Kirkus Review
A terrifying true story of life in North Korea.Ishikawa was born in Japan in 1947 to a Korean father and Japanese mother. His father taught him that North Korea's Kim Il sung was an "invincible general made of steel." In 1958, the leader urged all Koreans to return home, proclaiming, "North Korea is a paradise on earth!" In 1960, Ishikawa and his family settled in the North Korean village of Dong Chong-ri as part of a mass repatriation campaign. Everyone had to join the Worker's Party and pledge allegiance to Kim. The author learned in school that "thought was not free," and no one could question the wisdom of Kim. He "played along" but knew he was now part of a "pseudo-religious cult." Working on a farm as part of the Youth League, he learned that the sole cause of any failure was a total lack of respect for Kim and the party. Everyone was brainwashed. Despite being an excellent student, he was Japanese, the "lowest of the low," and therefore condemned to the "very bottom of society." As he notes, the farming process was "staggeringly crude and idiotic." Food was taken away from them, and old people worked until they died. Poor workers went to concentration camps or were executed: "So many lives wasted." After an arranged marriage, Ishikawa had a son in 1972. His mother died, and he carried her corpse on his back and buried her on a mountainside. His family suffered horribly, reduced to eating weeds and tree bark. It was even worse after Kim Jong il became leader. After 36 years and in utter despair, Ishikawa risked his life and, in darkness, crossed the Yalu River into China. He hoped to work in Japan and send money to his family, but by then, he was Korean, and the transition was extremely difficult.Told in simple prose, this is a shocking and devastating tale of a country's utter contempt for its citizens. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ishikawa conveys his life story as a series of births. In 1947 in Japan, he was born to a Japanese mother and a Korean father. In 1960, the family moved to North Korea. His father was conned by the promise of a better life in paradise. This repatriotism of Koreans living in Japan is but the first in a series of injustices inflicted upon the author and his family. In his achingly straightforward memoir, Ishikawa vividly describes the horrendous conditions that the tyrannical and cultish state inflicts on its people. Addressing the complex history of Korea and Japan, he reveals the hypocrisy of Kim Il-sung's government as starvation becomes a way of life for the people living for decades under his rule. All this builds up to his dangerous escape across the Yalu River to China and, finally, to Japan, where freedom comes at the cost of those left behind. Ishikawa relates his painful story with sardonic humor and unwavering familial love even in the depths of despair, making human the often impersonal news coverage of mysterious and threatening North Korea.--Ruzicka, Michael Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Memoirs by North Korean defectors have proliferated, but Ishikawa's, originally published in 2000, might be the first available in English translation by a Japanese-born escapee. The Japanese best seller I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook by pseudonymous Kenji Fujimoto could be the only other North Korean/Japanese memoir, although Fujimoto's luxurious existence bears no resemblance to Ishikawa's inhumane ordeal. "You don't choose to be born. You just are," Ishikawa opens the first chapter. "I was born not just once but five times." His original birth occurred in Kawasaki, Japan, to a violent Korean father and long-suffering Japanese mother. His father-unceasingly punished for his Korean heritage-succumbed to promise-land propaganda and moved the family to North Korea in 1960, when Ishikawa was 13 (birth #2). The family's status as "Japanese bastards" marked them for relentless abuses. Hopeless in his 20s, Ishikawa attempted suicide but failed (birth #3). Narrowly surviving his Yalu River escape, he regained consciousness (birth #4) in China. He returned to Japan (birth #5) after 36 hellish years, but repatriation without his family proves to be another agonizing hardship. -VERDICT Native Japanese speaker Brian Nishii adds enhancing fluency to the Anglophone rendering, delivering an impassioned performance that underscores Ishikawa's harrowing experiences.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.