When My Name Was Keoko

Tae-yul is riding home on his bike when he sees a plane flying overhead for the first time. He is in awe and accidentally falls over since he has never seen a plane before. As the war progresses, Japan continues to conquer new territories, and the students learn about it all in school. Tae-yul feels conflicted by the Japanese dominance because he knows it complicates life for Koreans, who benefit but also suffer from Japanese occupation. Tae-yul imagines what it would be like to fly a plane, and fantasizes about the thrill of being a pilot.

With the escalation of the war, the Japanese army has become stricter in Korea. They introduce a system for residential gatherings in case of a war emergency, and the neighbors must practice how to organize themselves for military roll calls. During a practice session, the soldiers appear and begin to yell at everyone to get in line outside of their house and count off. Sun-hee describes a neighbor who is an old widow, shunned and neglected by the community because it views her as “bad luck” (68). She lives by herself and doesn’t speak Japanese, so when the soldier gets to her, she is unable to call out her number in Japanese and says “six” in Korean instead (70).