Kimchi Mamas

Five White Boys

The bigger boys loved to taunt me
in their ripped jeans and expensive sneakers.
They walked like cowboys from old westerns 
pelvis forward, shoulders squared, hands on their hips
where their holsters should have been.

Irritated with their own lives, 
they wanted to get back at somebody for it--anybody would do.
My Korean face stood out from the others,
so they picked me.

They would stalk me on the way home from school,
where no teachers could stop them.
I had to walk just one short block from the bus stop to my home.
One block with them shadowing my steps.
I didn’t need to turn around to know they were there.

Chiiiink. Jaaaaaap. Goooooook.
I could hear the glee in their voices as they drew out the vowels
to savor the taste of the words.
Whenever I flinched, they snickered.

I imagined their faces behind me; 
fanged creatures, with claws and horns.
I knew if I ran, they would chase me, howling:
huge dobermans growling and snapping at the corners of my schoolbag.

Deliberately, I turned to face them.
Rotating my body first, I brought my eyes up last, 
trying to delay the confrontation.

I saw one red-haired boy, freckled from the sun;
One blond boy, blue eyes glaring through thick glasses.
The other three had brown hair of varying shades and lengths.
One wore a baseball cap wedged on his uncombed head.
Another clamped his lips over braces, which bulged out anyway.
The last was the ringleader, skinniest and meanest.

My narrow eyes of black agate glared at their wide brown and blue ones.
My golden tan contrasted with their pale faces.

I saw them nudge each other and point at me,
their smirks becoming uncertain frowns.
They tripped over their untied laces 
and elbowed each other in the ribs while trying to back away.
They never expected a nine-year old to stand up to them.

Five white boys with nothing better to do.

--Jomama

Announcing the next KM Book Club Selection: Honolulu by Alan Brennert

Hi, Kimchi Mamas!

Hope everyone is having a fantabulous summer so far.

I am happy to announce July's book club selection, Honolulu by Alan Brennert.  This one was suggested to me by none other than Amazon.com's greatest recommendation-guessing robots, but from the synopsis alone, it sounds right up our alley.  I'm always curious to read books told through a woman's point of view but written by a man.  Sometimes it can be amazing (She's Come Undone is a notable example).

If you're interested in joining us, please comment below, and I will open up a discussion thread on Saturday, July 27th!  Can't wait to hear from you guys!

Mahalo,
Julie

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Book Description:

From the bestselling author of the “dazzling historical saga” (The Washington Post), Moloka’i, comes the irresistible story of a young immigrant bride in a ramshackle town that becomes a great modern city 

“In Korea in those days, newborn girls were not deemed important enough to be graced with formal names, but were instead given nicknames, which often reflected the parents’ feelings on the birth of a daughter:  I knew a girl named Anger, and another called Pity.  As for me, my parents named me Regret.”

Honolulu is the rich, unforgettable story of a young “picture bride” who journeys to Hawai'i in 1914 in search of a better life.

Instead of the affluent young husband and chance at an education that she has been promised, she is quickly married off to a poor, embittered laborer who takes his frustrations out on his new wife. Renaming herself Jin, she makes her own way in this strange land, finding both opportunity and prejudice. With the help of three of her fellow picture brides, Jin prospers along with her adopted city, now growing from a small territorial capital into the great multicultural city it is today.  But paradise has its dark side, whether it’s the daily struggle for survival in Honolulu’s tenements, or a crime that will become the most infamous in the islands’ history...

With its passionate knowledge of people and places in Hawai'i far off the tourist track, Honolulu is most of all the spellbinding tale of four women in a new world, united by dreams, disappointment, sacrifices, and friendship. 

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A Holocaust Ignored

I feel nauseated!  I have never before in my life read something that gave me a physical reaction like this. I have the physical urge to throw up! I don’t even know where to begin. I’m going to try... Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who otherwise looks to be a human, said that the rape of women (comfort woman) was ok because it relaxed their rapists (Japanese soldiers).

Comfort women were NOT prostitutes! They were set up to be raped by Japanese soldiers by the Japanese government.  

Comfort women were kept in small cubicles that resembled micro-sized portapotties.  They were forced to stay in these cells without being let out except every couple of weeks to wash themselves. These enclosures had chamber pots within them.  Every fifteen minutes a Japanese soldier would enter and rape the woman inside the cubicle, and if the woman in anyway rebelled, she was pulled out, put to death and left where other women could see her as a warning.  The soldiers gunned down lines of women if they caught STDs, instead of treating them. The women were treated as less than human all those years ago, and now Hashimoto dehumanizes them again.

What if a German politician came out and said that some part of the Holocaust was necessary? What if he said that the victims of the holocaust deserved kind words, but that killing them, torturing them, using them as slaves made the German soldiers relax, made them feel good because they were at war, and provided needed relief?  How would the world react to that statement?  How would the victims of holocaust feel?  Is there inherently some difference between how the world views the victims of one country-wide tragedy to another? I wonder why one article on the BBC website is all the press this has received, and I wonder how different it might be if it were about another set of victims. 

I cannot understand where Hashimoto is coming from but you can read it for yourself here:

“Japan WWII ‘comfort woman’ were ‘necessary’ - Hashimoto

- Nancy

Dari: The First Bilingual Anthology of LGBTQ Korean American Stories and Art

May is dear to me for several reasons: it is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and it is also Mental Health Awareness Month!  

In those veins, I present to you a book released today by the Dari Project, a New York-based all-volunteer consortium that aims to increase awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people of Korean descent in Korean American communities.  They develop resources to share the experiences of LGBTQ Korean Americans, ranging from homophobia in their KA communities, coming out, building relationships with family, and membership in faith communities.

On May 2, the Dari Project will be unveiling a bilingual publication that contains a collection of personal stories written by LGBT Korean Americans. The book contains 25 personal essays covering a variety of themes -- coming out to immigrant parents, responding to homophobia/transphobia in the Korean church, organizing the community after a gay bashing in NYC's Koreatown, etc. The contributors live across the US and South Korea, and include a diverse array of identities within the Korean American community -- biracial Koreans, adoptees and trans people.

I love their name, because dari means both legs and bridge, and this anthology seeks to provide both: support for the LGBTQ community, and a way to bridge Korean Americans from different generations, ideologies, and languages.

Check out their gorgeous logo:

Copies of the book can be requested on the Dari Project's website.

h/t to my friend and heroine, Andy Marra

Book Review - Escape from Camp 14

Disclosure: I got a free copy of this book to review.

Escape from Camp 14 written by Blaine Harden tells the true story of how Shin Dong Hyuk broke out of a brutal labor camp in North Korea, eventually making his way to the USA. Complete with maps and drawings, Blaine makes it easy for the reader to picture this harrowing story. I heard Shin Dong Hyuk speak at an event in Stanford before so his story was not new to me. However, reading about the details made it so much more real.

Born inside Camp No. 14 Shin Dong Hyuk was the product of a marriage that was itself a form of reward, a reward reserved for prisoners who modeled "good" behavior such as snitching on fellow prisoners. He survived by doing whatever he could to secure food. He grew up to be the model snitch, not even thinking twice to snitch on his own family.

This book provides an accurate and horrifying look into North Korea's infamous labor camps. A hopeless world where humans become driven by hunger and hunger alone. Where affection does not exist. Yet even in such a bleak place, compassion comes at unexpected times.