I soon learned that thought is not free in North Korea. A free thought could get you killed if it slipped out.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

The book:

Unless you’re as dense as I am, you’ve probably already realized that Amazon has an entire program to translate books from around the world. I don’t know if it’s an altruistic goal to highlight non-American authors (hey, like my blog!) or just diversification to bring in more Kindle Unlimited subscribers–either way it’s working for me.

Going back to Asia, A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea (2000) wasn’t published with Amazon until 2017, that cover is shown below. While I wasn’t expecting a lighthearted tale, I was still thoroughly disheartened by the course of Masaji’s story. North Korea is one of the few completely isolated and oppressed nations in the world and their only connection to outside commerce is China. I want to travel many places, but even I don’t want to visit North Korea and pass on my tourist dollars to them–they wouldn’t be very welcoming anyway.

Spoiler: As the title alludes, Masaji does escape from North Korea, back to Japan. There is some confusion among readers about how he was able to publish his story. He was initially barred from publicity by the Chinese government, but the Japanese media leaked his story after he helped his sister defect to Japan to join him.

The author:

As detailed in his memoir, Masaji Ishikawa was born to a Japanese mother and a South Korean father just south of Tokyo in 1947. As part of the newly formed North Korean state’s push to grow their workforce, Masaji and his family emigrated in 1960. He received little to no formal schooling and this is his first and so far only published novel—originally under the Japanese pen name Shunsuke Miyazaki.

Translation:

Interestingly enough, this novel had two translators: Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown. I’m guessing one worked to go from Japanese to Latin script and the other worked to set out an English narrative. Very little translation information is available, but they did a good job of conveying the author’s desperation, despair, bitter humor, and drive to survive.

In winter, each workplace received a supply of Chinese cabbages for the “winter storage battle.” Given how hard it was to survive the winter in North Korea, ‘battle’ was an appropriate term.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

What I loved:

The historical context. So many events in North Korea revolve around precise timing, such as leader ascension and foreign war. Yet, the people of North Korea are kept as ignorant as possible. So I was intrigued by the effort Masaji made to place his story within these historical events. Specifically, he highlighted the mass crossing from Japan to North Korea.

The language issues. As with previous books, I always like when characters have realistic language struggles. Masaji’s father’s anger stems from his low caste status in Japan and his mother similarly struggles when they move to Korea and she doesn’t speak the language. Masaji is ostracized by his classmates for his mixed race as well as his struggle to learn Korean. Not everything was written well in this book, but I connected with these issues from my travels abroad.

My mother broke in, her voice trembling. “But I can’t speak Korean. How on earth am I going to live?” She sounded terrified…

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

What I liked:

The dark humor. Masaji’s situation was incredibly bleak, for almost his entire time in North Korea, that much was made very clear. But the translators made sure to allow some of his gallows humor to shine through.

So yes, the mass repatriation was great news for both governments—the perfect win-win situation for everyone except the real human beings involved.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

We’d brought some dangerous items with us from Japan when we moved—things like bicycles and electrical appliances and half-decent clothes. What if the local villagers came to realize that their standard of living was pitiful?

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

But our house didn’t have a bathtub. Nobody’s house did. In 1960. In paradise on earth.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

Much later, I checked out the Ten Commandments of the Abrahamic religions. You know how many of them contain a reference to God? About five. So it seems that God could learn a thing or two from the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-sung, peace be upon him.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

The racial details. The American media tends to focus on racism from white to black people and we lose sight of other racial tensions. Asia has long had national animosities between countries, despite an outsider homogenizing the entire region. Masaji, caught between Japan and Korea, caught the full brunt of racial tensions and his book portrays that in sad, but important detail.

My grandmother once said to me, “Koreans are barbarians.” I loved her, but I resented her remark. Though I felt Japanese—and felt it with complete conviction—I was half-Korean, as she knew perfectly well.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

Looking back on it, I don’t think people even realized it was an offensive term. To them, calling Japanese people bastards was just a statement of fact. North Koreans had been indoctrinated to think that all Japanese were cruel. And to be fair, I tended to call North Koreans “natives”. Most of the returnees did the same.

A RIVER IN DARKNESS

What I could do without:

The inconsistencies. As he grew from an a frustrated adolescent to an angry man, Masaji became prone to violent outbursts, on multiple occasions. He regrets them, and yet urges his son to “be a man” and stand up for himself. Furthermore, at one point Masaji and his family leave his father’s house and become essentially vagrants living off the land. Why couldn’t his wife get a job? Communist states are usually equally opportunistic and repressive regarding gender.

The time jumps. Masaji is out of town working, and then comes home to learn he’s getting married. Then his wife leaves. Then he gets another. His sister runs away, and comes back in a chapter with three kids. His father is an abusive gang member, and then he’s a supportive father caring for all his grand kids after emigration. Except for the crossing to North Korea, and Masaji’s escape to Japan, dates and ages are rarely given. I don’t know if this was a result of despair, but it made the story incredibly hard to follow and connect with.

The recommendation:

Even if you want a firsthand account look at a very secretive nation, this may not be your best bet. Most people want to know about the political and cultural machinations, and a poor country farmer just struggles to stay warm and fed. Their only connection to the party is the local minder, just another bully. Besides the random Korean word usage, this story is mostly indistinguishable from any other poor person’s tale of woe.

If you want a depressingly human story, often rife with too much detail, this may be the book for you. I still think I’ve learned more about the DPRK from well-researched news articles, so I just gave this book 3* on Amazon. Do you think a deserter story like this deserves more international connection and context than Masaji’s tale, or is personal better?