Existing descriptions of the colonial period tend to focus on extremes: imperial repression and national resistance, Japanese subjugation and Korean suffering, Korean backwardness and Japanese progress. "Most people," Kang says, "have read or heard only the horror stories which, although true, tell only a small segment of colonial life." The varied accounts in Under the Black Umbrella reveal a truth that is both more ambiguous and more human--the small-scale, mundane realities of life in colonial Korea. Accessible and attractive narratives, linked by brief historical overviews, provide a large and fully textured view of Korea under Japanese rule. Looking past racial hatred and repression, Kang reveals small acts of resistance carried out by Koreans, as well as gestures of fairness by Japanese colonizers. Impressive for the history it recovers and preserves, Under the Black Umbrella is a candid, human account of a complicated time in a contested place.

Even today, many Koreans, both young and old, continue to bear a grudge towards Japan for its subjugation of their ancestral land. Rightly or wrongly, they continue to vilify Japan for the crimes and cruelty perpetrated in the name of Emperor Hirohito and the Land of the Rising Sun. Other nations which fell victim to Japanese imperialism--China, Guam, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, to name only some--arguably suffered less than Korea, but the people and governments of these lands are generally much less antagonistic towards Japan today. We can see this dichotomy clearly in Koreans' nationalistic, vituperative demonstrations against Japan that continue into the third millenium--demonstrations that are toned down or absent in other former victim nations.

It is in this context in which Hildi Kang's "Under the Black Umbrella" makes for a much-needed book. Kang's series of interviews with survivors of the colonial period, who come from all walks of life, casts a refreshing light on the topic of life under the Japanese. Her interviewees do not all espouse the hardline, nationalistic anti-Japanese view--far from it. Of course some interviewees still seethe with bad memories of Japanese cruelties. But many of the now aged or deceased men and women speak of the mundane routines of daily life under the Japanese: growing up, going to school, getting married and raising a family, finding employment. Others are ambivalent: there were both unpleasant and rewarding aspects of colonial life. For instance, the Japanese restricted freedoms, but they also improved infrastructure (railroads, roads, dams, bridges, ports, power grids) and introduced new technologies. Still others tell of how they profited under colonialism, by growing richer and more powerful.

A note of caution, however: that some tales are not bitter or critical of the Japanese should not encourage readers to think that the Japanese colonial rule in Korea was in any way justified, or in any way laudable. We should also be careful of being swayed by the words of infamous (in Koreans' eyes) Japanese nationalists like Kubota Kanichiro, a high-ranking official who claimed in 1953 that Japanese colonialism in Korea was positive and benefical. On the other hand, we should come out of this book with an ability not to succumb to Korean nationalistic fervor. The colonial period was not a time of unmitigated, unequivocal evil. As we learn, it was terrible for some, but not for everyone. It was bad for many, but tolerable for others, and even beneficial for a small minority.

Kang could have improved the book in a couple of ways. First, I think she ought to have made it a little longer. For whatever reason, she appears to have excluded a number of tales whose inclusion might have enriched the book, or at least made it more appealing to enthusiasts of historical anecdote. Second, the interviewees' tales were mainly limited to descriptions of their life under the Japanese and the events that stuck in their memories. Perhaps the interviewer could have prodded the subjects to analyze their experiences more; for instance, it would have been interesting to hear more subjects talk about their overall impression of Japanese imperialism, or what were their personal feelings towards the Japanese.

Overall, however, Kang has performed a terrific job in writing this book. The author has done Koreans, history, and humanity in general a great service by recording and thus preserving these oral histories, which have been at risk of vanishing forever. What the Japanese did in Korea merits no praise. But it demands a balanced perspective, and requires observers and historians to tread between the nationalistic propanganda of which both right-wing Koreans and Japanese are guilty.