Re-write (Kirsty Jun)

Intro: My re-write story is based on the film ' Life is beautiful'. Background of this story is Japanese colonial period. This re-write is about a mother and daughter instead about a father and son.



Rain by Kirsty Jun (0642361)



I am Nanako from Japan. I am seventy years old now. I married to a Korean guy, Young-Su, during the Japanese colonial period. I had a daughter. But I am alone now. Whenever it’s raining it reminds me of my daughter ‘Hwa-Ja’.

***

It was back in 1932, Young-Su was one of armies for national independence. They have been carrying on an independence movement in defiance of Japan coercion. I also taught Korean to illiteracy people at night because they were not allowed to learn Korean. Although I am Japanese, I felt sympathy and sorry for Korean. That’s why I loved Young-Su who fought for his national independence. My daughter, Hwa-Ja was in middle school at that time. She is very cute. Everyone in our neighbour said they wanted her to be a daughter in law, because she was so beautiful.

One day, it was rainy day. When she came home from school she asked me something as she had an angry face.
“Mum, why do people keep saying Korean is stupid and Japanese is clever?”
“Who did say that to you?”
“My teacher and classmates. They said they are clever enough to look after Korea. Because we are stupid we don’t have an ability to take care our own country. Teacher said Korean is also stupid language. That’s why I’m not allowed to speak Korean at school. Mum you are Japanese too. You should tell me the truth.”
“Ok. Listen Hwa-Ja. You should believe only what I and dad said. Do not listen to them. Tell me what I and dad told you before.”
“We should be proud of ourselves. This is Korean’s land, not Japanese’s land. We must not forget our own identity. But I must not tell anyone about it at school and fight with Japanese classmates.”
“Good girl. Can you help me to make dinner for dad? He will come home today.”
“Oh really? Do you think he will stay for long? Why does he stay at home only for one or two days?
Young-Su came home when he need money for military to keep carrying on an independence movement. Because my dad had a big business company in Japan, I didn’t have to worry about money. I supported my husband as much as I could. I also give some money to Japanese police officer for my family’s safe.
While I was cooking someone rang the door bell as if she or he was angry.

‘Ding Dong ,Ding Dong Ding Dong…….’
“Who’s there?’
“I am Nagata police officer, open the door”
“What do you want?”
“You have a daughter, aren’t you?
“Yes. Why?”
“Nothing special. You just need to register her name with age .”
“Ok. Where should I do?”
“You can tell me now. I will register for you”
“Ok her name is Hwa-Ja Kim and she is 15 years old.”

I think I was too stupid. I shouldn’t have told my daughter’s name. I’ve been thinking everything was my fault. At that night, Young-Su came home and stayed for a day. He left next morning to Russia where they had a military camp.
I had been in peace until that day when I heard a woman crying. When I was just about to go out to see what was happening, someone rang the doorbell.

“Who’s there?”
“Open the door, it’s Nakata”
As soon as I opened the door, three soldiers came in with Nakata and started finding something.
“What are you guys looking for in my house?”
“Where is your daughter?”

When they asked me about Hwa-Ja I realised there was something wrong and I wished Hwa-Ja didn’t leave her room. But things that I was worried about happend at last. She came out to ask what was going on.

"Mum what's going on?"
"Oh! She's there!". One of soldiers yelled at others.
"Take her to down stairs"
"Mum !!!!!!!! What are they doing? Where are they taking me? She screamed as she cried.

I was begging to Nakata not to take my daughter. I also told him how come he did this thing to me although I bribe a lot of money. But he said it's was not his intention. It was for new Japanese policy. I didn’t know what to do but I did know I couldn’t let her be alone.

"Nakata! Wait. Why are you taking my daughter? If you want her you will take me first." I said to Nakata as I stood in front of the door.
"We don't need to take you. I got an order to take only Korean."
"You can't take my daughter unless I go with her. Do you want to take her or not?"

Nakata talked to three other soldiers and they decided to take both of us. There was an army truck outside and we got in the truck. My daughter was still crying. There were twenty other girls who looked so young. Nobody knew what would happen to us and where we go. After three hours, we arrived at small building where was just next to Japanese military camp. When I arrived I could see a lot of trucks from other areas. There were many young girls in those trucks as well. One of soldiers came out and said what we were going to do and where we are going to stay. In the small building, there were about forty small rooms. In that small room, there was only one blanket and smell was like a shit. But that was where we had to stay.

