White Mulberry

White Mulberry was just published a few days ago on December 1, 2024. It is an Asian fiction story similar to Pachinko. It was inspired by the life of the author’s North Korean grandmother who was living in Japan in the 1930s and in Japan occupied Korea during WW11.

The publisher's summary:

Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.

1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.

In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.

As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.

White Mulberry is a heartwarming novel about two sisters who were separated by Korean traditions for women as well as the war in the Pacific. Miyoung and Bohbeh enjoyed growing up together and were close. When a stranger arrives in their village, he stays overnight in the family’s boarding house. During that first evening the stranger tells the girls' mother that Bohbeh would make a good wife for his brother who lives in Kyoto, Japan. I was shocked when mom agreed to let her daughter leave home with a stranger and forced her into marriage. I expected that there was no brother and that Bohbeh would be assaulted by this stranger. However, that was untrue.

Miyoung is the protagonist in this story. She was the youngest in the family and wanted to be educated. Tradition dictated that she marry after finishing primary school at 11. Miyoung became betrothed to a boy with pockmarked skin who she disliked. She got lucky when her parents finally agreed to let her travel to Kyoto and live with her sister while she attended middle school and high school. Miyoung was scared to travel the two days to get to Kyoto but Bohbeh helped her adjust to her surroundings. It's amazing that Miyoung excelled in school because she didn't know the Japanese language. The setup for the rest of the story is now complete. 

The setting is essential to the story. There is a huge contrast between the rural Korean village the family lived in and Kyoto. You cannot help but see how these communities impacted the lives of the sisters. Miyoung loved the simplicity of life in her village where she often climbed a mulberry tree. Both experienced discrimination, Miyoung particularly. They accepted their so-called inferiority to the Japanese, fearing retaliation. I couldn't understand why they acquiessed but then again I have never lived in an occupied country. I felt the fear they experienced in my own soul. 

White Mulberry is a wonderful family saga. If you enjoy these types of stories you simply must read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.