Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Colonizer and the Colonized”

In this activity, students will work in small groups to present a summarized history of a colonizing power and colonized community with comparisons to the events in the text.

Kim’s text explores the power politics not only between Japan and other nations during WWII, but also between Japan as an occupying power and the occupied people of Korea. Working in small groups, select one colonizer-colonized relationship in history to research. Compile notes and appropriate images; share a background of this relationship with the class in a brief presentation.

Examples include the British Empire as the colonizer and the American colonies as the colonized; Portugal as the colonizer and Brazil as the colonized; Belgium as the colonizer and the Congo as the colonized.

Consider the following questions with regard to your chosen colonization topic as you prepare your presentation:

• What is the pertinent time period and region of the world?
• What was/is the relationship between colonizer and colonized? Why did the colonizer invade and settle?
• What measures did/does the colonizing power carry out to assume authority and control? What was/is the response of the colonized?
• What comparisons can be made with the relationship between Korea and Japan in the text?
• How do Kim’s themes of The Remembrance of Things Lost and Hubris of the Colonizer apply to this relationship between the colonizer and colonized? Explain.

After preparing your presentation, share your findings with the class. In a post-presentation discussion, point out similarities and differences between the different colonial relationships.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might review together examples from Kim’s text of each theme before addressing comparisons between colonial relationships. They may also want to summarize the power dynamic between the colonizer and colonized in Lost Names: The Hubris of the Colonizer allows the imperial power to overlook the strength of the colonized, while Han contributed to a yielding response in many respects.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a writing-centered approach, the above activity can be amended to include a research paper component. For classes that may not be familiar with the research paper submission process, this activity is an opportunity to review or learn common steps such as initial research, annotated bibliography, thesis statement, outline, draft, peer review, abstract, and final submission.

Paired Text Extension:

Compare and contrast the renaming of Koreans during Japanese occupation in Kim’s Lost Names and Linda Sue Park’s When My Name Was Keoko. How do both authors use their protagonists’ inner monologues to discuss the topics of losing their Korean names to Japanese names? How do the characters process this change in relation to their identity? Explain.

Teaching Suggestion: This Paired Text Extension may work well as an extra-credit opportunity for further reading, an expansion of the main Activity, or a compare and contrast essay.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The idea of Han is important in Lost Names.

• What conclusions regarding Han does Kim seem to come to over the course of the narrative? (topic sentence)
• Analyze and discuss the ways in which Kim’s beliefs about Han develop as he grows. Use at least 3 examples to show how his feelings develop; your discussion should support your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the extent to which Kim’s understanding of Han helps him reconcile with the years lost to occupation.

2.  During colonial occupation, the Japanese attempt to require Korean people to assimilate into Japanese culture.

• In the text, what is the most symbolic way in which Kim or his fellow Koreans attempt to resist cultural assimilation?
• (topic sentence)
• Analyze and discuss this attempt at resistance. Why is it meaningful? What are the repercussions? Are they successful in their resistance? Use details and examples from the text in your discussion in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize how this point of resistance connects to the theme of Hubris of the Colonizer.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Mr. Kim was imprisoned by the Japanese after college, but the details of his offense and incarceration are not a part of the text. How does Mr. Kim’s imprisonment impact his family and his relationships even years later? In a 3-paragraph essay, discuss how his imprisonment and its aftereffects shape Mr. Kim’s character and his interactions with his fellow Koreans and Japanese officials throughout the text. Include any evidence or hints about his “crime,” and discuss the ways in which Mr. Kim addresses his “crime.”  

2. In school, Kim receives terrible treatment from the Japanese teachers. Consider instances of cruelty in the text, especially the actions of Kim’s Japanese teachers. How does the treatment of Korean students by the Japanese teachers symbolize the events of the world outside the school? What message about the nature of colonial occupation is conveyed? Use details and examples from the text in a structured paragraph to support your ideas.

3. Kim’s narrative largely focuses on male relatives, friends, teachers, acquaintances, and Japanese authorities. What roles do women play overall in Lost Names? In a 3-paragraph essay, determine the impact and significance of the females with whom Kim interacts; for example, what does his mother symbolize? How are female roles different from those of the men? How might female roles in Lost Names represent the importance of gender roles in early and mid-20th century occupied Korea?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following phrases best describes the content of Kim’s Preface?