"Listen carefully. I will not repeat again. Can you see these rooms? These rooms are where you are going to work. You can shift a job with others every six hours. Those who can't speak Japanese have to learn as soon as possible. You need to understand what soldiers want you to do. I don't accept any questions. All you have to do is to what soldiers tell you do to."

Everyone started crying but me. I was thinking what I can do here for my daughter. Nakata came to me and asked if I want to work as a cook for armies, but I refused. I wanted to be with my daughter.

All of us were staying in one small room together and we had to start doing things from tomorrow.
We were sex-slaveries for Japanese men. Japanese called us ‘comfort women’ because we were force to have sex with Japanese soldiers to make them comfortable and pleasure. Then, they would be better at the war. Each girl had to go one room and wait for a man. Each man had only 20 minutes. More than 100 soldiers were in queue outside of the buildings. Normally, each girl had to deal with 30 men a day. We needed to deal with soldiers in the morning, Sergeants in the afternoon, and officers at night. We were force to have STD test once every two weeks. I couldn't let my daughter do these kinds of things. She was only 14 years old.

"Hwa-Ja, do not ever leave this room, ok? Nobody should know you are staying here all day."
"Ok mum. But, how about you? what are you going to do?" I don't want you to do for me. I am old enough to do"
"What are you talking about? Don't say stupid thing ever again."

As one soldiers said at the first day we came, we need to take a turn in every six hours. But I had to make soldiers comfortable for12 hours for my daughter's shift. After finishing my job, I had to run quickly to the room where Hwa-Ja had to go. I was getting so tired and sick. I couldn't eat anything. But I had to bear this hardship for my daughter. After few weeks, one girl was killed by a man who was having sex with her. He was drunk and stabbed her with a sword for fun. A lot of drunken soldiers hit women. They treated us as a toy. All of us were scared. We didn’t know who was going to be the next victim.
We could get a meal, only rice and miso, after finishing the shift but sometimes we couldn’t have any if there were too many men waiting. I had to eat only half of meal so that I could give the rest of food to Hwa-Ja. I always tried not to eat a lot for her. I felt like I was getting weak.

“Mum, aren’t you hungry? I don’t feel good whenever you bring food for me. I think I need to get mine by myself”
“Hwa-Ja, don’t you remember what I said before? I won’t let you do such a bad thing for you. I am your mother. I can do everything for you even if that’s really dangerous.
“Mum… but…..”
“Don’t say and think anything.”

I was so worried about her in case she would leave the room and a soldier found her. I felt like I couldn’t live anymore if she had to deal with a man who treated us as sex-slaveries. One thing I was also worried about was other girls in our rooms. They knew that my daughter didn’t leave the room and had never done with men. Fortunately, they hadn’t said anything yet, but I was getting worried. Because, some people already had complained about it and they hated me because I am from Japan. I totally understood what they felt about me and I felt sorry for them just because I am Japanese. We couldn’t estimate how long we were going to stay here. I thought only in my mind I would escape one day in the future. I couldn’t say about it to anyone because I didn’t want to give them hope that would unlikely happen.
It was one day when we had the STD test. There were four girls who got a positive result from the test. Two soldiers came and took those four girls. We thought they would get a treatment to recover but we couldn’t see them again. ‘Mum, when did they come again? It’s been more than two weeks since they left’ Hwa-Ja asked me because they were the same age as her or just two years older than her. I felt so terrible because they were Hwa-Ja’s friends and I considered them as my daughters.
Whenever we had the test, more and more girls suddenly disappeared. The rule for soldiers was to use ‘condom’ but nobody used it. That was why many girls got an illness and Japanese killed them to prevent many soldiers from getting an illness. We all were afraid of getting sick because we knew that we were going to be disappeared.

