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Author Lisa See explores the haenyeo (Korean for 'sea women'), female freedivers of the South Korean island of Jeju, who have trained their bodies to withstand the extremes of the surrounding waters to gather marine life from the ocean's floor. But their physical adaptability appears to be part metaphor for the very necessary emotional resilience that these characters' lives will require of them. Love, loss, friendship, betrayal, colonization and massacre... the smiles and tragedies ride the waves hand in hand, and the support of a true sisterhood ensures no one drowns in their suffering. Shaman Kim chanted a few more incantations. The helpers banged their cymbals and drums. After that, there was nothing left to say or do. I really didn’t know much about the history of Korea leading up to North and South Korea . I didn’t know what the Bukchon massacre was or the strategic importance of Jeju, or the political significance that resulted in some horrific things that happened here. The strength of the book for me was the depiction of this history, learning things I never knew of, about a culture and a country I didn’t know a lot about. I found it to be a very worth while read, as I have found with all of the books by Lisa See that I have read. If you're interested in modern Asian history this makes for an engrossing read. Not only does it tell of the fascinating lives of the traditional haenyeo, or diving women who harvested fish and seafood on the Korean island of Jeju, but it also describes the political eruptions that affected their lives during Japanese occupation and later the Korean war, ultimately leading to the violent Jeju Uprising in 1948 where anywhere up to 60,000 people were killed and another 40,000 fled to Japan.
She recites the number, while Clara taps the buttons on the phone. Once she’s done, she unplugs the phone and extends it to Young-sook, who feels strangely paralyzed. On impulse—it has to be impulse, right?—the girl leans over and puts the phone to Young-sook’s ear. Her touch. . . Like lava. . . A small cross on a gold chain slips out from under the girl’s T-shirt and swings in front of Young-sook’s eyes. Now she notices that the mother, Janet, wears a cross too.On the Korean island of Jeju, women do the work of diving, while the men take care of the children. Two girls, Mi-ja and Young-sook, are the best of friends waiting for their time to be old enough to join the diving collective. With their future career comes fun and excitement along with significant danger. Set on Jeju Island in the Korea Strait, Lisa See’s novel focuses on the matrifocal society of haenyeo, women sea divers. The women learn at early ages from their mothers and grandmothers to dive and harvest the ocean’s plants and sea creatures, coming up at frequent intervals to release their breath, called sumbisori. Full of history, culture and female collectivity, The Island of Sea Women spans generations while showcasing the women who put their lives at risk for tradition. At first it would seem that the visit of the scientists to the island is something of a digression. What important consequences does the visit have for Young-sook and the other haenyeo? American soldiers discovered 97 bodies that were killed and buried by the government. They also encountered police who were executing 76 villagers. Between 14,000, and 30,000, people died as a result of the rebellion.
Since this book spans so many years we are audience to the many atrocities that accompany wars and demonstrations of control. Many people lost loved one to brutal killings by the Japanese. An uprising, later known as the 4.3 incident, caused the massacre of thousands of the islanders including women and children. Young-sook reached out to Mi-ja to help save them but she turned to her husband and left. What happens tears them apart forever. This reading group guide for The Island of Sea Women includes discussion questions and ideas for enhancing your book club. We hope that this guide will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.The book occasionally fast forwards to 2018, when a family comes looking for Young Sook. Now I her eighties we see how she fared through the years and what connection this family has to hers. A book that will make you cringe, but eventually pull you in to a friendship that was special and the lives of the haenyo, these women of the sea. It is well written, well researched and the prose is wonderful. It is a novel that shows how much we miss, misjudge, when we fail to forgive. When we start the novel the island of Jeju off the coast of Korea is under Japanese control. The two main characters Mi-ja and Young-sook are young girls, but already being groomed to become “Haenyeo”, strong women divers who gradually learn to hold their breath long enough to dive to the ocean floor. There is much more to their culture than just diving but this review would be way too long if I started to list their beliefs and rituals! Mi-ja carries the burden of being the daughter of a Japanese collaborator. Is there an inevitability to her destiny just as there’s an inevitability to Young-sook’s destiny? Another way of considering this aspect of the story is, are we responsible for the sins of our fathers (or mothers)? Later in the novel, Young-sook will reflect on all the times Mi-ja showed she was the daughter of a collaborator. She also blames Yo-chan for being Mi-ja’s son, as well as the grandson of a Japanese collaborator. Was Young-sook being fair, or had her eyes and heart been too clouded? Talk about a fascinating premise, and from Lisa See, one of my favorite authors? The Island of Sea Women is captivating historical fiction at its masterful best. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ The HISTORICAL ‘FACTS’ were FASCINATING to me. I was naturally curious about the extraordinary diving women - (their culture, their relationships with their mother’s, grandmothers, husbands, and their respect for the sea), the island itself: *Jetju* - the history between the Japanese and Koreans - and the horrific Bukchon Massacre.
Yu-ri giggled at our shivering, telling us that eventually we’d get used to being cold all the time. “Four years ago, I was just like you, and now look at me,” she boasted. At the opening of the novel in 1938, Jeju is under Japanese rule during WWII and many men are away fighting for the Japanese army or working in Japanese factories. Traditionally women have long been the divers in the family with the men spending the days looking after the children. Life is hard, with the Japanese taking much of the catch, but the women still enjoy their fishing and the companionship of the other divers as well as training young women in the art of diving. This changed rapidly for the rest of the book. The tumultuous years of the Japanese colonialism of the 30, and 40' provided a historical and brutal context. The brutality is just terrible, the inaction of the American troops who just stood by, the massacres that were covered up for decades. So much was happening politically that in the hands of a less gifted writer, this book could have been much longer. The friendship between the girls change due to circumstances that were so horrible. Each, though the other didn't know the full extent, go through some brutal challenges. It won't be until books end that we hear the full story.Here is my father when he was young,” Janet says, thrusting a blurry image before Young-sook’s eyes. “Do you remember him? Here’s another photo of my grandmother. It was taken on her wedding day. I was told the girl beside her is you. Won’t you please take a few minutes to talk to us?” These traditional words were often repeated on Jeju, but we all nodded somberly as though hearing them for the first time. I liked learning about a vocal practice the women did called “Sumbisori”. It’s a breathing technique used by whales and seals. The diving women practiced too as it allowed them to dive deeper below sea level.