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A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea

Masaji Ishikawa,

Martin Brown (Translator),

Risa Kobayashi (Translator)

4.24 · Rating details · 49,498 ratings · 4,712 reviews

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittin ...more

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Kindle Edition, 174 pages

Published January 1st 2018 by AmazonCrossing (first published 2000)

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Feb 05, 2018 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, nonfiction, memoirs-or-bios

Serfdom is freedom. Repression is liberation. A police state is a democratic republic. And we were “the masters of our own destiny.” And if we begged to differ, we were dead.

This is one powerful little memoir. It's a true story that sounds like dystopian fiction - for most of us, it is difficult to imagine families being lured to a new "paradise", only to be met with famine, concentration camps and violence. It's hard to accept that this is still part of our world.

I, like many, am fascinated and horrified by North Korea. Recent news stories have only fuelled that particular fire of fascination. I've read fiction about the history of Korea in books such as Pachinko, which showed many Koreans migrating to Japan during colonization and being seen as second class citizens. Then, later, when their home country was split in two, many were unable to return. I have also read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which documents a variety of different experiences from defectors.

A River in Darkness complements both those books and adds something very unique - a detailed first person account of what it was and is really like to live in this secretive nation.

Ishikawa was born in Japan but his Korean father was seduced by promises of "paradise" and having "everything you need" in North Korea. The Red Cross shipped Japanese families to North Korea; something which the Japanese government and the UN were all too aware of and made no effort to prevent. So Ishikawa's family packed up and got on the boat. They arrived in a wasteland of horrors and were given a shack to live in with no electricity or running water.

For over thirty years, Ishikawa and his family suffered and starved. No one dared to speak out against the system, and it would have done no good if they did. As Japanese nationals, they were labelled as "hostiles", which meant they were given the worst jobs and worst homes. Ishikawa lost loved ones, his freedom, and most of his life to North Korea.

It is a deeply sad memoir and even the ending brings little relief. Ishikawa admits that he can feel nothing but bitterness. It's a dark, haunting, and eye-opening look into one of the greatest atrocities of our time.

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Dec 03, 2017 Lo rated it it was amazing

The short version: This is easily the best firsthand narrative about life in North Korea that I've found, and it's a gripping, well-written story in its own right. If you haven't read anything like this, it will be VERY educational. But be aware that it doesn't have the happy ending the title implies, and prepare yourself accordingly.

The long version: Some years ago, I realized that my view of North Korea was overly cartoonish. I didn't want to think of it as "the most hilarious awful dictators The short version: This is easily the best firsthand narrative about life in North Korea that I've found, and it's a gripping, well-written story in its own right. If you haven't read anything like this, it will be VERY educational. But be aware that it doesn't have the happy ending the title implies, and prepare yourself accordingly.

The long version: Some years ago, I realized that my view of North Korea was overly cartoonish. I didn't want to think of it as "the most hilarious awful dictatorship" anymore, so I started reading about it. There's an awful lot of political and economic posturing and maneuvering to read about, and tons of analysis about the leaders and the military, but what about the actual people who live there? What are their lives like?

Turns out that it's pretty hard to find out. The fact that regular citizens, especially the non-elite, are essentially hostages makes it hard to get information. I found and really enjoyed Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, a collection of stories from former North Koreans living in exile. That's interesting in that the stories come from a variety of people who came from different backgrounds in North Korea, but this book is a much more in-depth picture of a single life, and has better narrative flow. The prose is spare and impressively clear, and the book is quite short.

Ishikawa was born in Japan and moved as part of a mass migration program that essentially tricked huge numbers of Koreans to "return" from Japan to North Korea, facilitated by the Red Cross. Many had never even been to North Korea, and empty promises of opportunity were repeated for years. This program, and the subsequent ill treatment of the Japanese "returnees" by the "native" Koreans was eye-opening to discover. Because of this aspect, the story manages to be even more grim than other stories I've read, which is really saying something. Just the first few pages, while he's still a child in Japan, were enough to fill an entire teary daytime talk show. And while life after escaping is never easy for the fortunate Koreans who make it out alive, the poor guy has a worse outcome than any I've heard before.

