Through Their Eyes
Isn’t liberty great?
…But imagine… living…
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I will never…
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“For the time being your home will be put under surveillance. You are not to leave Seoul-“
“What?! You can’t… Why are we being treated like criminals? Why is no one out looking for my son?”
“Until we can be sure that your son did not go voluntarily we need to make sure that he did not have any connections to the North from here. Now Mrs. Kim-“
“My son has been kidnapped! My son is suffering somewhere up there and you dare to suggest that he went on purpose?! You cannot ask me to sit here and do nothing! You cannot ask me to abandon my son! He is my son! My SON!” The woman burst into tears, her body shaking, her heart clenching painfully in her chest. “Why… why…”
“Mrs. Kim I’m sorry but until we can confirm the circumstances you are to remain here. Neither you, nor any other member of your family is to leave Seoul without government permission.”
“I need to save my son! Bring back my son!”
“Mrs. Kim-“
“Stop it! STOP IT! My son-”
“Mrs. Kim do not force me to take stronger action here. The government is handling the situation. For the moment you must do your part and cooperate.” The officer slammed his hands down on the table and stood up as he spoke, voice firm, and the woman just stared up at him in shock. “Also, you are not to discuss the circumstances of your son’s disappearance with anyone. And by that I mean anyone. Not your friends, not the rest of your family. This is for your own protection. Understood?” He turned away, then paused. “A call came in yesterday. The boat has been recovered, and your brother’s body was among those found on it. I am sorry for your loss.” He did not wait for a response, leaving the woman alone with her tears.
Hopeless.
Helpless.
Ignored.
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Never forget…
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The next night Junsu found himself restless, unable to sleep. He couldn’t help but wonder… would they talk again? He hadn’t realized how much he missed being able to just have a simple conversation with someone. He leaned against the wall, close to the bars, staring beyond them into the darkness. He listened to the snores, straining to see if he could catch any sounds of slumber drifting from the next cell over. He was just wondering whether or not the young man was one to snore or sleep silently when a soft voice reached his ears.
“You awake over there?” For a second he almost smiled. The thought was so stunning it caught him off guard and he didn’t reply right away. “Hello?” Just a whisper.
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“Where else would you be?” The reply was slightly sarcastic. Idiot.
“I’m awake.” Junsu confirmed again. It seemed neither knew what to say then, so both fell silent. Junsu imagined he could hear the other breathing now, and he tried to single the sound out.
“Tell me something.”
“Hmm, what?” Junsu had almost fallen asleep by the time the other finally spoke again.
“Tell me something.”
“Oh… like what?”
“Something about you. Anything.”
“About me?”
“Why not?” Junsu paused, thinking.
“I’m a twin.” He stated randomly.
“Really?” He could hear shuffling sounds from beyond the wall and imagined the other shifting around to get more comfortable.
“Yeah. We don’t look it though. I mean we look related, sure, but we’re fraternal. My brother looks like he could be a year older instead of just a few minutes. He’s taller too.”
“Hmmm… You know… it’s interesting.”
“What?”
“Here… well in the big cities at least. If a woman has twins or triplets, the government takes them and puts them in an orphanage.” Junsu’s eyes widened.
“Really? But they already have parents, so why…?”
“Well the government has decided that there is no way someone could have enough money to take care of twins, and even if they did definitely not for triplets. So they take them and then the government raises them. The children are well cared for, given lots of toys and things. They’re shown off to foreigners like little North Korean jewels. If the family is poor enough even just a normal single child might be taken.”
“That’s ridiculous. The government can’t just decide-“
“Remember where you are? The government can decide whatever it wants here.” Junsu fell silent at that. How could he have forgotten. It was impossible to forget being in a place like this. But then, he’d never seen anything of life here. He had no idea what it was like. Clearly the soldiers at least enjoyed some amount of wealth, even if they could apparently lose it…
“Tell me more about… Pyongyang.”
“Well to be honest, Pyongyang is an amazing city. And I’m not just saying that. We have huge performances and presentations. Lots of parks and things. Good schools. I’m not lying, though you may not believe me from what you’ve seen.” Junsu tried to picture a grand North Korean city. It was a difficult image to piece together. “I guess… the main problem is that while Pyongyang is great… it is full of dark secrets. The people can’t know what really goes on here. So the government lies. Everything is lies. They had to smuggle you in here through the back, away from curious eyes. Out there soldiers are looked up to. More than half the kids living here will tell you they want to grow up to be soldiers, even the girls. It is only down here, in places like this, that the cruel truth comes out. And that’s just Pyongyang. Outside the city gates everything changes.” Junsu frowned thoughtfully.
“…why did they bring us here? What good does it do them, locking us up like this? Does it get them merits? What use could we possibly be to them, I just don’t understand.”
