALL><B>Kathleen Woods Masalski</B> — I first met
Richard Kim in 1994 when I asked him to speak at a National Endowment
for the Humanities summer institute on the War in the Pacific. The
audience responded so well that I invited him to speak at several other
summer institutes sponsored by the Five College Center for East Asian
Studies. After reading Peter Wright’s, Susan Mastro’s, and Dick Minear’s
essays about their teaching of <I>Lost Names</I>, I asked Lucien if he
would be interested in an interview with Kim. Lucien had read the book
and read the essays (Kim did not ask to see them before publication),
and urged me to proceed. Kim agreed to get together with me on May 18 in
Amherst, Massachusetts.</SMALL></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#008000><SMALL>I presented him with a list of questions
that I had prepared. The interview lasted three hours; I took copious
notes and wrote them up immediately afterward. Although I suggested that
he edit the final interview, Kim declined. What follows are selected
passages from our discussion that
afternoon.</SMALL></FONT></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<P align=left><FONT color=#008000><SMALL>I should note that I approach <I>Lost
Names</I> as history, and my questions reflect my background as a history
teacher. An English teacher would have asked different questions. Lost Names
is first and foremost creative writing. Social studies teachers may well wish
to introduce the book to their colleagues in the English or Language Arts
departments.</SMALL></FONT></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="80%" noShade>
<P align=left> </P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> One question the
audience always has about <I>Lost Names</I> is whether it is fiction or
nonfiction. Do you really intend to tell readers that nothing in <I>Lost
Names</I> is "factual" or "historical"? How much of what is in it actually
happened? How much actually happened to you?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center width="70%" align=left>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim: </B>Everything in the book actually
happened. It happened to me. So why am I always insisting it’s not
autobiographical? I think because of the way I used the things that
actually happened. You have to arrange them, mix them up. Above all,
it’s interpretation of facts, of actual events—some thirty or forty
years later. For example, when "the boy" gets beaten, what went through
his mind? We don’t know. . . . even I don’t know. I like to separate the
actual events from the emotional, the psychological. One shouldn’t
confuse the actual events with the inner events. That’s where a lot of
beginning writers make a big mistake. A lot think everything is exactly
as it happened; but we put our own interpretation on events. I didn’t
invent any actual events. . . . but everything else is fiction. That is
very important to me.</SMALL></P></TD>
<TD vAlign=center width="30%" align=middle><IMG alt="Richard Kim" align=center src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kim.jpg" width=119 height=177></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> When you wrote the
book in 1970, how did you go about gathering evidence? Or didn’t you?
</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I didn’t have to gather much. I made a
chronology of actual political events and a chronology of events in my life.
Then I rearranged . . . I had to rearrange the events in my life. I think that
the private events happened at the time [I described them] . . . but maybe
not. The big world events happened . . . [the question was] how to bring them
together . . . . </SMALL><BR><SMALL>The original plan for this book was
different from what it turned out to be. Praeger planned a series of books on
different countries, Japan, China, India, Korea, etc. to introduce these
countries to American children. I decided to introduce Korea through family
life. As soon as I started writing, the book took on a different life. I
called my editor and said, "I can’t do it the way it was planned." She said,
"What is your idea for the book?" and I said I didn’t know. She said, "Let it
loose, let it go." I had already listed many details, for example, what we
typically ate for breakfast, because I was using that information to introduce
what Koreans eat. When I finished writing (it took me only three months), we
took a look at the manuscript. It was not what the editors had in mind, but
they liked it. They took the work out of the country series and decided to
publish it separately. But, they wondered, how should they treat it? They sent
the manuscript to Pearl Buck, and she praised it as a novel. But Praeger
didn’t want a novel. So they convinced her to call it something else. [She
called it "the best piece of creative writing I have read about Korea."] So
Praeger decided to just get it out . . . to let others decide. And the reviews
were good. [Edward] Seidensticker reviewed it for the <I>New York Times</I>
and Praeger breathed a sigh of relief.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> You were a boy of
thirteen or fourteen when the book—and the war—ended. What do you remember of
your feelings then? Now, fifty-plus years later, how have your feelings
changed?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim: </B>I don’t feel differently about things today.
I feel the same as when they happened. My father was in a detention camp, so I
didn’t jump up and down for joy. Rather, I felt that finally it’s happened.
Something that should have happened happened.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I didn’t have
feelings of hatred for the Japanese. My feelings were more of contempt. I
despised, had contempt for [them]. . . . In a perverse sort of way, I had a
feeling of superiority. It was a defense mechanism to think, "Forgive them,
Lord, for they know not what they do." This may be a cultural, a class thing.
I felt the Japanese were not to be trusted or respected. It might have been
different in Seoul, but not in my small town. The Japanese we dealt with were
not very good. After all, who would go to a dinky town, a dinky province, if
they had a choice?</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I [didn’t] think of the Korean characters
as saintly, but as ordinary. In those days there was no room for cynicism.
Everything seemed clear cut. We knew where we were and where we stood. Today
is different; I don’t know where I stand. I don’t know what to think. . . . in
those days I knew. Them and us. Cynicism comes from self-doubt. There was no
room for that sort of thing.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>When the Japanese priest and
his wife [who lived nearby] came [when the end of the war was announced] and
begged that we protect them, my grandfather didn’t know what to do. . . . I
didn’t know what to do. . . . We went back to the source of authority. . . .
do what your father would have done. The tenant farmer, too, kept telling me
that my father would have protected them. . . .</SMALL><BR><SMALL>Actually, my
father was a saint. I wrote an inscription on his gravestone, "He was a good
man and just." He was like that—truly. I never heard him say anything bad
about anyone. I never saw him enraged. I’m not like him. . . . He had a great
capacity for suppressing his feelings; he was patient.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>If I
had been exposed to constant hatred at home, maybe I would have felt
differently about Japan and the Japanese. But I wasn’t. Grandfather never said
much. And I never heard my father say nasty things verbally. We thought,
they’re bad ones. . . . so why should we waste our time talking about them. .