The horrors in the lives depicted are many, from the extreme to the mundane - starvation, long propaganda meetings, being denied opportunity due to circumstances of your birth, facing inadequate shelter, and that's all before the 90s famine. But the greatest horror is revealed gradually across many small moments: to survive people must lose their humanity, stop seeing each other as people, no longer caring if their neighbors live or die. Then the government uses the citizens as the most effective tool to oppress themselves by turning them against each other, encouraging and rewarding reporting your own family for defying the regime. The most common lament I've read (across all accounts) about the famine was, "the kind people were the first to die." As much as I found myself deeply appreciating eating dinner after reading this, I was even more moved by the love and support of my friends and family, savoring the marvelous experience of not having to fear for their lives every day.

I would recommend that everyone read this, and probably try to convince them given the opportunity, because there's a lot more to North Korea than nuclear weapons. If more people knew what life there is like, it would undoubtedly help -- it's pretty hard not to care in the face of this insanity. But I wouldn't force this on anyone, because it really is a difficult read twice over. First, while you're reading, the events in the story are brutal. It's hard to watch an incredibly resilient protagonist be defeated again and again. Then after you're done with the book, it's depressing to watch the world let this situation continue because it's too much trouble to address. The political and economic arguments seem even more unsatisfactory. On the other hand, it's not all bad. Nothing has ever made me appreciate my life like reading this. Every time Ishikawa's story pops into my mind, and it's hard to forget, I feel a huge wave of gratitude in addition to the sadness and compassion.

So read it, but please be ready. ...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Mischenko rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, memoir

A River in Darkness is an incredibly disturbing true story about a man’s life in North Korea after being forced to move from Japan around the age of 13. The life that was expected becomes something totally different, and by then it’s too late to get out.

This was so hard to read at times, but I just couldn’t put it down. I had so many feelings—mainly helplessness and a complete loss of hope for this family. It just seemed to get worse and worse. I truly cannot imagine living like this. I’d love ...more

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Sep 04, 2018 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“You don't choose to be born. You just are. And your birth is your destiny, some say. I say the hell with that...Sometimes in life, you have to grab your so-called destiny by the throat and wring its neck.”

Review: Behind the Pomp, Hunger Games - WSJ

Review: Behind the Pomp, Hunger Games - WSJ

Masaji Ishikawa's harrowing memoir, A River of Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea, is astounding! I recently read Suki Kim's Without You: There is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite. I really liked Suki Kim's work and thought there were great insights on the minds ...more

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Oct 04, 2019 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 5000-2019

A simply told, but harrowing take of one mans anguish and desperation, living in North Korea. We find how how he came to live there and the toll it took on his family, then and in the future. It is beyond a horrible existence for those who have no status, live on the fringes of the country, forced to work in whatever job is given. Work for food, but even that little bit of substinance is not provided. Starting, living in hovels, at the mercy of whoever is in authority, anyone with a status that ...more

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Apr 24, 2019 Beverly rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 02, 2018 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bio, audible, 2018-read, korea

I liked A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea a lot. It is a personally told story. The author is speaking from his heart of what he has experienced—first ostracism in Japan due to his dual Japanese and Korean background, then the horror of the thirty-six years of his life spent in North Korea from 1960-1996 under the rule of Kim Il Sung and then Kim Jong Il, why he had to flee, how he did it and finally what happened when he returned to Japan. During his youth in Japan, where h ...more

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Jul 24, 2021 Debra rated it really liked it

It is absolutely heartbreaking to know that this book is one man's true story of living in and escaping from North Korea. Horrible to know that these things happen. in today’s world this is still occurring in North Korea. Masaji Ishikawa is half-Japanese, half-Korean. He never felt like he belonged anywhere. He never felt accepted. He spent his early years in Japan, but his family moved to North Korea when he was thirteen years old. His father, a Korean national, believed there was abundant work ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, biographies-and-memoirs

It's been a while since I read anything in one sitting, but this was utterly heartbreaking and compelling.

