“The Yalu River separates China and North Korea. A lot of people cross over it, and even more try to. Bizarrely, some thirty years earlier, many Chinese Koreans and Chinese had tried to escape to North Korea during China’s “Great… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share Image
“People came to our house from far and wide. Party and military bigwigs, some guy known as the “combat commander,” the village headman, and… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“This was laughable, of course, but that’s always the way with totalitarian regimes. Language gets turned on its head. Serfdom is freedom. Repression is… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“I was amazed we’d got through the checkpoint so easily. I couldn’t help asking about it. “Well, these soldiers, you see . . .… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“My family was poor, but my childhood days in Mizonokuchi were the happiest of my life. Even now, when I think about my hometown,… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“People ridiculed me. “What on earth are you doing?” they asked. “Why are you working so hard?” They didn’t understand that driving that tractor… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“I mean, this was the second half of the twentieth century, for pity’s sake, and they still saw communism as the road to utopia.” — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“But the reality hit home late that night. I had a wife. And now two children. And however hard I worked, I would always… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“So we became masters at faking it. Everyone did. To do anything else could have gotten us killed.” — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“I still hope to rescue my remaining children. It is a terrible curse to not even know if they are still alive. But I… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“But that’s the trouble with propaganda. It constantly contradicts itself.” — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“The consul was at a loss for words the first time he set eyes on me. “My God! How could they treat you like… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“We were nothing but a bunch of ravenous ghosts. The barely living dead.” — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“Did the International Committee of the Red Cross know anything about this? Did the United States? The UN? Yes, yes, and yes. And what… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“When we got back to our house, the villagers who’d had helped carry her coffin as far as the mountainside were there, partaking enthusiastically… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
“Much later, I checked out the Ten Commandments of the Abrahamic religions. You know how many of them contain a reference to God? About… — Masaji Ishikawa Copy Share
