Historical Analysis/Review Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood Japanese Imperialism - Essay Example

(Chung, 2006) Their forced occupation of Korea was characterized by attempts to destroy Korean heritage, which involved replacing Korean names with Japanese and trying t rationalize Japanese occupation of Korea; this was largely referred to as cultural genocide and the then-Korean generation grew up oblivious to their Korean heritage. Several authors have written books and novel with detail accounts of the Japanese occupation and how the face of Korean society was completely altered. The substance of this prose is going to review the book written by Richard Kim titled “Lost names: scenes from a Korean boyhood”.

(Chung, 2006) Lost names by Richard Kim is a highly engaging, non-academic novel that is synonymous with people, who have an avid interest in Korean history. Divergent from the usual dry approach adopted by academic and scholarly prose regarding the Japanese occupation of Korea, the novel provides a subjective and youthful perspective on event, and highlights several key aspects of the occupation n the Korean society. The title of the novel was inspired by the rule, which required every Korean to change their names to Japanese and as the author himself, experienced and witnessed the entire happening; however, Kim denies calling the book an ‘autobiography’ as the contents of the novel are the author’s own interpretations of the events.

(Allen, 2000) The book is divided into chapters and each chapter tells a different story; hence, in other words each chapter sheds light on the various aspects of the Korean society that were affected by it. As mentioned earlier, the book is an account of the author’s own early years. The author has merely attempted to provide a detailed and a personal account of all that happened; the events that are encompassed in the story occurred between 1933 to the liberation in 1945. Despite the tone and setting of the novel, the author did not intend the novel to present or propagate any