English 100 Spring 2019 Blogs

In reading the artical “Hardly known, Not yet forgotten” I now feel as if I have a better understanding of the happenings of the prisoners of war in north Korea.

The article tells the story of a Few POW’s ( Prisoners of War ). For those who servived to tell their stories, being able to share them is an undertaking in its self. Allowing someone to know who you are, facing the dangers of huge repercussions. On top of this North Korea still denies having POWs’. Due to the fact that any and all POWs were supposed to be released.

Most if not all POWs were sent in to working camps, or forced to fight for the North. “POW’s were not only used as forced labor. While the war was still under way, they were often given North Korean uniforms and redeployed as soldiers to fight the other side, defectors said. Some were
lucky enough to be taken prisoner by the South once more, and a policy of voluntary repatriation by the South Korean and US forces after the Armistice meant that they could remain there.” (Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten).

North Korea’s have been told how to conduct themselves in every aspect of their life from how they dress, what they eat down to how they talk. They have even been stripped of their sexual freedom to explore their bodies with others. Despited being heavily regulated, there still seems to be a subculture of rebellious tendencies. This can be seen not only in Mi-ran and Jun-sang’s relationship but also in how the defectors speak of the way in which couples conduct them selves in the dark. I found it interesting that even though North Korea forbid its citizens to have relationships until their late twenties that Kim Jong-il was allowed to be ” a playboy in his youth” while other “party officials caught in adulterous affairs” would loose “their jobs.” It was even more radical that North Korea closed all of its “brothels” and “kisaeng houses” in order to repress all sexuality. They executed all “pornographers” which could never happen in America considering the huge porn addiction epidemic. Part of me thinks that it might be a good thing that there is no pornography or sexualization of people because at least when people in North Korea fall in love with someone it seems to be extremely respectful and innocent. It lacks the dark tainted view of an American mind that expects what they view on the internet in a sexual relationship and if they don’t receive it then often times Rape ensues. We as a culture are hurting our selves so much every time we check out from reality and check into a fake sexual world full of people that are made of plastic and moan on command. Intimacy stands for “IN TO ME YOU SEE” not fantasy and fake love. We as a nation have a lot to learn from North Korea in this regard, I think that ultimately a health sexual stance is somewhere in the middle but we have to stop using sex to check out and numb up.

I was shocked to read how prude and conservative North Korea is. Even though they no longer wear the “monstrous hats” or the ” extraordinary coverings” which were “7 feet long, 5 broad and shroud the figure from head to toe”, women were still controlled and expected to adhere to a certain standard set by the regime. I found it hilarious that the defector who was working in the sex industry in South Korea stated “it would be unimaginably terrible” she “couldn’t even think of” an “unmarried student getting pregnant.” Considering that America views teen pregnancy and pre marital pregnancy as a normal every day occurrence I think it would be such a contrast to live there. Maybe the women and men are able to focus more on school with these rules and expectations or maybe they are just like us and plagued with a sexual desire to connect with others and explore our natural urges. It is evident that at least some young adults in North Korea share the struggle of remaining a virgin until wed lock. Over all, the women are “very rigidly secluded, perhaps more absolutely so than women of any other nation” they are in league with that of the women who suffer from the Taliban and ISIS oppression.

While reading Nothing to Envy, I find myself being in shock throughout most of the chapters. There was a section that brought a smile to my face and made me appreciate that even when people are faced with hardships, people still can find joy and happiness.

In their giddiness, they paid little attention to what was happening around them.

pg. 89

When Mi-Ran and Jun-Sang are in their courtship, they find their conversations with one another to be a nice distraction from the world around them. Their lives seem to melt away and allow them a sense of peace. You can clearly see a love that is blossoming bright amongst the dreary landscape. For them, it was thrilling and a little rebellious. Not only did they lie to their parents and sneak around but they had in depth conversations about their insecurities. From these conversations, they forged a bond that allowed them to be supportive of one another. In this time where no one can be trusted, it must have been nice for these two people to be able to have their friendship.

It was a relatively safe way to rebel against the confines of their lives.

pg. 89

I found this section of the book really interesting simply because North Koreas leader was able to “ward off” natural human instinct. Through even more rules and regulations, the leader of North Korea enforced dress code policies for both men and women. It went as far as to determine the hairstyle a women can have based on status and age. There was rules for it all. At one point a ban on young marriage was implemented. He recommended that a man could not marry until aged thirty and a women couldn’t marry until aged 28.