. . </SMALL></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="70%" noShade>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><I><BIG>If the Japanese had
been victorious, if the war had lasted another four or five years, maybe
most Koreans would have become
"Japanized."</BIG></I></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="70%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> What difference to
<I>Lost Names</I> does it make that you and your family were well-to-do and
Christian?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> This is a very important question. We were
upper-middle class, the town’s elite. The Japanese who were there were not. We
saw them as men who couldn’t get jobs in Tokyo. "Why are they here?" we asked
ourselves. As colonizers, they were supposed to be better than the colonized,
but a lot of Japanese were simply not that great. It’s a cultural, a class
thing. I didn’t hate them. They were like dangerous dogs to be
avoided.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>Although we were not that wealthy, we were
reasonably well-to-do. In those days we were made to look upper class because
we went to college. The Christian thing is tricky. I’ve been thinking about
it. Some really well-to-do Koreans, especially in the South—even among my
generation—sometimes the Japanese treated them like upper class, with kid
gloves. Made them feel better, like the aristocracy, the ruling class, the
landlord class. Made them feel as if they were treated with respect. To this
day I know people with backgrounds like this who are without anti-Japanese
feelings.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>The lower classes—what did they care if they were
governed by the Japanese or a Korean dynasty? They were treated the same. My
grandfather told me that one time, when he witnessed royalty passing by, he
saw someone miserably beaten because he didn’t bow low enough. And he (my
grandfather) felt that when the dynasty perished, well, it served the royalty
right.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I don’t know how much of a sense of nationalism
existed at the time of Japanese annexation. As long as the upper classes kept
their money and status, and as long as the Japanese left them alone, what
difference did it make? And what difference did it make to the peasants—both
Korean royalty and the Japanese took eighty percent of their crops,
regardless. If the Japanese had been victorious, if the war had lasted another
four or five years, maybe most Koreans would have become
"Japanized."</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I think it was the middle class, the
upper-middle class who were affected most by the war. That group produced more
educated people, those with expanded consciousness.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>To the
Japanese, the Christians were the ones with the most connections with the
West—simply because they were Christians. They were therefore characterized as
outsiders, as dangerous. They were an important minority because they were
upper-middle class. They sent their sons to schools and colleges. So as a
group they were more conscious of national identity. I don’t think the upper
or lower classes thought about nationalism or independence, but I really don’t
know. The early uprisings were not organized by the upper classes. In those
days [during the war], memories were fresh. Twenty–thirty years later, I don’t
know. . . .</SMALL><BR><SMALL>Belonging to that class and being Christian made
all the difference.</SMALL> <SMALL>We were more aware of where we belonged. I
grew up thinking we were a little different. <I>Lost Names</I> would be a
different book if it were written by someone else at the same time but in a
different class and in a different place.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>The book is not
representative of "the Korean experience." I was a marked boy. Somehow the
village had voted me most likely to succeed, because I was my father’s son. My
grandfather, the minister, was one of the best-known leaders of the Christian
community. Most Christians knew my grandfather’s name. The first day back in a
Korean school, things were very tense for me. My parents wondered, how would
he (I) be received—both by the Japanese and the town’s kids. I always had to
be conscious of what I was. The key was "do not disgrace the
family."</SMALL></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="70%" noShade>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><BIG><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><I>One exception I take
is to anyone who says it’s (Lost Names) anti-Japanese. It’s not; there are
some bad Japanese characters in the book, but it is not
anti-Japanese.</I></FONT></BIG></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="70%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> In your opinion, has
the Japanese government apologized to the Korean people for its treatment of
them during the occupation period? </SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I’m not so sure they’ve apologized. Regret,
maybe. But that’s beside the point. I don’t really care if any government
apologizes. It’s probably a political thing, anyway. It seems to me that
Asians are less capable than Europeans of accepting collective responsibility
for their actions. Maybe the Judeo-Christian culture has more possibilities
for atonement and redemption. Not so true for Asians. Why is it so difficult
for Asians or Koreans to say we are all guilty? We tend to say, "I didn’t do
it."</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> The title of the
book is problematic—in all three languages. Why did you choose it? What was
your intent? </SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I loved the word "lost" and all the things
that it conjures up, especially in English. <I>Paradise Lost</I>. Lost is
almost damned. . . . almost sinful. Lost Souls (which was at one point my
working title). I like "lost" because it has a lot to do with my sense of my
generation. Kind of like I am now. I don’t belong. Born in Korea. Moved to
Manchuria. Back to the north [Korea]. Then to South Korea. Didn’t belong
either place. Then to the military, where I didn’t belong. To here. For awhile
I thought about it, then I gave up thinking about it, for it’s not important.
Especially my generation of Koreans happened to be between periods. . . .
Japanese occupation . . . a little of that . . . then the country was divided.
. . . then exodus . . . lost again. Led a refugee’s life . . . lost again . .
. then ended up here in god-forsaken Shutesbury with a name like Richard. . .
. </SMALL><BR><SMALL>My college dean in this country thought that other
students would have difficulty pronouncing my Korean name, so we looked at
names in a telephone book. I chose Richard because I knew of Richard the
Lion-Hearted. I finally had it legalized. I like to think it fits with my
character . . . it’s how I think of myself. I’m lost, lost between two
cultures, two worlds, neither North or South Korea, not Korean or American. I
felt that way always, even as a little kid. I couldn’t even sing Korean songs.
. . .</SMALL><BR><SMALL>This has been one of my missions in life, to teach
Koreans to accept responsibility for their lives, to stop blaming others, the
Japanese, the Chinese. We lost it. . . . but many Koreans would like to think
someone grabbed it. . . . thinking this justifies hatred. I’ve often said that
Koreans need a national psychotherapy session, a large couch. Why are we as we
are, why is self-examination such a rare commodity in Korean life? Koreans are
so good about blaming others . . . they know so little about what they have
done. They lack a collective sense of guilt or
action.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>Koreans can’t say we were careless, we dropped our
names, and someone else picked them up and took them away. What the Japanese
did was terrible—perhaps more stupid than terrible. How can such smart people
do such dumb things? Didn’t they see that what they did would cause more
resentment?</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> One of the most
important scenes in the book takes place in a graveyard, where all your known
ancestors are buried. You, your grandfather, and your father visit that burial
ground after the Japanese have given you new names, Japanese names. Your
grandfather says, "We are a disgrace to our family. We bring disgrace and
humiliation to your name. How can you forgive us?" He and your father bow,
their tears flowing (p. 111). . . . Will you explain that
scene?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> My father felt that his generation had
failed. (Maybe that’s why there isn’t naked hatred of the Japanese.) The kind
of man he was resulted in his asking, "What have we done? How could we have
allowed this to happen?" I don’t think he blamed grandfather’s generation. My
father had a perfect right to fly into a rage, but there was none of that.
