Our School

"Our School"   is a well-known documentary, filmed by the director Kim Myung Joon.  It is about about the daily lives of second and third generation Koreans in Japan and their search for their cultural identity.  As the title suggests, the Korean chosun "school" was described to be built to give the Korean children an education that introduces Korean language and culture, in order for them to find their true identity as Koreans.

However, the documentary demonstrated some challenges faced by those students. They struggled not only to find out who they truly are but also to face discrimination from the Japanese. Despite being surrounded by foreign culture, the school put efforts to make the students have pride in their identity. For example, the students wore Korean traditional costumes even during the cold weather,, spoke only in Korean while on campus and learned Koran traditional songs and dances. By observing these scenes, I realized how hard those people with the old general 'chosun' nationality had been trying to keep their identity and not to lose hope for unity of North and South Korea. This further made me question myself of my own identity as well.  The key event in the documentary was their visit to North Korea, and this gave a rare peek at the secretive country. After the visit, the students were just so excited to share their unforgettable memories of their home country. Surprisingly, they found nothing negative about North Korea but fell in love with their motherland. As the school was found before North and South Korea was divided, it has been sponserd by the North Korean government.  Thus, through these facts provided by those students struggling to keep their identity, I learned what the director wanted to say. It's a different matter to maintain your national identity in South Korea, your homeland, compared to Japan. In South Korea, I don't need to express it to show my identity but for Korean residents in Japan, If you don't demonstrate it, it will fade away. And South Korea as a whole should pay a little bit more attention to them. This long documentary taught me how meaningful it is for Koreans in Japan that they chose not to fully assimilate into Japanese society but to keep their true identity