Am still deeply disturbed. It has been a couple of days after reading this book. A River in Darkness is Masaji Ishikawa’s memoir. He shares the 36 years of hell that he experienced in North Korea through this book. It left me feeling numb at times and angry several times because with all the progress humankind has made, we have forgotten how to be humane.
I felt the same when I read The Last Girl and Wild Swans – The Three Daughters of China. Communism and Terrorism need to be wiped off the face of this Earth – both ensure we have a living hell wherever they are in force.
Book Summary – A River in Darkness
In the thirty years between 1950 and 1980 nearly 100,000 Koreans and 2000 Japanese wives of Koreans, left Japan to go live in North Korea. North Korea at that time was “ruled” by Kim Il Sung. If you read Wikipedia you will come away thinking the standard of living in North Korea during Kim Il Sung’s rule was wonderful.
The migration happened because Koreans in Japan were told that North Korea was Paradise on Earth, a total lie. They also promised a stable life and a first class education for the children. The Ishikawa family set sail for North Korea in January 1960. Masaji Ishikawa and his family realised that things were no good as soon as they arrived at the “ghost” port of Chongjin.
Note : Masaji Ishikawa’s father was from Korea (part of South Korea after the partition) and his mother was Japanese.
The poorly attired North Koreans who came to help them unload was a shock ! Other shocks awaited them – they realised there was no electricity in the house/shack they were allotted; their first meal was terrible-smelling dog meat :(:(.
The Ishikawa family faced huge discrimination at the village where they were assigned a home – Dong Chong-ri. The author’s first day in school was a disaster and one of his classmates called him a “Japanese Bastard” and ofcourse they never had enough to eat.
An excerpt that sums up what’s happening in North Korea even to this day – “… North Koreans had never experienced a liberal democracy. They had no concept of what it was or what it meant. My comrades had only ever known or heard of colonial rule at the hands of Japan and dictatorship at the hands of Kim Il-Sung.”
Four years after the Ishikawa family moved to North Korea, their shack went up in flames and they lost all that they owned. Most villagers ignored their plight and Masaji and his father simply cut down some trees and put together another shack, with “nothing” in it. All those who had “returned” to North Korea from Japan were called “returnees” and they were treated as the lowest of the low.
The next 32 years were pure unadulterated HELL for Masaji and his family.
The Juche system
An excerpt “…. In North Korea, our instructors said the Japanese system was hopelessly inefficient. “Our country uses Juche farming. You must tame the land and become its master. That is the only way to cultivate large quantities of crops!” The Juche farming model essentially treated rice farming like factory mass production….. we were ordered to shove them closer together, to plant more, to plant faster, to churn our as much as possible.” The crops failed and famine resulted.
Masaji’s mother dies first… then his unwed younger sister gets pregnant, his wife leaves him after delivering a son and they all continue to scavenge for food. Reading about the kinds of things they would eat to stave off hunger makes you stop eating your food. 🙁
Masaji Ishikawa goes through a lot of grief and unbelievable hardships …. he even tries to commit suicide. Finally sitting with his second wife and two daughters, he suddenly decides to escape to Japan and then help his wife and children to get there. He keeps remembering his father and mother’s dying words that he needs to stand up and strive to get back to Japan.
In 1996 on the spur of the moment, Masaji begins his escape from North Korea. He crosses the Yalu river and then through a series of providential adventures manages to reach Japan.
Its an incomplete memoir .. Masaji Ishikawa is still in the river of darkness because he doesn’t know what has happened to his daughters or sisters. His second wife passes away…and the story ends abruptly. I tried searching the internet but there is very little information about Mr. Ishikawa.
Do read the book. Memoirs like these expand our perspectives and help us understand about life in different parts of the world. It also makes us grateful about our own lives and all that we have.