Under the Black Umbrella Voices from Colonial Korea 1910-1945

Though the selection of interviewees in this book by Hildi Kang was somewhat skewed, I could not remain unmoved by the many vivid and poignant accounts, particularly the dashing of hopes and dreams of countless of ordinary people during the Korea's occupation by Japan. But I also could not remain uninspired by the tales of courage, bravery, and the resilient human spirit.

It is one of those books that made me sighed and laughed at the same time. Laughed because one of the anecdotes described a Confucian scholar as "someone who does no manual work", adding that "when it rains and the roof leaks, he sits there in his room with the rain pouring on his head".

Another anecdote noted that "what is unchanged in the midst of constant, rapid, incomprehensible change is the taste of soju". This anecdote didn't actually make me laugh. Rather, it gave me a comforting thought. A sense of assurance. Kind of hard to explain. You might be able to understand what I mean if you have lived in Korea and know that soju is unquestionably the number one national beverage in (South) Korea.