The Motherland and nation hope and believe that the youngsters will uphold the beautiful tradition of marrying only after they have done enough for the country and people.

pg. 81

We as humans need the closeness of other humans to help us to want to keep going. To thrive and become a better version of ourselves. Mi-Ran had let her grades in High School drop because she didn’t understand the point of it all. It wasn’t until her boyfriend told her to have hope that she could make a better life for herself, that she realized if she failed it wasn’t going to be because she allowed herself to fail. She wouldn’t be the one to blame. Their relationship I believe helped to save her from giving up. It shows what a friendship can do even in hard times.

In reading “The True Believer”, it reminded me of this movie called “One, Two, Three”. It was about a young couple who met and fell in love. Scarlett the heiress to the Coca-Cola Company, and Otto was a die heart Communist. In the movie the young man states “Unlike you western Capitalist, we Communist have no, class system”. There is always a class system, a difference between the haves and the have nots.

Like we read there were three broad classes. The core class, the wavering class, and the hostile class. There was a class system in Tae-woo’s family, his son got the best food, shoes, and clothes. Mrs. Song served the best food at Oak-hee wedding. A lot of winking and head noting. Well!!

As I read more of the book “Nothing to Envy”, there is always a new fact about how the people of North Korea have to live that totally shocks me. I have learned that there is assigned grocery shopping days and to buy groceries (which was mainly rice, corn, flour, etc) they would use their “ration book”, a small amount of money or coupons they receive from their workplace based on how well you did your duties at work. The food shortage got so bad that even the children didn’t have school lunch.

“Many of the fruit pickers were children. As school lunches got smaller and finally disappeared, children started cutting school to look for food.” (Nothing to Envy, Pg. 73)

Another crazy fact that I have learned from reading this book is that there were only two sets of clothing that they received each year, one for summer and one for winter, and of course they would get new clothes on the birthday of their leader to further reinforce the image that their leader is the source of the good things that they get. It is just so insane to hear about how these people are living and how they are not provided with the freedom to live with certain luxuries even as small as getting to shop for your own clothes or go grocery shopping when you want to.

After reading the article “Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten”, I have learned more about what really happened to the South Korean prisoners of war. In the book “Nothing to Envy”, there is a brief part in which the author shares the experience of a prisoner  of war, but reading this article goes further and allows the reader to understand even more about the unbelievable events that occurred.

In the article, multiple POW’s who have survived and relatives of survivors share their personal stories and terrifying experiences. The article also adds on to the fact that North Korea still denies the existence of the POW’s who were supposed to be released and repatriated back to their hometowns, but North Korea held them back to use them for forced labor.

“POW’s were not only used as forced labor. While the war was still under way, they were often given North Korean uniforms and redeployed as soldiers to fight the other side, defectors said. Some were
lucky enough to be taken prisoner by the South once more, and a policy of voluntary repatriation by the South Korean and US forces after the Armistice meant that they could remain there.” (Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten).

I think that Barbara Demick, the author of “Nothing to Envy” was drawn to this particular article because it provides real life stories from POW’s and their families who have suffered in such an inhumane way. These real stories shared in the article is what gives the article such a high quality value. Many people are not aware of the terrible way these people had to live, and how their lives inevitably affected their families.

Even during a crisis, North Koreans were still fed lies about their food shortages. A catchy slogan was told to the people along with a video of how a mans stomach burst from eating too much rice. So the easy fix? Only eat two meals a day!

Enduring hunger became part of one’s patriotic duty.

pg. 70

I found this particular section of chapter 4 very strange, yet understandable. In agricultural production, supervisors would fabricate statistics about industrial output because they were so fearful of telling their own bosses the truth. They simply weren’t able to produce what they were supposed to. Then those lies climbed the chain of command. Lies were built upon lies. They even mentioned that Kim Il-Sung might not have even known when the economy took it’s nose dive because of all the lies he received about how well his country was doing in their productions. The fear that was instilled in the people, I think led to even worse conditions. Would their fearless leader provided them with more food or resources to grow more if he would have simply known the truth?

The article further adds to my understanding of the hardship faced by POW’s and their families in North Korea post WWII era. The book briefly talked about the living conditions of POW’s, however, it did not go into too much detail rather it focused on the aftermath. The author was drawn to this article more than likely because it showed that even when wars “stop” they never truly stop and generation after generation continue to be punished for their ancestors actions. I found it wild that these men who had been captured were denied the right to go home and also the right to fully assimilate as a North Korean. It was as if they were only allowed to live in a glass house that created the illusion that they were taken care of but in reality they were being taken advantage of. I believe that the article has tremendous value and gives a voice to those who have endured the harsh living standards in North Korea. There is not way that their voices can be silenced and forgotten. They will not be taken away in the middle of the night and buried in an unmarked grave, rather they become the new hope for their people.