The Island of Sea Women by Lisa Sea

 The Korean island of Jeju is known for haenyeo – all-female diving collective. And that’s what this story brings. It is immersed in rich culture, where roles of men and women are reversed: women being providers and men taking care of the children and household. 

The story begins in early 1930s with two young girls.

Young-sook with her mother and grandmother support the family, while the father takes care of the younger siblings.

Mi-ja loses both her parents and lives with her aunt and uncle, who mistreat her. To mollify her hunger, she steals potatoes on the fields of Young-sook’s family. She gets caught by the mother, who realizes girl’s hunger. The mother lets Mi-ja work along them in order to earn her share of food. 

Thus, begins the friendship of both girls. One has rich imagination; the other is skillful in knitting and tending work required for livelihood. 

Mi-ja used to live in the Jeju City. So she is familiar with electricity, lights, radio, cars, roads, which Young-sook is unfamiliar with. She can’t even comprehend playtime. “Who had interest in games that weren’t teaching you something practical…”

When girls are nine years old, there is an anti-Japanese demonstration against unfair labor practices planned island-wide. Grandmother tells the girls the stories of her grandmother and her grandmother and so on. They are told that the outside represents danger. They’ve been struggling with Japanese for centuries. Then, the girls are involved in the march.

After a few years of learning how to dive, at the age of twelve, the girls are taught how to reap underwater plants without damaging their roots, just as they have been doing in the dry fields. Thus, begins their journey of becoming haenyeo.

At the age of sixteen, they sign up for summer jobs as haenyeo, taking them to China, Japan, and mainland Korea.

At the age of twenty-one, they go to Vladivostok in Soviet Union, where the pay is the best.

When they come back from Vladivostok, they find out about their prearranged marriages. Mi-ja’s marriage takes her back to the city of Jeju and Young-sook stays in her village.

Right after WWII and Japanese colonization, Koreans have great hopes for independence. But Jeju people are suspicious of American’s who take place of Japanese and try to bring American democracy. Jeju people don’t want two countries of north and south. They want one country without interference or influence from a foreign power. This leads to Jeju uprising known as 4.3 Incident (April 3rd Incident), also known as Jeju massacre.

The story is very engaging (the first two chapters might be confusing, but it all starts with the third chapter). It is rich in traditions characterizing specifically the island of Jeju. The time period involves Japanese colonialism, the Korean War and 4.3 Incident.

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