still inside while it burned. Since Japan had been
an ally in World War I, western nations kept
silent about the atrocities. The exiles, though, set
up a provisional government with Syngman Rhee
(1875–1965) as its leader. This government
became dormant in 1925, but for a while the
Japanese relaxed constraints and even allowed
literary works and heavily censored newspapers
to print in Korean. While some Koreans were
allowed to advance in government and the pro-
fessions, segregation was still enforced through-
out the society. However, in 1931, when Japan
annexed Manchuria, oppression increased again.
As Japan prepared for further expansion across
Southeast Asia and the Pacific, conditions wors-
ened for Koreans; they were virtually slaves.
Many hungry Koreans fled, if at all possible,
which only caused the Japanese to tighten restric-
tions even more. The Japanese further humiliated
the Koreans by banning the use of the Korean
language, forcing Koreans to use Japanese
names, and not only banning the practice of Bud-
dhism and Christianity, but also requiring attend-
ance at Japanese Shinto shrines. The Japanese
thus attempted to wipe out Korean culture.
In 1937, Japan invaded China. Twenty mil-
lion Chinese died as all the coastal areas fell
under Japanese control. Needing more men in
Japanese military service, Korean laborers were
exported to Japan and worked under horren-
dous conditions. The suffering of the Korean
people intensified after Japan joined the Axis
powers and attacked the United States at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii. The demands of the Japanese
war machine devoured the people of Korea, and
as Japan began to lose the war, Korea was
stripped of every resource. Perhaps the most
degrading experience of all was the use of
Korean women to service the sexual demands
of the Japanese army. Called Comfort Women,
these Korean women were exported to army
camps and forced into prostitution. The shame
was so intense that the stories of these women
were not told until decades later.
Pak was witness to many of these events. It
was with first-hand accuracy that he described
Korea as writhing in agony in ‘‘River of August.’’
The Koreans had suffered mightily. As he
describes in the third stanza of this poem, they
had been the prey of the snake and the wolf who,
in answer to the prayers of the Korean people,
had finally ‘‘died in the wrath’’ of those whom they
had tried to conquer. It is no wonder that blood
was often mentioned in Pak’s poetry after what he
had been through.
Pak also often wrote about betrayal, as in
the third line of the third stanza of ‘‘River of
August.’’ The Japanese had betrayed all their
promises to the Koreans. They had allowed pub-
lication in the native language for a time then
prohibited its use, causing Pak and other writers
not to publish under this ban. They remained
loyal to their language and culture. Pak also
worked with the resistance. But others were not
so loyal. As in all occupied countries, there were
those who collaborated with the enemy and
betrayed their own people, like the Nazi collab-
orators, so brutally punished by their neighbors
after liberation or the Jewish prisoners who
betrayed fellow Jews in a desperate attempt to
curry favor and stay alive another day.
In another of his poems, ‘‘The Alpine Plant,’’
Pakreferstoadagger.AsYiSang-so ̆p describes it
in an article forKorea Journal, the dagger is ‘‘hid-
den on a person’s body, usually [close to] the breast,
to be used secretly, suddenly, decisively on the
enemy. It is [a] weapon charged with secret inten-
tion.’’ Even though defeat came with the Japanese
occupation, like the dagger carrier, the poet bided
‘‘his time, with the firm belief in the future when’’
the dagger would ‘‘be put to use to bring in a new
world.’’ Also in this poem, Pak ‘‘reminisces about
the past when the righteous zeal soared like a fierce
bird and covered the country like a tide.’’ This is the
same past that the ‘‘River of August’’ recalls, not as
a fierce soaring bird but as a distant idea from the
brilliant stars that will be carried like a standard by
the river on its journey to the ocean. The concept of
a proud and noble people is the same whether the
motivation is righteous zeal or a galaxy-inspired
metaphor. Upon liberation, Pak and the people
of Korea felt that they had finally been able to
put the dagger to use, and they intended to have a
new world filled with the ‘‘lofty purpose’’ described
in the ‘‘River of August.’’
Perhaps that is why Pak did not write histor-
ical poems at first. He wanted to move on to the
new and glorious future that Korea would surely
have. Sadly, even though Syngman Rhee estab-
lished a supposedly democratic government in
1948, the country was soon ravaged by civil war
that left Korea divided in two. Government cor-
ruption forced Rhee out after student riots in
1960, but then there was a military coup. A
new republic was formed in 1963, but by that
time Pak was despondent. In writing ‘‘River ofRiver of August