On a River in Darkness

I feel conflicted about this book. Essentially, it’s about a man (half-Korean, half-Japanese) whose Korean family was forced to move to Japan during the colonial empire. After the war, they faced racial discrimination and moved to the “Utopia” that was North Korea. Ishikawa tells the story of his experiences there before finally fleeing back to Japan in 1996. There are a few things that came to mind when I was reading this book.

First is that much of it resembles memoirs I’ve read on Chinese communism, at times seeming suspiciously similar. Obviously communism destroyed the lives of untold millions, but each country had its own variants, generally adapted to local conditions. There are some differences here between North Korean and Chinese communism (the level of racial discrimination, roads being state secrets in NK, etc.), but it almost seems too similar, especially when looking at the massive differences between Chinese and Soviet communism or Chinese and Vietnamese communism.

Another aspect that stood out to me was Ishikawa’s description of NK upon his arrival in 1960. He describes it as desolate, poor, and authoritarian, in stark contrast to Japan. One aspect that would have been illuminating, however, which would have been a comparison between North Korea and South Korea at this time. Perhaps this is impossible in this memoir, but it would be interesting nonetheless. For reference, South Korea was much poorer and just as authoritarian as North Korea throughout most of the 60s. It was only with the student revolts at the end of the decade that South Korea transitioned to liberal democracy. As such, I found this aspect to be a bit unfair, given that (as far I can tell tell) it is taken for granted that postwar South Korea was always more free and wealthier than North Korea.

Another thing that struck me was how scarce resources were in these decades. This is something that’s also taken for granted, but reading a personal account of it makes it seem more real. Ishikawa and his family often had nothing more than pine bark, acorns, and corn starch to subsist on, and it was impossible for them to rise in status due to their Japanese backgrounds. This is especially true after the death of Kim Il-sung. When Kim Jong-il took power, everything veritably went to shit (which does offer us a good look into North Korean communism as more than a monolithic system!).

I must add that I did not like Ishikawa very much. He is a sympathetic character, certainly, but this memoir lacked much of the depth and nuances generally needed to make memoirs truly interesting and meaningful. Ishikawa’s success, it seems, is more due to the novelty of having an account of a North Korean refugee rather than anything truly insightful (some examples in the Chinese tradition of really good memoirs are by Yue Dae-yun, Rae Yang, and Anchee Min).

Nonetheless, this work is absolute worth the read if for no other reason than a window into North Korea between 1960 and 1995.