"The important thing," my father said, "is now how can we deal with this?
Someday your generation will forgive us." Why otherwise would he have taken me
to the graveyard where he and my grandfather asked their ancestors to forgive
them? He was almost telling me that one day we would have to forgive his
generation.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> Were you surprised
by the book’s reception? By the way readers (then and now) interpret it? Is
there a difference?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> It has been a surprise. It’s especially a
great honor to find it’s read in so many schools. I really feel good about
that. I have no way of influencing how readers take it, however. One exception
I take is to anyone who says it’s anti-Japanese. It’s not; there are some bad
Japanese characters in the book, but it is not
anti-Japanese.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I wrote it quickly—between books. I had some
legal problems with my second book and decided to do something with the
Praeger series. It started out as one thing and ended up another. So I was
very surprised.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> When they finish
reading <I>Lost Names</I>, how do you want readers to feel toward the
characters and the countries represented?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim: </B>When I wrote the book, I didn’t feel that I
wanted the reader to feel this way or that. I really didn’t think about
writing for a foreign audience. I never thought about any audience, in
fact.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> What led to the
rebirth of <I>Lost Names</I>? How much did the 50th anniversary of World War
II have to do with it?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I was willing to let it go, but the time came
when Asian studies programs here and there realized that there’s not enough
material around. The talk was taken up on the Internet, and there you are. I
don’t think it had anything to do with the anniversary of the war.
</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> What do you think
the book has become?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I don’t know. A textbook. I’ll tell you . . .
when <I>The Martyred</I> came out, the <I>New York Times</I> reviewer said it
would last. . . . When I finished <I>Lost Names</I>, I didn’t think it was in
the same class as <I>The Martyred</I>, but I said to my wife, Penny, this is
an exquisite piece, a small jewel. Because that was how I felt. It was hard to
find fault with the book. The technique, the language: granted that the author
was biased, prejudiced . . . I felt it was nice, not grand, not big (<I>The
Martyred</I> was), but nice. I felt good, really good about
it.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I don’t know. . . . maybe it [the book] will last. If it
does, it’s only because people will look at it [in a larger context?] . . . if
it were only a picture of a family. . . . I don’t know, maybe there’s
something more to it than a family and a family’s survival.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> If you were teaching
in a college, high school, or junior high/middle school classroom today, how
would you "teach" the book?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I would stress that they shouldn’t read this
book as issue-oriented, as anti-Japanese or anti-colonial. I would ask that
they [teachers and students] observe and understand how a family, both in
private and in times of war, copes with war and with one another. I know you
think the characters are almost too good to be true, but we really were good.
We never fought. My parents never exchanged harsh words.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>My
grandparents were patient souls. It may have to do with the culture thing. . .
. They had humble beginnings. . . . didn’t have the "more sinned against than
sinning" attitude . . . they didn’t feel wronged; they were always grateful
for what they had. I think I have that. I’m so grateful every time I go into a
grocery store that I am able to pick from the shelves that which I want. . .
.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>My grandmother was tough. . . . grandfather was saintly.
They didn’t talk that much. I’m different. I’m told that on the second day of
Kindergarten I didn’t like school so I stopped going. I left the house every
morning and hid. No one knew until the school came looking. I never went back.
. . . I’m different. . . .</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> At every one of our
summer institutes, teachers have brought up the incident in <I>Lost Names</I>
that involves rubber balls. The chapter, "An Empire for Rubber Balls,"
presents such an engaging, dramatic scene. When the Japanese Empire was at its
height, the Japanese distributed rubber balls to all children. But after the
tide turned for Japan, they wanted them back. As class leader, the boy was
responsible for collecting the balls. He pricked them in order to fit them
into a container, and the teacher beat him severely. What is the message here,
the lesson? </SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> The Japanese really wanted the balls back.
And here is the irony of the situation. My grandmother, in her peasant wisdom,
came up with the idea of pricking holes in them. I think the Japanese assumed
that the boy’s father had influenced him. It was not so . . . the incident
happened. . . . I was beaten pretty badly. . . . I don’t remember all the
details . . . for example, there was a Korean policeman, but I don’t think he
intervened. . . . this is where the fiction comes in. . . . I brought him into
the story.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>That’s the fun part of a book like this. . . .
taking fact and fiction and mixing them together. I don’t know what my mother
said in certain situations, but I’d make what she said sound good in certain
situations. The momentum creates the situation. . . . dialogue comes out . . .
you can’t plan every dialogue. I would call my mother up (when I was writing
the book) and say guess what you said today, and she would ask, "did I really
say that?"</SMALL><BR><SMALL>"There is no nobility in pain; there is only
degradation" (p. 134). This was an unusual thing for me to say. It’s not
Christian, but . . . the truth is, for most people a beating is a beating. I
remember my father was held upside down from the ceiling, not by the Japanese,
but by a Korean who was working for American intelligence. (This took place in
South Korea after the family moved from the north to the south.) He was picked
up in 1946, ‘47, ‘48. . . . a Korean detective working for the Americans
brought him in, saying he was a communist spy sent by the north Koreans. They
held him upside down and pulled all his hair out. (In the Japanese prison
earlier, the Japanese shaved his head every day. . . . he said that was so
painful. . . .) The Americans held him until something happened that proved he
was not a spy. When I arrived in the south, I found him and spoke with a
Korean American in intelligence. When my father was released, I shouted,
"Someday I’ll kill all you Americans." This was so difficult for me. . . . the
Americans had come as our liberators. . . .</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080><SMALL><B>Masalski:</B> Which
incident/passage in the book lends itself to teaching, or presents an "ideal"
teaching situation?</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><B>Kim:</B> I don’t know about teaching it, but my
favorite scene in the book is in "Once upon a Time, on a Sunday." . . . They
come home, finally, and the boy is outside the cottage with paper screen
(<I>shoji</I>) for windows; the light inside glows, and the boy is looking up.
