Web Letters: Endgame in Korea

Dear Bruce Cumings,

My name is Soohun and I came here from Seoul in 1976.

I first saw your name in Linda Sue Park's When My Name Was Keoko. I was interested in that one because of Yoko Watkins's memoir (fiction, it says, but taught in 6th grade around here as facts). So far from bamboo groves, Beech Tree Books, NY. I wonder if you read it. It turns out she is very likely a daughter of a high official in Unit 731 who was in prison in Siberia for six years, together with Ishi, the commander of 731.

Anyway, a lot of what happens in the story could not have happened and on top of it, it narrates nasty fabricated insults on Korean in general and "Korean communist soldiers" in particular. Which I gather did not exist till later. American bombings in Korean Peninsula? Not in 1945.

I am so glad about this article. You were prophetic about a lot of things dealing with North Korea. I wonder, How was I not informed of this even with my interest in it?

Thank you for writing this. I would hope and wish that American government will not be swayed by only with its own very small-range interests but deal in more substantial American ways.

Mrs. Soohun Cho Song

Dover, MD