A review by valeriabookworm
A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

4.0

Although I’ve read books on North Korea and its escapees, like “Nothing to Envy”, this one stands out because the author’s family willingly emigrated from Japan to North Korea in the 1960s. Born of a Korean father and a Japanese mother, the family endured racial discrimination in Japan and was convinced that everything would be better if they returned to “Paradise on Earth”, as North Korea branded itself. Spoiler alert: nothing could be further from the truth. It is disheartening to see that this mass migration to North Korea was encouraged by Japan’s government, and the Japanese Red Cross, even though they knew the horrors that awaited those people.