Richard E. Kim was born in Hamheung, North Korea in 1932. Kim grew up in a very religious family, his grandfather was a Christian minister. Before the Korean War began Kim and his family fled, moving south until they ended up in Seoul. The communist troops were taking over Seoul, they arrested and killed Kim’s grandfather. Kim escaped Seoul and fled to Inchon. Kim was later caught and put into the Marines as an English translator and a liaison to the United Nations this began in 1950, he served for 4 years then was released in 1954. This experience had a great toll on Kim’s life he was a wartime refugee and had to experience lots of loss and suffering. In 1955 Kim came to the United States. Kim was married and had two children. After Kim wrote
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The book is based off of his life growing up and represents how he lived as a young boy. Kim said “All the characters and events described in this book are real, but everything else is fiction”. The book also takes place in the young boys school. There he is under Japanese rule and he and his entire family is forced to lose their Korean names and get Japanese names. The setting of this book shows how the young boys living environment was and the struggle of being Korean and living under Japanese rule, also all the hardships he and his family had to …show more content…
The river is frozen making their journey difficult and extra dangerous. The main character, the young boy, is only an infant at the time of this happening. The father was just released from prison he is thrown in and out of prison by the Japanese because of his resistance- movement activities and the Japanese believing he is a criminal and against them. The family sends their son to a school under Japanese rule. Since being Korean and not knowing how to speak Japanese he struggles with a communication barrier and the cultural differences. The young boy gets beaten badly by a Japanese teacher, the Korean teacher also gets beaten by the Japanese teacher. The young boy and his whole family is forced to give up their Korean names and switch to Japanese names. This was very hard for them to do, they were being forced to throw away their Korean ways and switch everything to Japanese, their language, writing, and even religion. They were forced to pray at the Japanese shrine and bow to the emperor as
The book is based off of his life growing up and represents how he lived as a young boy. Kim said “All the characters and events described in this book are real, but everything else is fiction”. The book also takes place in the young boys school. There he is under Japanese rule and he and his entire family is forced to lose their Korean names and get Japanese names. The setting of this book shows how the young boys living environment was and the struggle of being Korean and living under Japanese rule, also all the hardships he and his family had to …show more content…
The river is frozen making their journey difficult and extra dangerous. The main character, the young boy, is only an infant at the time of this happening. The father was just released from prison he is thrown in and out of prison by the Japanese because of his resistance- movement activities and the Japanese believing he is a criminal and against them. The family sends their son to a school under Japanese rule. Since being Korean and not knowing how to speak Japanese he struggles with a communication barrier and the cultural differences. The young boy gets beaten badly by a Japanese teacher, the Korean teacher also gets beaten by the Japanese teacher. The young boy and his whole family is forced to give up their Korean names and switch to Japanese names. This was very hard for them to do, they were being forced to throw away their Korean ways and switch everything to Japanese, their language, writing, and even religion. They were forced to pray at the Japanese shrine and bow to the emperor as