Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood

In 1933, Kim’s mother tells him about the day his father was taken away by the Japanese Thought Police and Military Police at a train station “in a small border town by Tuman River that separates northern Korea, Manchuria, and Siberia” (20). Kim was an infant at the time.

The day is freezing and snowy. On the train, Kim’s father notes that this is the last stop—the last Korean town—before they reach Manchuria. He scratches some ice off the window so they can view the town “before they take leave of their homeland that is no longer their homeland” (20). The station is occupied by Japanese military personnel and their weaponry.

A Japanese Thought Police detective and a Military Policeman enter their compartment. The detective is a Korean working for the Japanese. The detective goes straight for Kim’s father. Kim’s father hands the detective his papers. His hands shake due to his ill-health from jailtime he received because of his part in the resistance before he married Kim’s mother.

The detective accuses Kim’s father of trying to leave the country only a week after his parole ended. Mr. Kim politely protests that the proper officials have approved their relocation: he has secured a job at a Manchurian school run by foreign Christian missionaries. The detective is dubious about Mr. Kim working for foreigners. The detectives take him from the train, which they claim will not move for some time.

When the conductor asks for their tickets, Mrs. Kim cannot produce them: Mr. Kim has them. A high school boy who overheard Mr. Kim being taken away tells the conductor what happened. The boy attends the same high school that Mr. Kim did: he and his classmates all know about him. The boy tells the conductor that Mr. Kim “is a patriot who, as a college student, organized a resistance movement against the Japanese and was arrested by the Japanese and spent years in prison” (24). The conductor reassures Mrs. Kim.

The train lurches into motion. The conductor rushes off to find out why they are leaving an hour ahead of schedule. Mrs. Kim resolves to exit the moving train with her baby. The conductor and the high school boy help her coordinate receiving her luggage at the next stop. As the train moves a way, Mrs. Kim stands on the freezing platform, momentarily distracted by the twilight and the red, setting sun.

Mrs. Kim takes refuge in the ticket clerk’s office. Fighting back her panic, she reflects that all of the men in her life have been jailed at least once. It was bad the previous May, after a Korean patriot bombed and killed a major Japanese general. Thinking of her father and husband makes her feel proud. The Japanese had conquered Manchuria the previous year. Staring out into the night, across the border, she “feels neither despair nor sorrow, but the outrage of a wounded soul” (27). Mr. Kim finally returns, his nose bloodied. The station clerk invites them into his office to warm up. Instead of waiting for another train which might not come, the family resolves to cross the frozen river.

After showing their papers to another officer, an old couple escorts them across the river. More people follow them. After a while, their path becomes more treacherous, with thin ice, cracks, and holes. Mrs. Kim begins to fear Manchuria; she thinks the town they are moving to is a “Korean ghetto” (32). They make it across the river.

Thinking of the journey years later, Kim thinks of the thin ice. He and his mother reflect that they have both made many such journeys since then. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kim see Kim off to his first day of school. Townspeople bow to Mr. Kim as they pass. An old woman tells Kim to be smarter than the Japanese boys at school. Mr. Kim leaves partway to school. A boy in the same school uniform exits a shabby house and follows Kim and his mother. Kim looks back, and the boy pulls a face at him. 

At school, Kim is intimidated: he has never seen this many children together before. The boys and male teachers wear identical khaki uniforms, made to resemble Japanese military uniforms. The girls wear sailor shirts and skirts, and they are separated from where the boys assemble.

A sixth-grade boy appointed by the vice principal shows Kim to his class. Kim stands at the back of the line and notices that the boy who followed him to school is several rows ahead. Again, the boy makes a face at him. The boy makes animal noises, eliciting giggles from some and a reprimand from the class leader. The Teacher of the Day and the Student of the Day lead the school in reporting in military fashion. The Teacher of the Day addresses the assembled student body in Japanese; Kim and many others do not understand him. They bow to the Japanese Emperor in Tokyo. Kim is warned that he will be beaten if he does not do so.

The classroom is full of Imperial Japan’s slogans. Kim reflects on the rise of fascism in Japan, Italy, and Germany. The students recite Japanese national slogans. The classroom is smelly and chaotic until their Korean teacher enters. The teacher introduces Kim, imploring the students to be empathetic to him. He knows Kim’s uncles in Tokyo.

The teacher asks Kim to sing his favorite song to the class. Lost in embarrassment, Kim is partway through the song before he realizes he is singing “Danny Boy” in English, thinking of his friends he left behind in Manchuria. The teacher and the class are impressed, including the rude boy. Kim does not notice; he is lost in the memory of the farewell party from the missionary school in Manchuria, where he learned the song.

The class is dismissed for the day: they are going to town to watch a newsreel movie. Kim dawdles as the class empties, but the big, rude boy and another boy wait for him. They invite him to skip the movie and go swimming with them. Kim says he will ask his mother, and the boys leave. Kim is “alone in that room, glowing in the warm feeling of knowing that I now have two new friends” (47).

Two students and a Japanese teacher enter the classroom. The teacher yells at Kim in Japanese and slaps him over and over for singing a foreign song in a foreign language. One of the boys calls him a liar and Mr. Kim a criminal. Kim headbutts the boy and punches him in the stomach. The teacher punches Kim in the face and goes to check on the other boy, whose lip is bleeding. Kim’s Korean teacher returns, and the two adults shout at each other in Japanese. They get into a fight, and Kim’s teacher knocks down the Japanese teacher and winds him.

Kim’s teacher walks him home. Kim begins to cry, and the teacher comforts him. Kim is disappointed that he will not be able to meet up with his new friends. The teacher buys Kim a treat at a Chinese restaurant, where the owner praises Kim and his father. 

Back home, Kim’s mother and grandmother take care of him. After falling asleep, 14 boys from his class come to visit him, led by the big boy, “Pumpkin.” Kim’s mother and grandmother bring them watermelon and iced water with honey. Word about the fight circulated rapidly, and all the boys decided to visit Kim. They muse about the teacher, who has a black belt in Yoodo.

That night, Mr. Kim tells Kim about his prison record, but he assures him that he has never done anything that his son would be ashamed of. Kim’s grandfather invites them to eat with him—Kim’s grandfather normally dines alone. He even gives Kim a glass of rice wine. The teacher visits, and Kim’s grandfather insists that he joins them. Kim looks at his teacher and sees “One of his eyes is blue and purple and half closed. His lips are cut and puffed up” (56). He has just left the police station. Kim’s father and grandfather ceremoniously pour him rice wine.

The teacher announces he came to say goodbye and to ask Mr. Kim advice on what he should do. They speak guardedly of the teacher joining Mr. Kim’s brother, an army officer in Manchuria. The brother is on leave and will be visiting the family soon. Mr. Kim asks Kim to go to bed.

Mrs. Kim chides Kim for drinking wine and asks him if he would rather transfer to a private school in Pyongyang. Kim would rather stay, despite retaliation from the Japanese teachers. Mrs. Kim reveals that Pumpkin has died: he drowned swimming in the river with the boys. The teacher dies as well, captured by the Soviets after Kim’s uncle helped him cross into Mongolia.