Reviews
This is the story of Mi-ok, who lived in Sinuiju in 1944. At elementary school, she learned Japanese history from her Japanese teacher, sewed buttons onto military uniforms, and polished soldiers’ boots until her fingernails were black. She seemed to wither helplessly like a flower in midwinter. One day, after working at a dye factory and coming home covered in blisters and blood, she left school and home to stay in the countryside—until the Soviet army arrived. I cry just imagining how
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store. Japanese occupation. Mi-ok, the only daughter of the owner of Sinuiju's Baekseon Department Store, grew up knowing no hardship apart from having to watch what she did around her Japanese teacher at school. Through Mi-ok's eyes, the novel calmly depicts the story of the Japanese occupation, liberation, and division, as if a grandmother were telling her granddaughter her own story. Stories set in this period usually focus on how Koreans were persecuted by
They say the moon wanes after it becomes full. But after enduring all kinds of hardship under Japanese rule, it never became full; caught in the whirlpool of ideology, it only waned again. Yet a ray of hope shone from the full-moon embroidery Mi-ok stitched and always carried with her. The author heard the story of Mi-ok, the woman in the novel who was her mother, and shaped the experiences of Mi-ok’s family under Japanese rule and during the Korean War into a lyrical, moving story. The novel
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store review by Ginger Park for HelloRobin. YA historical novel. This is a novel based on a true story, recording the diverse family history of Mi-ok’s family across the Korean Peninsula—from the northern port city of Sinuiju to a small neighborhood on the outskirts of Seoul—as they lived through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War. In 1910, after Japan forcibly imposed the annexation treaty, it took complete control of the Korean Peninsula. Schools made
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store tells the story of Mi-ok’s family, who served Japanese customers at the Baekseon Department Store, filled with expensive goods, unlike the Koreans living under Japanese colonial rule in the 1940s. The prologue begins with the story of me at ninety years old. Older brother Hwan wants to please the Japanese, while Hun is kind and has more natural dignity than anyone. Through her conversations with Hun, Mi-ok gives us a glimpse of a warm family. As Japan’s
Ginger Park: Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store
In 1944, during the Japanese occupation, thirteen-year-old Mi-ok lives in the northern Korean port city of Sinuiju. As the only daughter in a family that runs a department store serving Japanese customers, she has wanted for nothing. As Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War becomes increasingly clear, the colonial authorities go beyond forcibly conscripting Koreans and drag students into factories as well. While experiencing forced labor at a dye factory, Mi-ok comes face to face with the tragic reality of children subjected to violence and abuse without their parents. Mi-ok is overjoyed when Japan’s defeat in 1945 brings Korea’s liberation, but the happiness does not last. Armed Soviet forces occupy the north, turning not only the department store but all of Sinuiju into ruins. With war looming amid the division between north and south and between the free and communist blocs, the family considers fleeing south across the 38th parallel. A family that runs a department store in the 1940s: As Japan’s colonial policies grow more brutal and everyone must tread carefully, this is the story of an unusual family running a glamorous Sinuiju department store overflowing with expensive goods, in contrast with the bleak times. The family includes older brother Hwan, who rejects his Korean identity and leads a lavish life envied even by the Japanese; older brother Hun, who resents Japanese rule, criticizes Hwan, and devotes himself to actually running the store; their parents, who care little for inherited wealth and material luxury and help people in need; and the woman who takes care of the household. The youngest daughter, Mi-ok, looks into each family member’s life and relationships through the sensibility of a teenage girl.
Korean title: 신의주 백선 백화점
Korean author: 진저 박
Korean publisher: 안녕로빈
ISBN-13: 9791191942385
Reviews
This is the story of Mi-ok, who lived in Sinuiju in 1944. At elementary school, she learned Japanese history from her Japanese teacher, sewed buttons onto military uniforms, and polished soldiers’ boots until her fingernails were black. She seemed to wither helplessly like a flower in midwinter. One day, after working at a dye factory and coming home covered in blisters and blood, she left school and home to stay in the countryside—until the Soviet army arrived. I cry just imagining how
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store. Japanese occupation. Mi-ok, the only daughter of the owner of Sinuiju's Baekseon Department Store, grew up knowing no hardship apart from having to watch what she did around her Japanese teacher at school. Through Mi-ok's eyes, the novel calmly depicts the story of the Japanese occupation, liberation, and division, as if a grandmother were telling her granddaughter her own story. Stories set in this period usually focus on how Koreans were persecuted by
They say the moon wanes after it becomes full. But after enduring all kinds of hardship under Japanese rule, it never became full; caught in the whirlpool of ideology, it only waned again. Yet a ray of hope shone from the full-moon embroidery Mi-ok stitched and always carried with her. The author heard the story of Mi-ok, the woman in the novel who was her mother, and shaped the experiences of Mi-ok’s family under Japanese rule and during the Korean War into a lyrical, moving story. The novel
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store review by Ginger Park for HelloRobin. YA historical novel. This is a novel based on a true story, recording the diverse family history of Mi-ok’s family across the Korean Peninsula—from the northern port city of Sinuiju to a small neighborhood on the outskirts of Seoul—as they lived through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War. In 1910, after Japan forcibly imposed the annexation treaty, it took complete control of the Korean Peninsula. Schools made
The Sinuiju Baekseon Department Store tells the story of Mi-ok’s family, who served Japanese customers at the Baekseon Department Store, filled with expensive goods, unlike the Koreans living under Japanese colonial rule in the 1940s. The prologue begins with the story of me at ninety years old. Older brother Hwan wants to please the Japanese, while Hun is kind and has more natural dignity than anyone. Through her conversations with Hun, Mi-ok gives us a glimpse of a warm family. As Japan’s
