Therese Park

A Gift of the Emperor is the poignant fictional account of real-life atrocities inflicted upon more than 200,000 Asian women by the Japanese military during World War II. This haunting story is narrated by Soon-ah, a Korean schoolgirl whose life is shattered when Emperor Hirohito’s soldiers abduct her from her village and ship her and her schoolmates to a “house of relaxation” in the South Pacific. Here, on an island with surreal beauty, Soon-ah is forced into prostitution as a “comfort woman” to the Japanese military. This scorching account of one woman’s endurance of sexual degradation and the unspeakable horror of war provides compelling testimony to the strength of the human spirit, the power of love over hate, and the ultimate triumph of hope over despair.

With Teacher Kim's instruction, we shouted toward the American trucks as loud as we could, waving the red-white-blue flags, "Victory, U.S.A!" "A long parade of dust-covered army trucks and ambulances crawled into our playground, sirens wailing. Within minutes, the whole place was filled with men and army vehicles. Soldiers with armbands and men and women in white gowns emerged from the ambulances and trucks and began unloading men on stretchers and wheelchairs. Voices shouted, "Doctor, this man needs help!" "Nurse, over here! He needs transfusion!" "Water! Water..." Whistles blew. Feet ran in all directions. Some men on stretchers were crying; some raised their hands in the air to signal something to someone; and some lay motionless, too weak to even cry or call for help. "Children," our teacher said, this is the face of war. What happened to them can happen to anyone, even to you. This is what the communists did to us..."