. . . and this is fact and fiction . . . being so afraid of the dark, but
suddenly with a sense of the insignificance of things . . . of his minute
existence . . . and yet we were killing each other. . . . the sudden
ludicrousness of being in a vast universe. That day we had studied with the
map in the classroom. . . . and the day ended with the entire universe in the
dark. . . . I felt some kind of fear, a primordial fear drove me into the
cottage. Mom, Dad, and light were there in the face of this primordial fear of
the vast unknown. And what was there to protect me was the
family.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>I like that one-page scene because it suggests the
possibility for the mind and the view of this boy. . . . the scene is so
commonplace, the beautiful stars, a conventional thing . . . why be terrified
of that when everyone else sees something beautiful, awesome. . . . What is
there to terrify him . . . something scary out there? Something terrifying out
there—all this is going on out there—war, nationalism, colonialism—it’s all so
insignificant.</SMALL><BR><SMALL>Maybe in a sense that’s what I think today,
having gone through colonial life, war which consumed my youthful existence .
. . and defined everything for me . . . now is so insignificant . . . in the
twilight of my life. Really, what we think is so earth-shaking turns out in
the end to be so insignificant. . . . </SMALL></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 width="80%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#008000><SMALL><B>Richard E. Kim</B> was born in
Korea and has lived in the U.S. much of his adult life. He was educated at
Middlebury College, Johns Hopkins University, the State University of Iowa,
and Harvard. Richard Kim has taught at several universities in the U.S. and,
as a Fulbright Scholar, at Seoul National University in Korea. In addition to
<I>Lost Names</I>, he is the author of several books including <I>The
Innocent</I> (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968) and <I>The Martyred</I> (New
York: George Brassiller, 1964). He has also scripted and narrated several
documentaries for KBS-TV in Seoul.</SMALL></FONT></P>
<P align=left><FONT color=#008000><SMALL><B>Kathleen Woods Masalski</B> is
Program Coordinator for the Five College Center for East Asian Studies located
at Smith College in Massachusetts. She directs projects on China, Japan, and
Korea that serve New England teachers. She serves as chair of the AAS
Committee on Teaching About Asia (CTA) and is a member of the editorial board
of <I>EAA</I>.</SMALL></FONT></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=4 width="80%" noShade>
<P><A name=13096990457a239b_Essays></A></P>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="100%"><IMG alt='Utilizing "Lost Names" in the Junior High Classroom' align=left src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kim2.gif" width=431 height=90></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<DIV align=left>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center width="70%" align=left><SMALL>I first was introduced
to the novel <I>Lost Names</I> during a recent postgraduate fellowship I
participated in entitled <I>Imperial Japan—Expansion and War, 1892 to
1945</I>. Sponsored by the Five College Center for East Asian Studies,
the seminar was conducted at Mount Holyoke College. Our preconference
assignment included reading this novel, and we actually had the
opportunity to meet its author, Richard E. Kim, during the conference.
He helped us analyze our feelings and reactions to his powerful story.
In announcing its reprinting, scheduled for 1998, he previewed our group
with his own Author’s Note for this new edition in which he states that
he is proud of the fact that his work is often taken as a factual
memoir, not fiction.</SMALL></TD>
<TD vAlign=center width="30%" align=middle><IMG alt="wright.jpg (5097 bytes)" src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/wright.jpg" width=120 height=170></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<P align=left><SMALL>Fast-forward one year, and I am now teaching Seventh
Grade Social Studies at the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill,
Massachusetts. Brimmer is a small, coed private school and a member of the
Coalition of Essential Schools. The philosophy of this coalition promotes a
collaborative education encompassing the values of independent thinking with
group oriented problem solving and analytical skills, community, individual
responsibility, citizenship, and respect.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>In this collaborative setting, I found myself team
teaching these students with Joseph Iuliano, who taught English in addition to
being Head of the Middle School. Interestingly enough, when we met over the
summer, we were both new teachers to the Brimmer community. Our initial course
curriculum goal was to meld writing skills with the study of geography and
culture of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. We also planned to
incorporate a student project entitled "Family History—A Short Story."
Questions to be addressed included: what resources can students use to learn
about their ancestors and other cultures; and how can factual events be used
to enhance a fictional work? For this project, we required both accurate
historical and cultural information, along with a solid narrative model, which
the students could relate to and emulate. We also wanted to ensure that this
experience would be academically enriching for them as well as being
personally satisfying.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>In August, I had given Joe my copy of <I>Lost Names</I>
as potential curriculum material for his English class. He rediscovered the
book while cleaning out his office prior to this term and began reading it.
Simultaneously, I realized that we were doing the students a disservice in not
studying the cultures of Asia. In discussing this lapse with him, we realized
that this novel would be a perfect fit for our project. When both Joe and
myself had initially read <I>Lost Names</I>, we did so without realizing that
it was a work of fiction because of its personal intensity. We hoped that our
students would assume the same until they read the Author’s Note at the end,
thus subliminally impressing upon them the literary style we were looking
for.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>In addition to reading the book to appreciate its
composition, we also wanted our students to glean the significance of the
actual history. <I>Lost Names</I> contains pronounced anti-Japanese sentiment
expressed from the black vs. white/good vs. bad viewpoint of a young boy. In
order to counterbalance this one-sided view, I also chose to incorporate
excerpts from other works such as Saburo Ienaga’s <I>The Pacific War:
1931–1945</I>, Norma Field’s <I>In the Realm of a Dying Emperor</I>, and films
like Isao Takahata’s <I>Grave of the Fireflies</I>, which all added critical
insight into this study. My fear was that if I presented <I>Lost Names</I> on
its own, my students would walk away with a biased opinion of Japan instead of
a variety of perspectives from which they could judge Japanese culture and
political actions themselves. We did not believe our seventh grade students
had been exposed to a strong enough background in World War II history to
prevent a bias if the book was taken on its own.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>Some initial student comments regarding Lost Names
follow:</SMALL></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><B><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><SMALL>We learned a
lot about war and life in it. After we read the book we watched a video
about life in Japan during the war. I found out that life was no picnic
there either.</SMALL></FONT></SMALL></B></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL><I>Lost
Names</I> was a really moving story. I think <I>Lost Names</I> was the
perfect book to read before we did the Family History Short Story
Project.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL>. . . it was a
great example of an autobiography and dealing with hardships. <I>Lost
Names</I> is a lot easier to understand than many other World War II
references. It is also rare to find a book with a Korean point of
view.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL>I am the same
age as the narrator, but we have some huge differences in our lifestyles. I
can play football and use computers and do a lot of different things. He was
forced to work on building an airfield.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL>Before reading
<I>Lost Names</I>, I always had thought of books based on history as being
boring, but after finishing it and writing the short story on my family
history, I realized what I had thought wasn’t necessarily
true.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL>My great
grandfather, the person I am writing about, also suffered through a lot of
persecution because he was Jewish. Reading about this boy’s experiences
helped me to understand what might have happened to my great
grandfather.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><B><SMALL>The real
events in <I>Lost Names</I> make it a great research tool as well as a great
book that teaches different writing
styles.</SMALL></B></FONT></SMALL></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><SMALL>Many of the students’ projects on family history
coincidentally involve that same period of time illustrated in <I>Lost
Names</I>. I think this novel gave them an added perspective on the political
changes erupting at this time. The novel also illustrated to them that
persecution and political unrest exists across all cultures and age groups.
