Jounal #9: When My Name Was Keoko

Tell why your novel relates to cultural/ethnic roots and identity. Give specific examples from your reading.

The novel, When My Name Was Keoko, written by Linda Sue Park, tells a story of a family that faced brutal hardships during World War II. The story focuses mainly around Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul. Tae-yul wanted to prove the Koreans weren't cowards so he became a kamikaze pilot, putting his own life at risk. During that time, the Japanese and Koreans were in much conflict. The Koreans were forced to speak in Japanese, as well as use Japanese names. Their Uncle, went out of his way to print newspapers in Korean. This showed that he was proud of his culture. Secretly, he also taught Sun-hee and Tae-yul much about their Korean culture and heritage and why it was important to them.

"I woke the next morning with Abuji's words in my head. I started a new diary that very day; not even the pain of my blistered fingers could stop me."

You burn the paper but not the words.

You silence the words but not the thoughts.

You kill the thoughts only if you kill the man.

And you will find that his thoughts rise again

in the minds of others-twice as strong as before.

"The next day I slipped out of the house and made my way down the street to Tomo's house. He was outside loading a crate onto a cart. An American soldier was standing guard at the gate."

"Tomo."

He turned in surprise. "Keoko! What are you doing here?"

For a moment I didn't respond-I was thinking about how he'd call me by my Japanese name. We had all gone back to using our Korean names the very day the Emporor's surrender was announced. Indeed, as part of the celebration in the street that day, people had torn up their Japanese identity papers. But Tomo had been calling me "Keoko" for five years now; it would have felt strange to hear him call me "Sun-hee."

"I wasn't Keoko anymore. But the part of me that was friends with Tomo would always be Keoko, and I didn't want to forget that."