Masaji Ishikawa and his family moved to North Korea during the great migration of Japanese/Korean immigrants to the communist state in the 1960s. Promises of a paradise and jobs for all duped many a family at the time, but the reality was far from what was expected.

This is by far one of the best first hand accounts I've read of life in North Korea, and in some respects it completely overwh ...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Maxwell rated it really liked it

Shelves: translated

A devastating account of one man's life in North Korea. This also has the added element of examining North Korean life from the perspective of someone who is half-Japanese, half-Korean. A good companion piece of Pachinko and In Order to Live. ...more

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Feb 03, 2019 Jessaka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, north-korea

This was a disturbing true story about conditions in North Korea, so much so that I find that I don’t wish to go back and listen to parts of it again in order to make a better review.

If only the world was not so full of suffering. If only people were not beaten, killed, starved or worked to death, what a better place this would be. But what happened in North Korea, and could still be happening for all I know happens in many countries, and it makes me wish that the U.N. could step in and correct ...more

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May 06, 2018 ~Jo~ rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, inspirational

"Her desperation, her fear, her exhaustion-all of it seeped through her thin clothes and straight into my heart."

This is not the first non fiction book that I have read, regarding real people's lives in North Korea. It probably won't be my last, either. Much of the information in this particular account wasn't new to me, but this did not stop the utter disbelief washing over me, as I was reading.
This very personal memoir is just gut-wrenchingly tragic, and it is told with such honestly, that the ...more

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Aug 28, 2019 Constantine rated it liked it

Shelves: x-3-star, z2019-08

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Genre:
Nonfiction

Synopsis:
Masaji Ishikawa, a 13-year-old boy who is half Japanese and half Korean move from Japan to North Korea with his family. Once in Korea, they will have to adapt to a completely new life and a new world.

“There’s a saying, “Sadness and gladness follow each other.” As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed.”

My Thoughts:
This memoir is very hard to read for several reasons. It shows how l ...more

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Jan 04, 2018 Nicki White rated it really liked it · review of another edition

While the life that Mr. Ishikawa live was horrifying by anyone standards, I found that at time the book was difficult to read. At moments it seemed as though a cohesive thought was not entirely transformed from reality to word. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that this book was written from translation, so I can’t really fault it.

I’m not a history buff, I will never claim to be. I know enough that I was able to graduate from school but never really gave much thought to what was being While the life that Mr. Ishikawa live was horrifying by anyone standards, I found that at time the book was difficult to read. At moments it seemed as though a cohesive thought was not entirely transformed from reality to word. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that this book was written from translation, so I can’t really fault it.

I’m not a history buff, I will never claim to be. I know enough that I was able to graduate from school but never really gave much thought to what was being taught to me. I find the memoirs have become a much more effective way for me to comprehend the history throughout the world as opposed to reading from a textbook that seemed to just ramble facts off. For instance I’m sure I learn of what was happening in Korea prior to reading A River in the Dark. But as I read I became more invested in the journey, more invested in the political aspect, the trying nature of the events that unfolded.

I was left elated and heartbroken as I reached the end of one man’s journey to just return home to a life that was striped from him because he was a child. The worst part is that even though this is part of our global existence not enough is being done to rectify the situation for him and everyone who has and still are suffering. One can only hope that something even if it small can be accomplished with that talks between South and North Korea. Yes, after reading this memoir I found myself wanting to know what was happening. This was the first time in a long time that I voluntarily looked up anything along the political line.

