Jenkins Book Update: Available in English, March 2008
by Richardson ~ January 18th, 2008. Filed under: Defectors & Refugees, History, Japan-Korea Relations, North Korea, U.S. Military.
The book by Charles Jenkins detailing his time as a U.S. defector in North Korea, “Kokuhaku” (To Tell the Truth, in Japanese), will be released in English, 3 March 2008 under the title, “The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea.” (h/t Sam) The 238 page book is going for only $16.47.
Whatever you think of Jenkins, this book will be a must read for all North Korea watchers (I’ve pre-ordered):
“This story by Robert Jenkins of his four decades in North Korea represents a rare opportunity to view life in one of the most reclusive societies in the world, offering unprecedented insights for both specialists and the general reader.”–Robert Scalapino, UC Berkeley
“This is an incredible story of betrayal, love and the search for redemption. Robert Jenkins is a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, isolated from the outside world, and relying on his wits to survive in a nightmarish parody of a nation where nothing is as it seems. Living in constant fear and violence, Jenkins efforts to grow food, dig a well, heat his home, generate electricity and to find companionship, trust and ultimately love, lend this rough and ready narrative an unexpected depth. Set within the bizarre and Orwellian surroundings of North Korea during the late 20th century, Jenkins’s account is like no other I’ve ever read.”–Jasper Becker, author of Rogue Regime: The Continuing Threat of North Korea
For more on Jenkins, see posts here, here, and here, as well as photos scanned from the Japanese version of the book here and here.
Update: I should get over to Japan Probe more often!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I finished reading Jenkins’ book this weekend and I enjoyed it tremendously. I highly recommend it as a good, quick read for anyone interested in the DPRK. As you wrote above, this is “a must read for all North Korea watchers.”
May 12th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
This could be another no-brainer film for Hollywood.
The famine and holocaust on going, with its gulags and scientific experiments, along with a megalomaniac playboy for a dictator, is tailor made for a big Hollywood blockbuster. It would rack in millions and millions of dollars - and it would “make a statement” about contemporary world affairs like Hollywood elites are always trying to do with so much else.
But the Jenkins story is also perfect for Hollywood. A more family-oriented heart toucher.
Put it together with the tale of his wife’s kidnapping and the raising of their family. Throw in some of the other Japanese abductees (and millions and millions of dollars from the Japanese movie going audience)….
…..you can throw in other scenes from other stories on North Korea in print. Do a montage film like Pulp Fiction and the like — use Jenkins and family as the domestic example - the Japanese (and other) abductees to show the reach — scenes of Kim Jong Il’s beyond-Hollywood extravagant life style - like his train trip to Moscow as described by his Japanese high-priced chef —-
—- and tie in scenes of the life of Kang Chol-Hwan — starting in Japan - which would dovetail nicely with the storyline of the abductions —- It would also parallel the family angle of Jenkins - Jenkins being an example of hell on the outside - a man who made a horrible choice of deserting his country to avoid the Vietnam War (which would touch an American audience) - along with a whole family who made a horrible choice in Kang’s case - particularly his idealistic mother (or was it grandmother?) who bought the North Korean communists in Japan rhetoric hook-line-n-sinker, and paid beyond miserably for it……and excellent cinematic parallel to use in a montage along with Jenkins and Kim Jong Il’s beyond-elite up bringing and life story….
…throw in a storyline about one or more of the refugees who have been documented in print and film documentaries. I’d suggest the story of the group that decided to martyr themselves by going through the motions of applying for asylum in Beijing knowing they would most likely be arrested and sent back to certain torture and death if their attempt to publicize the effort failed to gain enough world attention to get the US and others to pressure China to let them go to South Korea - and it did fail.
That would be a great story line to end the film with:
Jenkins - and old, sick, somewhat broken man finally being allowed to leave North Korea with his children to meet up with his wife who was allowed to go to Japan but did not come back as forced to agree.
Kang, with the scares he must have from the hell he endured most of his life from a very early age, being able to bravely (I mean BRAVELY) escape North Korea and then bravely make it out of China, to tell his story to a French author, and have it translated into English —– last shown in the film walking into the Oval Office to shake hands (Korean style) with President Bush…..
And have that handshake and smiles fade out into the opening scenes of news footage of Christopher Hill shaking hands with the North Korean negociator with all smiling about what a great day for diplomacy was just had in Agreed Framework 2.0….
And fade out into a scene of the Beijing Martyrs being led out of a concentration camp to be tied to wooden posts awaiting public execution as a whole village is assembled to listen to the charges of betraying the fatherland are read out loud and watch what happens to those who displease Kim Jong Il.
You could have them shot —- we’ve got video of that a script writer could follow…
….or you could have the village stone them to death - then have each person in the village forced to walk by and touch the corpses — with got eye-witness testimony on more than one example of that.
Fuck. The movie would write itself given all the information and video and images and knowledge about the stuff on hand.
It could be, just cinematically speaking, one of the most powerful movies made in a long time.
Put a Saving Private Ryan effort behind it —– and the money would roll in.
But, Hollywood hasn’t even managed a single bleeping film about the place —- beyond a James Bond flick where the bad guy is some rogue officer…….
Even with all their bleeding hearts ——-
May 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Tukhachevsky;
I’ve read the book and agree - an easy read and well worth it. I’m working on a review as time allows (which it mostly doesn’t).
usinkorea;
Good idea, go for it. And yeah, there are many stories out of North Korea that would make great movies, especially considering a lot of the crap that gets made.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I almost got this book, but I did not have enough when I bought Famine in North Korea. Maybe on the next go-round I will read it, but in the meantime I have four books to look into.
Oh and another book I really, really wanted to get was Kim Il Sung, but I got Under the Loving Care instead.
Choices, choices…
May 20th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I got the book and got to page 90 so far and have been posting a little about it at my blog.
The love story that starts around page 90 makes the last comment I made on this thread even more relevant…
I would also say this book is a great read for anybody - whether they watch Korea or not.
It is an easy read and only about 190 pages starting at chapter 1.
The reading is so easy —- you have to step away from time to time to realize just how horrible and Martian-like is the reality the narrative is telling.
Maybe non-Korea watchers will be more struck by the brutality described as as way of life and pause more.
Being familiar with Korea, and perhaps having read some Holocaust (the Nazi one) stories, the readable nature of the text in this book lulls me into failing to weigh properly the brutality I’m encountering….
May 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
usinkorea: I could not agree more with your comment: “…the readable nature of the text in this book lulls me into failing to weigh properly the brutality I’m encountering….” I hope that you enjoy reading the balance of the book.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:29 am
There’s a movie called “Crossing the Line” about this. I haven’t seen it so can’t offer any opinions. (Maybe somewhere else in this blog someone’s described it…)
May 27th, 2008 at 4:17 am
“Crossing the Line“ is about another defector, Dresnok.