A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa. 

3/5 rating. 174 pages.

Book #55 of 2020. Read August 10, 2020.

This book is the heart-wrenching story of Masaji’s life in North Korea and his eventual escape.

Masaji was born in Japan to a South Korean mother and a Japanese father. Through his youth, he was constantly bullied and discriminated against because of his Korean descent. After struggling mightily, his father is coerced into moving to North Korea because of promises of a better life, free education, and talk of it being heaven on earth and a land of milk and honey.

When the family lands in North Korea, it takes almost no time to realize that they have been duped. While they lived lives of struggle and want in Japan, this new life was something entirely beyond that. Their miserable lives were just one long string of want, despair, and tragedy. The family is constantly met with death and starvation.

After over 30 years of suffering, things got significantly worse in North Korea after Kim Il-Sung’s death. There was mass starvation across the country, deaths everywhere and Masaji realizes that his only hope for him and his family is for him to try to escape and get back to Japan. He fights to cross over into China where he receives great help to succeed in returning to Japan. Unfortunately, once there, he is faced with more discrimination and unable to get a job or improve his lot in life.

This is really a sad book as Masaji has suffered continually. It shows what a mess North Korea has been for the past fifty or so years. If you want to learn about those miserable conditions, or want to read a sad, depressing book, go check this out. If not, just know that North Korea has failed its citizens time and again and spend your time reading another book.

Quotes:

“During the period of the Japanese Empire, thousands upon thousands of Koreans had been brought to Japan against their will to serve as slave laborers and, later, cannon fodder. Now, the government was afraid that these Koreans and their families, discriminated against and poverty-stricken in the postwar years, might become a source of social unrest. Sending them back to Korea was a solution to a problem. Nothing more.”

“And I came to recognize that, no matter how difficult the reality, you mustn’t let yourself be beaten. You must have a strong will. You have to summon what you know is right from your innermost depths and follow it.”

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