Now with all the positive being said I still had one question left unanswered. Once you draw to the conclusion of the story Masaji Ishikawa openly tells that he is not suppose reveal that the Japanese authority helped in him in anyway. But by writing this novel is that not what he did. Did he not reveal the one part of the agreement that was the most crucial. There are also other questions that sort of had been left open. While some information was given to the whereabouts of his family that was left in Korea, there really wasn’t a complete conclusion.

This was an eye opener for me. I think starting of my year with this has really grounded me. It has really made me realize just how lucky of a person I am in life. I don’t think I could have been as strong as Masaji Ishikawa or his sister or even his children who grew only to know one world. ...more

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Jan 31, 2018 Books on Stereo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A breathtaking real, unfiltered view of life in North Korea as a Japanese-Korean. Not all tales end happily, but Masaji Ishikawa's story exemplifies the resilience of the human spirit and importance of optimism even in the darkest of times. ...more

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Jan 02, 2018 Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My first love in books is horror followed closely by psychological thrillers. When I read nonfiction/memoirs, I typically stay somewhat within the same genre - true crime, etc. As a half South Korean woman, I also typically avoid reading anything regarding North Korea. I always assumed that these types of books would be the only ones that would get me "triggered"... and by that I mean PISSED OFF! However, when Ashley at Amazon Publishing gave me this book, I couldn't NOT read it.. and I'm SO hap ...more

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Jun 06, 2021 Negin rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone, most especially when you're feeling strong enough to handle depressing subject matter

Shelves: memoir-biography, all-time-favourites, north-korea

I’ve read a few other books on North Korea. All of them riled up my emotions, but this one left me sobbing. The author was born in Japan. His father was Korean, and his mother was Japanese. Along with many others, they believed that they would have far greater opportunities if they were to move to North Korea. They believed all the lies and empty promises of a paradise on earth, a utopian Communist state – free healthcare, free university tuition, and jobs galore. It was heartbreaking and frustr ...more

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Dec 02, 2017 Marilyn Hitesman rated it it was amazing

The horror of life in North Korea

Beyond comprehension. The atrocities are being silenced but must be made known. No one should endure what these people do.

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Feb 02, 2018 Alaina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: february-challenge-2018, favorites, historical-fiction, kindle-unlimited, nonfiction, fiction

I feel like I've been on a non-fiction kick lately and I've loved every minute of it.

What first got my attention was the cover. I don't really know how else to explain it other than say it intrigued me so much that I didn't even think twice before I clicked it.

Second, the title makes you think it will be a happy-ish book. Or that it will have a happy ending after all of the doom, sadness, and torture thrown upon you. Don't get your hopes up high people because this is one spoiler you will get fr ...more

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Jun 19, 2019 Caro the Helmet Lady rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-reads, non-fiction, bio, cultural-asia, this-must-be-hell

Winston Smith was a pussy. After reading this book his misery doesn't seem like a big deal to me. After all he only had to take care of himself, didn't have kids or relatives to take care of in the imaginary world of 1984. Love interest? Oh please. Masaji Ishikawa did have a family and was a caring son, father and brother. And he really tried to make lives better no matter what in that hell of a country and the hell of a system. Betrayed and left on his own for more than a couple of times he nev ...more

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Feb 22, 2018 Holly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-read, non-fiction

This isn't the first non-fiction book I've read about real people's lives in North Korea (the first was Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea), so some of the information wasn't new to me this time around. However, this still was gut wrenching and captivating and horrifying. I can't imagine how so many people can endure so much needless suffering. I highly recommend reading either book - I think there's not enough people who realize how bad it really is in North Korea and why other coun ...more

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Jan 07, 2020 Christy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, read-in-2020, kindle-unlimited, memoirs

This is the true story of Masaji Ishikawa's life and escape from North Korea. He moved to North Korea when he was 13 years old, and spent 36 years living in horrific conditions with his family and children before fleeing with his life. It's so heartbreaking, appalling, and full of sadness and despair. However, If you like nonfiction or memoirs... I highly recommend. Bonus = It's a book in translation and I was able to learn about a place I knew nothing much about. ...more

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May 09, 2020 ✨Bean's Books✨ rated it really liked it

A memoir that will tear your heart right out. Very eye-opening account of a man's life and escape from North Korea. A short read but very, very sad. ...more

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Aug 13, 2018 Marilyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: marilyn-s-challenge

I wasn't sure what to expect as I began to read A River in Darkness One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa but I have to say that I was so glad I decided to read it. Some people are dealt challenges in life. These people are not necessarily looking for them or have done anything to deserve them but it is their fate. It is almost as if they are being tested to see how much they can endure.

