Yumi's comment about being Korean as "just another horrible encumbrance" demonstrates to us how present and large discrimination and prejudice were in Japan during this time period. Also, Yumi's comment in which she describes Japan as "a beloved stepmother who refused to love you" shows the complicated relationship that exists between Korea and Japan. This makes the readers think: should Japan look out for its more vulnerable bins of citizens and make sure they are integrated into society. The analogy of the stepmother who refuses to love you suggests that Japan is not doing its part to make sure that all of its citizens feel welcomed into the culture and community. A stepmother should care for her stepchildren, even if they aren't her blood because they are innocent and vulnerable and have nowhere else to turn.
I really enjoyed being in this class for the last two quarters. Originally, I was nervous and scared to be writing as much as we have because writing is not my strong suit. I was afraid I'd fall behind. While there was definitely plenty of initial struggle in the transition from high school writing to college writing, I feel like I have improved a lot as a writer. In particular, I have improved on writing research papers, something that was a serious endeavor for me in high school. Aside bettering my writing skills, I appreciated this class for all of the time periods we learned about. I also really enjoyed doing projects such as Neatline which incorporated map-based research. Learning about cultures from different time periods and different physical locations really widened my scope of the world. I was born in the United States when it was already considered one of the most powerful countries in the world. For that reason, my perspective is very limited and it is easy for me to b...
The beloved stepmother analogy is perfect because it not only represents the vulnerability of Koreans and refusal to support the by the Japanese, but also the yearn by Koreans to be part of the society. Just like the desire for the step child to be loved by the stepmother. But in both cases, that love, care, support is not given.
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