They not only learned what factors affected their recent ancestors’ choices in
life, but that these factors are in a way universal.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><I>Lost Names</I> is a multidisciplinary novel; it goes
beyond the confines of social studies or a history course; I plan to
incorporate it into my United States History courses in the future. I hope my
seventh graders will have the opportunity to study <I>Lost Names</I> at some
other time in their educational career with an insight gained from their
Family History Short Story Projects.</SMALL></P>
<HR align=left color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=1 width="30%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><SMALL><SMALL><B>PETER R.
WRIGHT</B> holds a Master’s degree in History and a Master’s in Teaching from
Simmons College and teaches United States History and Seventh Grade Humanities
at the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He has
participated in summer programs and fellowships at Deerfield Academy, the
University of Virginia, and at the Five College Center for East Asian Studies
at Smith College.</SMALL></SMALL></FONT></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=4 width="80%" noShade>
<P align=left> </P>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="100%"><IMG alt="kim3.gif (2338 bytes)" align=left src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kim3.gif" width=505 height=77></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<DIV align=left>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center width="30%" align=middle>
<P align=center><IMG alt="mastro.jpg (5333 bytes)" src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/mastro.jpg" width=133 height=188></P></TD>
<TD vAlign=center width="70%" align=left>
<P align=left><SMALL>In a currently popular world literature text of
1,442 pages, there are a total of four pages on Korean literature. An
entire country’s literary heritage is condensed into two poems. Until I
read <I>Lost Names</I> by Richard Kim, my only contact with Korea had
been to watch my mother cry as my older brother set off for the Korean
War. Then later I encountered some opinions and allusions to the country
through study of Japanese language and culture. None of these led me any
closer to what might be the heart and soul of the Korean people—the
essential quality to which I wanted to expose my students in world
literature. Then I read <I>Lost Names</I>. I knew immediately that this
text would help my students discover that a small country across the
world from America, with customs and traditions very different from
theirs, is a place with warm, friendly people who share the same hopes
and dreams as they do.</SMALL></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<P align=left><SMALL>The student body at W. G. Enloe High School is very
diverse. There might be a dozen different national backgrounds in any given
classroom. A student sitting side-by-side with a friend who speaks English
fluently may have no idea that his classmate’s home life is based on
assumptions and ideas quite different from his own. Until they are introduced
to world cultures and world literature in tenth grade, our students often have
little idea of the value and richness of other cultural heritages.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>It is the personal lives of others that draw students
into literature, that make them want to know and understand more about another
culture. Literature is the perfect key to open the curious minds of
adolescents and help them to understand that for all of our differences, human
beings share the same basic needs and desires and values. <I>Lost Names</I> is
one of those rare texts that appeal to all ages. Seeing World War II through
the eyes of a boy growing up in the midst of the chaos puts the war in a
completely different perspective for our students who have no understanding of
genuine hardship or sacrifice.</SMALL></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=1 width="70%" noShade>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><I><B>I knew immediately that
this text would help my students discover that a small country across the
world from America, with customs and traditions very different from
theirs, is a place with warm, friendly people who share the same hopes and
dreams as they do</B></I></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=1 width="70%" noShade>
<P align=left><SMALL>Before my students begin to read <I>Lost Names</I>, they
have studied the cultures, religions, and literatures of India, China, and
Japan. They have looked at World War II through the eyes of Japanese survivors
of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. They are empathetic and sympathetic to the
suffering of the Japanese people. Then they look at another non-American side
of the war—not just what Japan suffered, but also the suffering Japan caused.