“That’s simple. They want you to train spies.”
“Spies?” Junsu gazed through the bars of his cell in the other’s direction.
“Think about it. We may look similar enough, but for a spy to blend in they have to know South Korean customs. The government wants you to serve as teachers of South Korean culture of sorts. Actually, in the best scenario, they would just brainwash you into becoming the spy yourself.” Junsu glanced back at the others asleep in the cell with him. So they wanted them to train spies. To become spies.
“I see. So that’s why they want us.” He paused. “And if we won’t spy on our own country for them? If we refuse? I suppose they just kill us then and kidnap others. What a perfect system.”
“They might kill you, but there are fates worse than that here you know. We have a population shortage, not surprisingly. Plenty of the people they steal end up being worthless, deemed ideologically impure, but I imagine they kill only a few. The rest are turned into forced laborers. Those they try to brainwash are subjected to harsh tests of endurance. Plenty of them end up to be too damaged to be useful as well. We’re talking hundreds of people. That is the real genius of the system.” Junsu thought about this, his own future being spelled out for him. How many spies would they make him train? Would he just give up eventually and become one? Or would he let himself be forced to work eternally for the country that had stolen him and killed his uncle? All of a sudden he felt sick to his stomach.
“I don’t… want to talk anymore.” His neighbor made no response, and Junsu curled up on his side, crying himself to sleep.
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But imagine…
You are ruled. You are watched. Isolated.
…living in a place…
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When Junsu was roused by the click-clacking of shiny black shoes he felt he’d barely been asleep. It must have been very early morning, though down in the cells time of day was told by shifts in the guards, not sunup and sundown. There was no sunlight to be found here, night or day.
Junsu blinked and pushed himself up, rubbing at his eyes. Shifting in the cell next door told him his neighbor was also awake, but the attention of the officer was focused on neither of them. Junsu watched as the officer surveyed the men in the cell directly across from his, looking them over with a displeased expression on his face. Finally he crossed his arms and spoke, his tone demanding but with a certain resistance to it. Obviously he did not like whatever duty he’d been given.
“Alright, are any of you bastards Japs?” Junsu’s eyes widened slightly at the question. Japs? As in Japanese? He had assumed all the captives were merely from the South. “Come on now. I’m only going to ask this once more. Are any of you Japs?” Finally a hesitant hand was raised, pointing in the direction of one of the men near the back. The others turned to look back just as the soldier’s gaze shifted as well. The man who’d been singled out was horrified, suddenly shaking his head and waving his hands feebly.
“He’s Japanese?” Several of the men nodded, but the soldier’s eyes narrowed unconvinced. Just as he seemed about to reject the idea one of the men pushed the protesting captive forward, producing a string of words completely foreign to Junsu’s ears. The soldier sighed.
“Yeah, you’re Japanese alright.” He murmured, sounding disgusted. He uncrossed his arms and lifted one hand, motioning the terror-struck man forward. It took the efforts of several of the other captives in or to finally get him to door of the cell, all of them struggling and the man himself resisting verbally and loudly in Japanese. All the while the soldier watched, his mood seeming to grow darker as the moments passed. Finally he seemed to have had enough. He threw open the cell door with one quick, smooth motion, pulling out his gun and aiming it right between the foreigner’s eyes with his other hand. Everyone froze.
“I’m tired of this bullshit. Get your lousy Jap ass out here, now.” Trembling so much he could hardly walk straight the man complied, not understanding at all what was going on. The cell door was bolted shut once more, the rest of its inhabitants gathering near the bars to watch their former cellmate march away at gunpoint. As the soldier walked past Junsu, he heard the officer mumbling under his breath.
“Your fucking country wants you back and here you won’t even identify yourself. Fucking Japs.” When he reached the steps leading back out of the prison he paused, turning back to deliver a message that chilled the rest of the men to the bone. “We’re moving you all out tomorrow by the way. So be ready and look sharp. I don’t want none of this fuss, you hear? They want this one alive for God knows what reason, but I will gladly dispense of anyone who gives me shit tomorrow.” He waved his gun menacingly, driving his point home, before shoving the Jap to get him moving again.
Junsu watched with the rest, his fellow fishermen having lined up to watch as well, as the soldier and captive disappeared. The current guard on duty seemed to be in a surprisingly good mood, perhaps because his superior had been given an unpleasant duty.
“Alright freaks, enough staring. Get away from there.” He shouted at them. The men backed up and Junsu leaned back from the bars. He stared at the one way out, suddenly a path he dreaded walking. He remembered his neighbor’s explanation of a future that was arriving much too quickly. Yet it was inescapable. What could he do? What could anyone do?
As he stared after the long gone soldier, tomorrow looming like a dark cloud, he felt more hopeless than ever before.
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Now you have no options.