Terrible thing happened when I had been working as a comfort woman for a year. It was raining. While I was dealing with a man, I heard something like a bolt from the blue sky. ‘Hey, how old are you? You look old’ the soldier asked me as he looked me up and down. ‘I am 35 years old. Why are you asking me?’ ‘I had a sex with the youngest girl here and she was a virgin. I was lucky yesterday. What he said made me think of my daughter, Hwa-Ja. As soon as I finished my shift, I ran to our room but she was not there. I plumped on the ground and started screaming like a crazy animal. I couldn’t stop crying and screaming. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to live anymore. Hwa-Ja was only hope that I had. I didn’t want her to be ruined by dirty men. After three hours, she came into the room. ‘hey sweetie, where were you? Did you forget I told you not to leave the room?’ I pretended that I didn’t know anything. ‘Mum, I didn’t want to leave the room but I got caught by Nakata. He came to see you.’ She answered as she got tears in her eyes. I wanted to kill Nakata but I didn’t have any power. I was just one of slaves. There was nothing I could do for my daughter anymore. As they knew she hid in the room they always came and checked if she worked. All I could do for her was to tell her that she had to make sure every guys need to wear condom, otherwise she would be sick, and then die. I thought I was the worst mum in the world. Who would tell their daughters that they need to wear condom when they were raped? I wanted to commit suicide, but I couldn’t do because of daughter.

After few weeks, it was raining that day. I don’t like rain because bad things had always happened on rainy day. I had a gloomy foreboding. Hwa-Ja came to me with worried face.

I knew that she was trying to pretend nothing happened but I realised there was something going on as soon as I saw her face. ‘What’s the matter, sweetheart?’ ‘Nothing, mum, nothing. Why?’ ‘Are you sure? There’s nothing you can’t tell me. I am your mum. Tell me. I said to Hwa-Ja as I stared at her face. ‘Ok mum. I think there’s something going on my body.’ She looked like she would cry soon. ‘Baby, what are you talking about? Are you sick? It’s maybe you are tired.’ ‘No mum I don’t think so. I heard from girls in another room that we got sick because of what we are doing with men and we would be killed.’ ‘Oh my god.Who did you tell you such things? That’s not true. You are not going to die. Tell me what happened to your body.’ ‘I had had a headache and muscle ache. I am sure you know how much I love eating but these days I lost appetite.

I always had felt nausea and vomiting. The most scared thing is I had dark-colored urine.’ ‘Oh my god. I knew it! I knew it! I knew this fucking thing would happen to me.’ I didn’t say any words, but said in my mind. I couldn’t believe it happened to my daughter. I didn’t know what to do. There was nothing I could do this time as well. There would be STD test four days later. If she somehow managed to get away from the test she would die anyway from the illness. But she would die right after the test if she was checked. I decided to make her get away from the test, so that we could have more days to be together. I thought if she died from the illness I would follow her right away. ‘Listen, you must not have the test.’ ‘Why? Is that I heard from other girls true? Am I going to die?’ ‘You are not going to die, I promise. Just trust me and do what I will tell you to do on the test day.’

It was finally the test day. It hadn’t stopped raining since three days ago. I couldn’t get rid of bad feeling. I was too nervous, but tried to control myself. I told Hwa-Ja to hide at Sergeant’s office where nobody would go. I went to outside and was in a queue to have the test. As new Korean girls arrived last week, there were so many people who had to check the health. Because of them, I had to wait for so long. While I was waiting, I saw two soldiers running. I was shocked because they were running toward the office where Hwa-Ja was in. Hwa-Ja was pulled by them to health checking area. I felt like everything would be end. Everyone who had finished the test was told to get back to our rooms. I was waiting for Hwa-Ja all night, didn’t sleep at all. I didn’t sleep next day, following day, another following day…. But the moment, when I saw my beautiful daughter when we had the STD test, was the last time I saw her. I couldn’t see her again.

After I realised that I wouldn’t meet her again, I wanted to die as well. But I was not allowed to even kill myself. After few years, I don’t remember the exact date. We were abandoned in that building and all Japanese soldiers went back to Japan after they lost the war. We didn’t know where to go and what to do. Some people wanted to go their hometown to see their family but some other people said they couldn’t see their family because they had been ruined by a lot of men. They said they were such a dirty soul. I wanted to see my husband, Young-Su, but I couldn’t go. Because I was terrible mum who didn’t protect own child. I decided to come back to Japan.

I have been living alone for almost 40 years with having mind of apology for loss of Hwa-Ja. I read the news about Korean comfort woman yesterday. I guess they are those who went back to their hometown. They are trying to tell the world what happened during Japanese colonial period. I want to help them. I couldn’t stand what Japanese government said now. I am going to write a letter about it. I think this is for my daughter.
I still hate raining. I don’t still feel good when it’s raining. It is raining today. It reminds me of my daughter who I couldn’t protect from dirty things. I feel like she is crying now in the heaven.