They triumph with the small victories of a young boy and his proud father
trying to retain their self respect amid the indignities of occupation and
war. The story that Richard Kim weaves encircles them and draws them into the
pain and daily victories of survival, into the courage and determination to
persevere in the face of great danger. They see the Confucian values of family
hierarchy and duty, not as abstract characteristics to memorize, but as a way
of life that, when they are practiced well, supports every member of a
society. They see filial piety and duty as two parts of a whole. They see the
boy practicing these values as a son and then as a leader of his group at
school.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>Until American students see how these values work in
everyday life, it is hard for them to understand how anything but being a
"rugged individualist" can be a good way of life. When, in chapter three, the
boy challenges a classmate to a race, knowing the classmate will win, students
can see that losing can be a different kind of victory. From reading this
novel students can begin to develop an understanding of the tragedy of war in
general and civil war in particular. In addition, they can vicariously
experience the triumph of the human spirit, something common to all
mankind.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>At the end of last school year, when I asked which works
in the curriculum should be taught again and which replaced, there was a great
outcry for the continued inclusion of <I>Lost Names</I>. For further
information, see <I>Teaching More about Korea: Lessons for Students in Grades
K-12</I>. The lesson plans are published by The Korea Society as an outcome of
the Tenth Annual Summer Fellowship in Korean Studies Program. The booklet
includes "A Study Guide for <I>Lost Names</I> and Discussion Questions for
Various Short Stories," all by Korean authors. For more information about the
publication, contact Yong Jin Choi, Director, Korean Studies Program, The
Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022; Phone: <A title="tel:(212) 759-7525, ext. 25" href="tel:%28212%29%20759-7525%2C%20ext.%2025" target=_blank value="+12127597525">(212) 759-7525, ext. 25</A>.</SMALL></P>
<HR align=left color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=1 width="30%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><SMALL><SMALL><B>SUSAN MASTRO</B>
is currently the Coordinator of the International Baccalaureate Programme at
W. G. Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Formerly a teacher
of world literature and Japanese language, she has written curricula for both
subjects and an article on Japanese literature for AGORA magazine (1992). She
is an adjunct to the North Carolina Japan Center and has traveled extensively
in Japan.</SMALL></SMALL></FONT></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=4 width="80%" noShade>
<P align=left> </P>
<DIV align=left>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="100%"><IMG alt="kim4.gif (2410 bytes)" align=left src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/kim4.gif" width=518 height=66></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<DIV align=left>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center width="70%" align=left><SMALL>"Problematize the master
narrative!" These were the words some years ago at an NEH summer
institute for teachers. The speaker’s language wasn’t mine then (it is
now), but I realized that that’s what I’d been doing in my teaching for
years: making an issue of the dominant interpretation (usually that of a
textbook). It is what more of us need to focus on, at all levels and in
all subjects. Textbooks are always wrong. History is never
simple.</SMALL>
<P><SMALL>As a professor of Japanese history at a major state
university, I have the luxury of teaching a full-semester survey course
on Japan (History of Japanese Civilization). It is in this course that
for many years now I have used Richard Kim’s <I>Lost Names</I>. (Just
before the first edition went out of print, I was able to buy forty
copies, so that <I>Lost Names</I> lived on in my course even though it
was out of print.) So let me describe the course. </SMALL></P></TD>
<TD vAlign=center width="30%" align=middle><IMG alt="Richard Minear" src="http://www.aasianst.org/eaa/minear.jpg" width=143 height=221></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<P align=left><SMALL>There are forty-five students of various rank, freshman
through senior; and the class meets three times per week. Two meetings per
week are lectures, films, or other activities; one meeting per week is a
discussion. I lead all the discussions. One of the concerns throughout the
course is the relation between author and material (study the historian), and
the syllabus carries biographical data on all authors we encounter, including
both me and Richard Kim. I have as well the advantage of having been present
twice in the last five years when Kim discussed <I>Lost Names</I> with groups
of teachers.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>The latter half of my course, roughly, is Japan since
1800. Because I dislike textbooks, I assign a non-textbook, Ienaga Saburo’s
<I>The Pacific War</I>, and then spend much of my time disagreeing with it. My
lecture presentations take issue with Ienaga, and for the final paper the
students have to compare and contrast Ienaga and Minear. The next-to-last
paper concerns <I>Lost Names</I>.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>The <I>Lost Names</I> paper focuses on ethnocentrism in
the Japanese treatment of their Korean subjects (<I>Lost Names</I> is the
students’ only source) and on how to evaluate the evidence Kim presents. Lost
Names is not a history book; but how do we process the information Kim offers?
Students find the first part of the paper—how ethnocentrism affects the
narrator and his family and the Japanese officials—very easy and the second
part very difficult. The sheer power of Kim’s prose makes it difficult for
them to step back and criticize—even though this is late in the course and we
have been criticizing sources all semester.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>But close reading and criticism are what the course is
about, and despite the fact that many students complain that <I>Lost Names</I>
is all they know about the subject, I insist that they can and must
<I>criticize</I>. It is not a matter of liking the book or not liking the
book; with rare exceptions, students are bowled over by it. It is a matter of
processing the material. </SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>So where to begin? As always, with the author’s
biography. Clearly, the narrator’s life and Kim’s overlap. But how do we deal
with autobiography? What are the advantages and disadvantages of hearing
things "straight from the horse’s mouth"? Some students find it impossible to
believe that the narrator was so utterly invincible, so right in all the major
choices he makes. The "Author’s Note" at the end of the new edition states
artfully (too artfully?), "Perhaps I should have included a disclaimer [in the
first edition]: all the characters and events described in this book are real,
but everything else is fiction. . . . It is for me a happy predicament. On the
one hand, a book I created as fiction is not accepted as such. . . ." In
sessions with teachers, Kim has come close to stating that things happened
essentially as he recounts them in the book, except that he combined events
from separate days into one day or changed a daytime event to
nighttime.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>At war’s end, Kim the author is thirteen years old, the
age of the narrator. But Kim wrote <I>Lost Names</I> twenty-five years later,
in 1970, when Kim the author was thirty-eight. Between 1945 and 1970 Kim had
continued his education in Korea, fought in the Korean War (on the side of
South Korea), attended Middlebury College, and written several novels about
the Korean War; in 1970 he was teaching in the English Department at the
University of Massachusetts (he wrote <I>Lost Names</I> in English). What is
the relation between Kim in 1970 and the narrator in 1933 or 1940 or 1945?
That is a real question.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>Most if not all students note that Kim the author cannot
have remembered the scenes from 1933, at the beginning of <I>Lost Names</I>.
