Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood [Paperback]

Richard E. Kim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 1998

In this classic tale, Richard Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers forced the Koreans to renounce their own names and adopt Japanese names instead, the book follows one Korean family through the Japanese occupation to the surrender of the Japanese empire. Lost Names is at once a loving memory of family and a vivid portrayal of life in a time of anguish.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese occupied Korea. Organized in seven vivid scenes, Kim's fictionalized memoir tells the story of one family's experience, as told by the boy. The narrative starts in 1933 with a dramatic iced-river crossing into Manchuria, when the boy was just a year old, a story the boy knows from the many times his mother has told him the tale. Next scene and we're in 1938. The boy and his family have moved back to Korea, where the boy is the new boy in school and is learning new routines like bowing his head toward where the Japanese emperor is supposed to be in Tokyo. He does as he is told, but wonders if the emperor knows the children are bowing to him, wonders if he's asleep, or eating breakfast--or maybe even in the toilet. He pictures someone knocking on the door, saying, "Your Majesty! The children, the children! They are bowing to Your Majesty!" and him saying, "Wait a minute! I have my pants down!"

A few years later, the children are told they need new names--the Koreans must renounce their family names and take Japanese ones instead. Later, his father takes him to the cemetery to ask forgiveness from their ancestors for the humiliation of losing their names. The scenes continue as the boy grows up, mingling the experiences of childhood with the history of the occupation, seen in the small day-to-day moments that bring history alive. Richard Kim uses a simple but powerful voice to evoke painful times, a loving family, and a strong spirit of survival. Lost Names is a beautifully written tribute to the people of Korea that is subtle, moving, and hard to put down.

Review

"Lost Names is not a poem of hate, but a poem of love. . . . It is elegaic. It rises to moments of considerable dramatic power, but its finest moments, as when we see the cemeteries full of Koreans apologizing to their ancestors for having lost their names, are lyrical." -- Edward Seidensticker, New York Times Book Review

"The author's clear, evocative narrative describes a terrifying experience -- foreign occupation. Its homely detail demonstrates how pervasive nationality is, and how painful any attempt to destroy it." (The New Yorker

"This memorable document of courage and endurance is written with clarity and vigor, pierced with moments of poignant love and the blazing resentment of the young." -- Saturday Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; Reprint edition (June 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520214242
• ISBN-13: 978-0520214248
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
  • #36 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Asian American
  • #37 in Books > History > Asia > Korea

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating -- I couldn't put it down. January 1, 2000

By Sharon K. Martinez

Format:Paperback

As an avid student of Asian history and culture, I've read many accounts of the Japanese occupation of Korea. This is the best so far.

As I have lived in Korea for 10+ years, I have Korean friends in the same age group as the author, Richard Kim. From the first-hand accounts I have heard from my friends, I believe Lost Names accurately describes conditions for the common Korean citizen during the Occupation period.

Through the entire book, I believed I was reading the author's autobiography. I didn't realize that was not the case until I read the Author's Note on the last page. I kept wondering why, since these were his memoirs, the author didn't write in the past tense.

For me personally, the book would have been easier to read if it had been written in the past tense. In any case, I highly recommend this book for those who love to learn about the tragic history of the beautiful Land of the Morning Calm.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Korean pride triumphs September 20, 2005

By Anyechka

Format:Paperback

This was probably my favorite of the books we read in the Japanese History course I took my senior year of college. Young Richard Kim spent the majority of his childhood in his native Korea while it was under occupation by the Japanese, who were not very nice to or tolerant of his people, no matter they were the majority and the occupying Japanese were the minority. There are many hardships and much prejudice he faces growing up, from neighbors, the government, teachers, and schoolmates, but he never loses his sense of pride and Korean nationalism, constantly being reminded by his parents (who are ministers) and his grandmother to remain aware of where he comes from, his identity, the sustained hope that the Japanese won't always be in Korea, and to do well in school and set a fine example to the Japanese, since he mustn't let those Japanese boys at school think they're better than he is. When WWII comes along, everyone suffers the normal wartime deprivations, such as food shortages and bombing raids, but it is especially hard for the Koreans in the midst. Young Richard is forced, along with his classmates, to bow in the direction of the Emperor each morning, recite an ode of allegiance to the Emperor and Japanese government, and, worst of all, to even change his family name. All Koreans are forced to change their surnames to Japanese surnames, although Richard's father is clever and changes their family's name to one with the root meaning "rock," which of course is a reference to Saint Peter and the family's religious faith, a reference the Japanese won't get. It's enough to take away and try to usurp one's culture, traditions, customs, language, and way of life, but when you take away someone's name, that is in a way the ultimate erasure of their identity. Even when forced to, at least on the surface, speak a foreign language, submit to foreign leaders, and follow alien customs, there's still the comfort of knowing your base identity, your name, is still the same, but taking it away makes this prejudice and attempted usurpation of Korean culture incredibly personal and insulting.

It didn't really bother me that some of these memories and thoughts are very complex and detailed for a child as young as Richard is in the beginning. Many times memories of traumatic defining events are stronger and more vivid and real precisely because they were so awful and traumatic, leaving more impact than something as mundane as, say, eating breakfast or walking the dog. And even if some gaps in Richard's memory may have been filled in by what he imagines happened or what his family have told him happened, it doesn't lessen the emotional impact of these events in the slightest. And I like how it was told in the present tense; since discovering quite some time ago that books can be written in the present tense and there's no rule written in stone saying you must only and always write in the past tense, I've much preferred books written in the present tense. It makes the events seem more real and gripping, full of suspense and tension, like constantly wondering what's going to happen next, living right in the moment.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional, evocative, well-written February 6, 2002

By Maria C. Gudaitis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I collect books about Korea, and have read many novels, poems and non-fiction works. But Lost Names is certainly one of the best. Small details and major characters both help to build an accurate, emotional depiction of Koreans and the struggle to live during the brutal Japanese occupation of World War II.

I read this book in one sitting, mailed it to one of my sisters, and have bought a copy for another sister. Some passages are humorous, and others are painfully sad...but the author infuses the entire work with hope and forgiveness. The main character's father is a memorable study of dignity, wisdom and strength.

My 13 year old son has read this book four times! It is slightly mature for a young reader, but if you or your child have any interest in Asian history, Korea or warm stories of childhood, you'll love it. A must-read for any Korean-Americans wanting to understand the deprivation, tenacity and social conditions forced upon their parents or grandparents, who survived the harsh conditions of life in Korea during WWII.