The Hundred Choices Department Store by Ginger Park

Author:Ginger Park
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

6

Dai Takagi

I hardly recognized the once debonair young man now clad in black peasant clothing…

My only glimpse of the outside world came while observing Hoon’s private meetings at the front gate. One by one Korean members of the church and community appeared like phantoms in the night, eluding soldiers, to purchase their coats and other accessories for the looming winter. The Lees, the Pangs, the Kims, the Baks, the Hongs, the Chungs. They were all friends who had never stepped foot inside The Hundred Choices Department Store, well-aware of the unspoken law of the land: Establishments that catered to the Japanese did not cater to Koreans. There was no ill will towards my family, however, as Oma and Apa had not only donated all their time to the church and community, but large sums from their department store earnings as well.

One evening an unexpected guest arrived at the front gate. Snow was falling, and the world was hushed and peaceful. On a night like this, it seemed that no evil existed, and no blood stained the streets of Sinuiju. And yet, I had overheard my brothers telling Oma of the brutality they had witnessed beyond the stone wall of our home more than a few times. Now the Red Army was growing increasingly antagonistic towards rebellious Koreans or those suspected of Christian beliefs. Oddly, the community church remained unscathed, and no Russian soldier dared to enter its premises.

“They killed an innocent man just because he stood outside of a church!” Hwan had said.

“Shot dead before our very eyes!” Hoon added. “Oma, you need to avoid the church. It is a death trap now!”

But Oma would not be deterred. Every morning she went to church, head held high as she passed armed soldiers. Like the highly infectious lepers she bravely nursed in the caves in the countryside, I suspected she was not afraid of any Russian soldier. Yes, if they were to beat or kill her, so be it. Oma would die, proudly, serving God. Curiously, the soldiers let her be, allowing her to come and go as she pleased. Maybe it was Oma’s saintly aura that kept the soldiers at bay.

“Or more likely the bags of baked goods she gives those rotten scavengers every day!” Hoon suggested.

Still, I worried. I was forbidden to go anywhere, but every morning and night, Oma walked through a danger zone, a minefield of violence on her way to and from the church and orphanage. I was bewildered. Why would she risk her life, especially when Apa’s whereabouts were unknown? Early on, we were hopeful the separation would be temporary, but the Red Army’s roundup of church ministers for “interrogation” made any imminent reunion unlikely.

“They’re rounding them up like cattle,” Hwan said.

“Never to be seen again, buried in mass graves,” Hoon lamented.

There was even talk of a new Korean leader on the horizon, an enigmatic figure who had been exiled from the country during the Japanese reign. Now he was poised to return, to take back our country.

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