After all, he is a baby in his mother’s arms. Fewer raise questions about the
scenes of 1940 (the loss of names, when author Kim was eight years old) or
1945 (the liberation, when author Kim was thirteen). <I>Lost Names</I> is
seductive in part because it purports to be a child’s recollection, but are we
reading the thoughts of an eight-year-old Korean schoolkid (1940) or the
thoughts of a war-hardened and cross-culturally sophisticated 38-year-old
(1970)? At the end of the "Lost Names" chapter, the narrator speaks: "Their
pitifulness, their weakness, their self-lacerating lamentation for their ruin
and their misfortune repulse me and infuriate me. What are we doing
anyway—kneeling down and bowing our heads in front of all those graves? I am
gripped by the same outrage and revolt I felt at the Japanese shrine, where,
whipped by the biting snow and mocked by the howling wind, I stood, like an
idiot, bowing my head to the gods and the spirit of the Japanese Emperor." Are
these the words of an eight-year-old? Fortunately, some students have a family
member or know a neighbor of that age.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>If the thoughts are, in part at least, the thoughts of a
38-year-old, what were the influences on him? When teachers asked author Kim
about favorite reading when he was young, he mentioned the great Russian
novelists (in Japanese translation). Is Kim’s narrator perhaps part Tolstoyan
hero? </SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>Is the narrator’s experience representative of the Korean
experience? <I>Lost Names</I> is useful in my course in part because much of
what the students hear from me (especially in contrast with Ienaga’s book) is
sympathetic to the Japanese—not in their treatment of Koreans but in relation
to their struggle with American power. To hear a Korean viewpoint is
enormously useful. But is Kim’s viewpoint <I>the</I> Korean viewpoint or
<I>a</I> Korean viewpoint? This is a tougher issue for students, but some
acknowledge that the narrator and his family are exceptional in terms of
wealth, prestige, nationalistic activity and religion, that one of the
narrator’s classmates—Pumpkin, for example—might have written a very different
book. On occasion I have given them a quotation from an essay by Bruce Cumings
to underline the point that not all Koreans think alike. Speaking in 1950, a
Korean industrialist commented that the return to Korea after the war of
"numerous revolutionists and nationalists" had stirred up anti-Japanese
feeling, but today "there is hardly any trace of it." Korea and Japan "are
destined to go hand-in-hand, to live and let live," so bad feelings should be
"cast overboard." Today "an economic unity is lacking whereas in prewar days
Japan, Manchuria, Korea and Taiwan economically combined to make an organic
whole."</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>Almost to a person, the students are appalled at the
Japanese treatment of the Koreans that <I>Lost Names</I> describes. It
reinforces what they read in Ienaga, and I offer them no contrary evidence. (A
former colleague of mine, growing up on Taiwan at the same time, was sure at
the end of the war that he was Japanese, not Chinese. Was Japanese colonialism
the same everywhere and for every person subject to it? That is material for
an entire course.) Could <I>Lost Names</I> happen only in Korea, or are there
echoes in the histories of other countries, perhaps even our own? This is a
tough one. A number of students come up with Ellis Island and the changing of
names; but that was by and large voluntary—a simplification, not the forced
purging of a past. A very few mention the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the
schools it ran, which outlawed the use of native languages and insisted on
"Christian" names. These events do not excuse the Japanese acts we read about
in <I>Lost Names</I>, but they provide a context that the book does
not.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL>We do not discuss <I>Lost Names</I> in class; the
students read it on their own. Here are excerpts from two papers from Fall
1998 (I have made no changes):</SMALL></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><SMALL><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><I>Lost Names</I>
is a work of fiction, and it can not be construed otherwise. . . . [t]he
narrator’s family counters each insult from the Japanese in a glorious
manner, which gives the story an element of unrealistic magnificence often
found in fiction. . . . Events described in the book may have happened to
Koreans, but it is implausible to have one family continually shake the
foundations of Japanese occupation in one town without being ousted or
"disappeared"—especially when the Thought Police knew the narrator’s father
organized a resistance in the past. The story is perfect. It was obvious
that the narrator would save the Japanese Shinto priest—everything falls
into place, and the family reclaims their dignity at every step. But these
elements exist only in fiction.</FONT></SMALL></SMALL></P>
<P align=right><SMALL>—a junior majoring in History</SMALL></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><SMALL><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><SMALL>Kim did not write
<I>Lost Names</I> as a journal, as events happened. Instead he wrote the
story when he was in his late 30’s as a subjective reflection on what
happened. The story was subjected to his experience and his views of the
occupation and later events that shaped his
life.</SMALL></FONT></SMALL></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=right><SMALL>—a sophomore majoring in Political
Science</SMALL></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P align=left><SMALL>It was clear from both their papers that <I>Lost
Names</I> had moved these students, but they had been able to keep their
critical faculties intact. And that, I suggest, should be one major goal of
our teaching.</SMALL></P>
<P align=left><SMALL><I>Lost Names</I> is a work of high art. It deserves the
most serious consideration. In my course, we use it in significant measure to
problematize the Japanese master narrative. But just as there are American and
Japanese master narratives, so there is a Korean master narrative. We need to
be as leery of the Korean master narrative as of the other two. We may not
know much about Korea, but there, too, we need to problematize the master
narrative.</SMALL></P>
<HR align=left color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=1 width="30%" noShade>
<P align=left><FONT color=#400080 face=Arial><SMALL><SMALL><B>RICHARD H.
MINEAR</B> is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst. He has translated the writings and poetry of atomic bomb survivors of
Hiroshima, <I>Hiroshima:Three Witnesses</I>, 1990; <I>Black Eggs</I>, 1994;
<I>When We Say ‘Hiroshima</I>,’ 1999. His most recent book is <I>Dr. Seuss
Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel</I>
(1999).</SMALL></SMALL></FONT></P>
<HR align=center color=#c0c0c0 SIZE=4 width="80%" noShade>
<BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 7:50 AM, Laura Reizman <SPAN dir=ltr><<A title=mailto:lhreizman@gmail.com href="mailto:lhreizman@gmail.com" target=_blank>lhreizman@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class=gmail_quote>Hello,
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This is in reference to the film version by Yu Hyon-mok. They do have
it at KOFA, I believe it is titled "The Martyrs," (순교자) and was made in
1965. Those who are interested in watching the film can do so via VOD
online. You do have to pay a small fee to watch it though, and will need
Internet Explorer. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Best,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#888888>Laura Reizman</FONT>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 8:26 PM, Mark Morris <SPAN dir=ltr><<A title=mailto:mrm1000@cam.ac.uk href="mailto:mrm1000@cam.ac.uk" target=_blank>mrm1000@cam.ac.uk</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class=gmail_quote>
<DIV><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR><BR>This is very good news. <BR><BR>Now if
only someone could get Bitwin to re-release<BR>the DVD of the film
version by Yu Hyon-mok -- one of the best Korean War films <BR>of the
1960s.<BR><BR><BR><BR>Mark Morris<BR>Cambridge<BR><BR><BR>On 13/6/11
20:14, "David Kim" <<A title=mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org href="mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org" target=_blank>dkim@asiafound-dc.org</A>> wrote:<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR></FONT></SPAN><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Dear Korean Studies </SPAN></FONT><FONT size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">Colleagues: <BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">It gives me great pleasure to share with you
this news on the re-release of "The Martyred."<BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">David Kim<BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR> <BR></SPAN><FONT size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">***<BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18px"><I>Penguin Classics proudly presents the </I>New
York Times <I>bestseller and National Book Award Finalist back in print
for the first time in twenty-five years…<BR></I></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=6><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 21px"><B><I><BR></I></B></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=7><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 45px">THE MARTYRED<BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=7><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 26px"><B><BR>Richard E. Kim<BR></B></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=6><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 21px"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18px">With an introduction by <B>Heinz
Insu Fenkl <BR></B>and a foreword by <B>Susan
Choi<BR></B></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><I><BR>PRAISE FOR </I></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><B>THE MARTYRED:<BR></B></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><IMG src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=4e8d9a8e81&view=att&th=13096867f3c2803c&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=c6ba0e250c174720_0.1&zw"><BR><B>“Written
in a mood of total austerity; and yet the passion of the book is
perpetually beating up against its seemingly barren surface…I am deeply
moved.”<BR></B>―Philip Roth<BR> <BR><B>“An extraordinary book.
