excerpt
from chapter 2
Abuji reads out loud from the newspaper: "'By order of
the Emperor, all Koreans are to be graciously allowed to take
Japanese names.'"
"'Graciously allowed . . .'" Uncle says. His voice
is shaking, he's so mad. "How dare they twist the words!
Why can't they at least be honest-we are being forced to take
Japanese names!"
Abuji reads some more to himself, then says, "We must
all go to the police station in the next week to register."
Uncle curses and pounds his fist against the wall.
My name, Tae-yul, means "great warmth." My grandfather-Abuji's
father chose it. It's one of our traditions for the grandfather
to do the naming. He'd taken it seriously, Omoni once told
me; he'd wanted a name that would bring me good fortune.
For Sun-hee, too-"girl of brightness." A different
name? I can't imagine it. I look at Sun-hee and I can tell
she's thinking the same thing.
"Those who do not register will be arrested," Abuji
says.
"Let them! Let them arrest me! They will have my body
but not my soul-my name is my soul!" Uncle's face is
red as a pepper.
Abuji
holds up his hand. "Such talk is useless. It must be
done. But let me think a while."
We leave him alone. I'm last out of the room, but I don't
close the door. I watch him take a few books from the cupboard
and turn the pages.
Then he gets up again and fetches paper and pencil. Writes
something on the paper, looks at it, writes some more. What's
he doing?
At last he calls us all back into the room. Sun-hee and I
sit on the floor, but Uncle stays standing, his arms crossed.
Stubborn. Abuji waits a few moments, until Uncle seems calmer
and uncrosses his arms.
"Tae-yul, Sun-hee, you know that the Kim clan is a large
and important one," Abuji says. "Long ago, all Kims
lived in the same part of Korea, in the mountains. Choosing
the word for gold as their name shows what a strong clan they
were. Gold was only for kings."
He picks up the sheet of paper from the table and points at
it. "I have chosen our Japanese name. It will be Kaneyama.
'Yama' means 'mountain' in Japanese, and 'ka-ne' means 'gold.'
So the name will honor our family history."
He turns to Uncle. "They will not know this. But we will."
© Linda Sue Park. When My Name Was Keoko, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002