Under the Black Umbrella

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Under the Black Umbrella by Hildi Kang October 3, 2013 Korean War History Personal stories of suffering and assimilation in a colonial society, overshadowed by the presence of the Japanese in Korea during the 19th century, have proven to be the patchwork of Kang’s book Under the Black Umbrella. Kang uses 51 people to portray Japanese cruelty during this period, while also reflecting on positive memories not limited to kindness and understanding. She wrote this book to give a human quality to the face of Korean-Japanese synergy during this time. Kang had come to expect a heavy element of hatred and barbarity from reading other accounts relating to this period, but upon listening to stories told by her father-in-law, she came to realize that not all people experienced life in colonial Korea as oppressive. It is evident that Kang views history as a process of change over a specified period of time as she divides up the book into two distinct sections entitled “Change by Choice,” and “Change by Coercion.” The first refers to the fact that the Koreans were given the opportunity to not behave inappropriately in the eyes of Japanese authority, and modernize themselves in accordance with a modern Japanese society. Kang focuses on the “personal choice” element that many Koreans were given when the Japanese began deregulating some businesses and hiring Koreans into government positions following the March First Movement in 1919. Several experiences are recorded which mirror Kang’s realization that, “under the shade cast by the Japanese presence, some people, some of the time, led close to normal lives.” In the later, Kang introduces the second element of colonial Korea, “Change by Coercion.” Kang outlines a more repressive part of the Japanese occupation, and Korean life when government agencies ushered in tighter politics, economics, and thought control.
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