</B></SPAN></FONT><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">To take one
incident and through it express the universal need of the human heart
for God…the agony of doubt combined with the longing to believe, is
difficult indeed. Kim has accomplished just
this.”<BR></SPAN></B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">―Pearl S.
Buck<BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><B><BR></B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><B>“Kim’s book stands out as one written in the
great moral and psychological tradition of Job, Dostoevsky, and Albert
Camus…it is a magnificent achievement, and it will
last.<BR></B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">―<I>The New York Times Book
Review<BR></I></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT size=1><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8px">\<BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><B>RICHARD KIM</B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">’s breathtaking novel, <B>THE MARTYRED
(</B>Penguin Classics; ISBN: 978-0-14-310640-1; On-Sale 5/31/11;
$16.00; 240 pages; also available as an e-book), begins during the early
weeks of the Korean War. Captain Lee, a young South Korean officer, is
ordered to investigate the kidnapping and mass murder of North Korean
ministers by Communist forces. For propaganda purposes, the
priests are declared martyrs, but as he delves into the crime, Lee finds
himself asking: what if they are not martyrs? What if they
renounced their faith in the face of death, failing both God and
country? Should the people be fed this lie? Part thriller,
part mystery, part existential treatise, <B>THE MARTYRED</B><I> </I>is a
stunning meditation on truth, religion, and faith in the time of crisis.
<BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><B>THE
MARTYRED </B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">is a moving
modern classic that will appeal to fans of Chang-Rae Lee’s <I>The
Surrendered, </I>and its publication is timed to coincide with the
sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War (June 1950 to July 1953).
It also follows the recent publication of the fortieth anniversary
edition of Richard Kim’s <B>LOST NAMES </B>from University of California
Press (ISBN: 9780520268128; on sale: March 2011;
$18.95).<BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><B><U>ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS<BR></U>Richard
E. Kim </B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">(1932-2009) was
born Kim Eun Kook in Hamheung, Korea. After an honorable discharge
from the Republic of South Korea’s army, he immigrated to the United
States, where he rose to prominence as an academic and a writer of
novels, including <I>The Innocent </I>and <I>Lost Names</I>.
<BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><B><BR>Heinz
Insu Fenkl </B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">is the
director of the creative writing program at the State University of New
York, New Paltz.<BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><B><BR>Susan Choi </B></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">is the author of <I>A Person of Interest, The
Foreign Student, </I>and <I>American Woman</I>, a finalist for the 2004
Pulitzer Prize.<BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><B>THE MARTYRED<BR></B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">by <B>Richard E. Kim</B> with an introduction by
<B>Heinz Insu Fenkl </B>and a foreword by <B>Susan Choi<BR></B>Penguin
Classics ♦ 978-0-14-310640-1 ♦ On-Sale 5/31/11♦ $16.00 ♦ 240
pages<BR>Also available as an e-book.<BR></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><B><BR>For more information or to schedule an
interview with Heinz Insu Fenkl or Susan Choi, please contact:
<BR> <BR>Langan Kingsley <BR><A title=tel:212.366.2226 href="tel:212.366.2226" target=_blank value="+12123662226">212.366.2226</A> </B></SPAN><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">/ </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><A title=mailto:langan.kingsley@us.penguingroup.com href="mailto:langan.kingsley@us.penguingroup.com" target=_blank>langan.kingsley@us.penguingroup.com</A>
<BR></SPAN></B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><BR><B>Please
visit:<BR> <BR><A title=http://www.richardekim.com/ href="http://www.richardekim.com/" target=_blank>http://www.richardekim.com/</A></B></SPAN></FONT><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"> <A title=http://www.richardekim.com/ href="http://www.richardekim.com/" target=_blank><http://www.richardekim.com/></A> <BR></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><A title=http://us.penguingroup.com/ href="http://us.penguingroup.com/" target=_blank>http://us.penguingroup.com</A></SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"> <A title=http://us.penguingroup.com/ href="http://us.penguingroup.com/" target=_blank><http://us.penguingroup.com/></A> </SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">.<BR></SPAN></FONT></B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR><B>***<BR>David L. Kim<BR></B>Coordinator,
Luce Scholars Program<BR>The Asia Foundation <BR>1779
Massachusetts Avenue, NW, #815<BR>Washington, DC 20036<BR>Tel: <A title="tel:(202) 588-9468" href="tel:%28202%29%20588-9468" target=_blank value="+12025889468">(202) 588-9468</A> / Fax: <A title="tel:(202) 588-9409" href="tel:%28202%29%20588-9409" target=_blank value="+12025889409">(202) 588-9409</A> / Cell: <A title="tel:(301) 787-1195" href="tel:%28301%29%20787-1195" target=_blank value="+13017871195">(301) 787-1195</A><BR>Email: <A title=mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org href="mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org" target=_blank>dkim@asiafound-dc.org</A> <A title=mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org href="mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org" target=_blank><mailto:dkim@asiafound-dc.org></A> <BR>Skype:
Davidlkim (The Asia Foundation)<BR><A title=http://www.asiafoundation.org/ href="http://www.asiafoundation.org/" target=_blank>www.asiafoundation.org</A> <A title=http://www.asiafoundation.org/ href="http://www.asiafoundation.org/" target=_blank><http://www.asiafoundation.org/></A>
<BR> <BR><BR></SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>