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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea, had not existed until 1948. The Korea they describe, however, was not the Korea Hisanori's father was from. One day, representatives from the League of Koreans arrived at their door and began to pressure Hisanori's father into moving back to Korea. I won't describe the terrible scenes recalled in the book here, but life for Hisanori and his family was bleak. Hisanori's father's only asset was lost, and as a result, he grew angrier. Yet, as is a central theme to the book, it got worse.Īs Japan began its rebuild and subsequent march towards democracy and collective capitalism, the utility of a Korean brute diminished rapidly. It was not an upbringing any child should experience, recounts the author. In a particularly heartbreaking manner, the author describes his confusion at being told and believing that "Koreans are dirty people," while simultaneously identifying as partially Korean himself. With a Japanese mother and Korean father, the children belonged to neither community.
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Outside the home, Hisanori and his siblings found little solace. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Korean gangs - his days spent drinking, enforcing the Korean community's place in Japan and coming home at night to beat his wife and scare his children. With little options or opportunity, Hisanori's father found value in brute strength. The majority of his Japanese life had been spent in servitude, yet his newfound freedom placed him in a world that rejected his very existence. His father, however, was one of the many Korean's freed from captivity at the end of the war. Hisanori's mother was well educated and came from what the community regarded as a respectable family. As is common with such a void in leadership, the various communities that made up urban life were dominated by small gang activity and black market trade. The country's longstanding, imperial system had collapsed alongside Japan's defeat in the Second World War and organized government had yet to be reinstated. In 1947, Hisanori Niizuma was born into a desecrate and deeply fragmented Japan. 4 min read A River In Darkness: Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity-and indomitable nature-of the human spirit.
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In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. The harrowing true story of one man’s life in-and subsequent escape from-North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.