Kang Duk-kyung

my school teacher          asked me     if I wanted to go to Japan      do something good for the Emperor we were led to a harbor a cargo ship    a train to a factory in Doyamaki             where Food was so scarce    we pulled grass, roots anything we could eat girls died of hunger    some went crazy I ran away   was found   by a Japanese soldier Kobayashi took me to a hut            Every evening soldiers countless soldiers        on the wild mountainside Kobayashi An unusually quiet day I found Japan had lost the war I sailed to Korea jumped from the crates   hit my stomach with fists I failed            I named him Young-ju left him at an orphanage met him every Sunday one Sunday I saw another boy in his clothes Young-ju had died of pneumonia already buried I thought of Kobayashi bringing me rice in his drunken stupor                         I thought of the piece of steel I took    at the factory I found some of the steel            so attractive I still believe      he is alive somewhere                 I want to believe that all was just a terrible       fate But then, But then