A Story of a Young Korean Woman Living in 1930s Japan
White Mulberry
Mothers & Children Fiction, Family Life Fiction, Women's Domestic Life Fiction
Lake Union Publishing
December 1, 2024
Ebook, Paperback, Audiobook
321
Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.
1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.
In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.
As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.
Rosa Kwon Easton’s White Mulberry is a work of pre-WWII historical fiction set in Korea and Japan. It follows Miyoung (or Miyoko as she is later called in Japan) from the Pyongan Province in northern Korea to Japan. Miyoung is 11 years old when the story first starts and lives with her mother and older sister. Within just a few chapters, the reader watches as Miyoung must say goodbye to her sister because Bohbeh is promised in marriage to a Korean living in Japan. This is the first of many times Miyoung experiences loss in this book.
Miyoung wants an education, not an arranged marriage. Because she is such a strong student, her elementary school teacher recommends that Miyoung attend free public school in Japan. Her mother, who recognizes Miyoung’s promise, agrees to let her go. At only 13 years old, she boards the train and travels away from everything she knows in hopes of a better life in Kyoto.
The author paints a picture in broad strokes of Japanese-occupied Korea in the late 1920s through the early 1940s. The story also shows the discrimination Miyoung faces as a Korean immigrant in Kyoto. Miyoung felt like she had to hide her Korean identity in order to avoid being harassed at school and shunned in the Japanese community. Miyoung learns to keep others at arm’s length to protect herself from the pain of loss: losing friends and family, losing opportunities, losing a bit of herself. Miyoung’s character is one of a brave, self-sacrificing, and resilient young woman.
Rose Kwon Easton tells the reader that Miyoung’s story is inspired by the true tale of her Korean grandmother. The author researched her family history and listened to the stories of her grandmother in preparation for this book. She states that, at first, she wanted to write her grandmother’s story as a biography. However, after her grandmother passed away in 2012, Kwon Easton decided that she wanted to explore the story through fiction.
Hearing my relatives’ stories, and reflecting on my own, raised questions: What happens to the self when you leave someplace, and what self do you meet in the new? What self do you sacrifice?
When I read the author’s note about the story’s inspiration, the writing style made a bit more sense. In this book, Kwon Easton is not highly descriptive. The sequence of events in the narrative moved quickly and, at many points, hurriedly. While reading it, the story felt very much like I was being told about someone’s life rather than invited into a connection with the characters. With the exception of Miyoung, the motivations and thinking behind the characters’ behaviors are largely unexplored. Even the dialogue felt unnatural in its flow and word choice.
This story had a lot of promise. The writing was just not as natural or as nuanced as some of the other historical fiction stories I’ve read and, so, I had a difficult time connecting with Miyoung as a character and with the book in general.
Celeste is a woman who is unwavering about certain things in life; three of those being books, cats, and cold brew coffee. If she can enjoy all three at the same time, it’s going to be a good day. Her favorite genres are fantasy or sci-fi romance, historical romance, and historical fiction but every few books she likes to mix it up with contemporary fiction, a good psychological thriller, or an inspiring memoir. She has a busy schedule working full-time for an online university but she makes sure to unwind each day with stories, either by reading to her elementary school-aged daughter or tucking herself in bed with her Kindle or the latest book she picked up at a local book store.