A) The explanation of Han and reconciling with loss

B) The simplistic banality of life in the US

C) The holistic desire to escape occupation

D) The fearful shame of colonizing Japan

2. Which of the following beliefs does Kim’s mother depend upon as she waits for her husband at the train station?

A) Buddhism

B) Christianity

C) Ancestors

D) Islam

3. In Scene 1, as Kim’s mother crosses the river to Manchuria with her husband, she recalls, “With all the snow under the starry sky, the air is strangely white. People move on like ghosts, silently, except for their feet crunching on the ice.” Which of the following literary terms is used in this quote?

A) Allusion

B) Hyperbole

C) Personification

D) Simile

4. Which of the following attributes does Kim’s Korean community expect of him as he enters the second grade?

A) A witty conversationalist

B) A superior intellect

C) A sharp tongue

D) A gentle spirit

5. Which of the following words best describes the atmosphere of Kim’s school when he starts the second grade?

A) Spiritual

B) Martial

C) Altruistic

D) Casual

6. Which setting is referred to throughout the memoir?

A) The Chinese-Nepalese border

B) The train station in Manchuria

C) The international port

D) The apple orchard

7. Based on the dialogue in the memoir, which of the following assumptions can be made about Kim’s father?

A) He is a well-regarded figure in the community.

B) He is an unknown assailant to the Koreans.

C) He is an individual highly despised by both sides.

D) He is an enigmatic menace in Manchuria.

8. Which of the following words best describes Kim’s socioeconomic status throughout his adolescence?

A) Wealthy

B) Disadvantaged

C) Lower-middle class

D) Unknown

9. Kim writes in Scene 3, “[...] I breathe in the comforting presence of my father, my mother, and my little sister, serenely content and secure, joyfully aware of their nearness, unafraid of the dark, the unknown, and the world beyond the plains and the hills . . . and oblivious of the war. My world then is small and private and secure [...]” Which of the following literary terms does Kim use in this quote?

A) Allegory

B) Juxtaposition

C) Metonymy

D) Simile

10. Which of the following aspects of Japanese occupation does Kim’s grandmother struggle with most notably in the memoir?

A) Why she cannot feed her grandchildren nourishing food

B) Why the Koreans hate the Japanese

C) Why her family is persecuted for attending church

D) Why her family is poorer than the other Koreans in the village

11. In Scene 4, upon seeing the older man at the tombstone, Kim reflects “And—suddenly—I am repelled by the pitiful sight of the driveling, groveling old man, whose whining muttering is lost in the bitter wind and swirling snow.” Which of the following concepts does Kim’s frustrated observation link to?

A) Han

B) Colonialism

C) Persecution

D) Memory

12. Which of the following reasons best describes why Kim got the part of the lead in the play?

A) Because he speaks Japanese the best

B) Because he is Kim’s son

C) Because he is the lowest ranking student in the class

D) Because he is friends with the principal

13. In Scene 5, as Kim reflects upon his monologue on the stage, he says, “Why—why was I weeping? For me?—for my parents?— for my people down there?—for my friends? Or—for everyone, Koreans and Japanese alike? For the conquerors and the conquered alike? Why the tears? I do not know.” Which of the following literary terms does he use in this quote?

A) Palindrome

B) Personification

C) Parallelism

D) Dramatic irony

14. Which of the following reasons best explains why the request from the Japanese priest and his wife is a significant moment in Kim’s life?

A) It is the first difficult decision he must make as the head of the household.

B) It is the saddest moment in his memory of Manchuria.

C) It is the happiest period of time he had while at school.

D) It is the most meaningful friendship he made in his small town.

15. Which of the following phrases best describes the conversation at the end of the memoir between Kim and his father?

A) That Korea will be the strongest country in the world

B) That each generation responds differently to Korea’s political system

C) That it is Kim’s duty to make the Japanese suffer

D) That Kim’s father is ashamed that Kim thinks so well of his generation

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What is the structure of Lost Names? How does this structure connect with the narration style of the text?

2. In which ways can this text be considered a memoir? Why is this a better categorization of Kim’s work as opposed to an autobiography? In what ways might it be considered fiction?