Masaji Isikawa grew up in in the city of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo with his Japanese mother and I wasn't sure what to expect as I began to read A River in Darkness One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa but I have to say that I was so glad I decided to read it. Some people are dealt challenges in life. These people are not necessarily looking for them or have done anything to deserve them but it is their fate. It is almost as if they are being tested to see how much they can endure.

Masaji Isikawa grew up in in the city of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo with his Japanese mother and Korean national father and three younger sisters. He was born in 1947. He had nothing to do with his Korean father until Masaji started elementary school. His father had been in prison. When his father was a boy of fourteen years old he was kidnapped by the Japanese and brought to Japan to work in a munitions factory along with about 200 other Koreans. His mother's family, although not wealthy, owned a shop where they sold chickens. Masaji's grandparents were very opposed to their daughter marrying his father. They believed it was a terrible mistake. Their fears proved to be justified. His father was physically and verbally abusive to his mother and he drank a lot. One night his father got so drunk that he actually pushed his mother over the side of a cliff at knife point. Thankfully, Masaji had followed them and was able to save his mother after his father left. Masaji's mother knew she had to leave her family and find work so she could save money to help her children. Somehow Masaji found his mother working in a restaurant. At about this time Masaji's father decided that Masaji should attend a Korean school and he invited his Korean girlfriend to live with them. The children at his new school were poor but he realized that what his grandparents had told him about Koreans being monsters was wrong. Masaji befriended on boy in particular. His name was Lion. Their friendship meant a lot to Masaji. Masaji's father was told by the League of Koreans to change. He was told to make things work with his mother and to find work. Masaji's mother returned home.

At about this time, Japan began experiencing a recession. Lots of people were out of work and Koreans were considered the lowest of people in Japan and so were the last to be offered jobs. Kim Il-sung began to build his socialist utopia at around this same time. Then in 1958, Kim Il-sung made a speech that focused on the inequalities of Koreans living in Japan and the injustices that they had to suffer. He was giving Koreans living in Japan the opportunity to return home to North Korea. They were promised a better life, with free housing and education. Shortly after that a Return Agreement was put in place in 1959 between the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Korean Red Cross Society. Then members of the League of Koreans started putting pressure on Masaji's family to return to North Korea. His mother refused at first but gradually the League was able to persuade her. In January of 1960 Masaji's family departed for North Korea. He was thirteen years old.

The realities of Masaji's life in North Korea were unreal and the worst nightmare anyone could possibly imagine. To know that those conditions and circumstances actually exist should open everyone's eyes. Something must be done! A River in Darkness was a gut-wrenching, but well written account of Masaji's life. Everyone should read this book. I highly recommend it. ...more

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Feb 02, 2019 Zuky the BookBum rated it it was amazing

Shelves: made-me-cry, kindle, 5-stars, 2019

I honestly think this book is the modern day Night. It's just as harrowing a story and is something that needs to be talked about and pushed into the public eye more. I'm sat here worried about Brexit but at the end of the day, I'm going to have my family, food and a place to live - millions of people living in North Korea have none of these things. I know you can't always compare your situation to situations such as this but it puts things into perspective and makes you realise just how easy yo ...more

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May 28, 2018 Joy D rated it liked it

Shelves: journeys, zck, reviewed, non-fiction, asia, translated, politics

Memoir of Masaji Ishikawa wherein he relates the details of his life from being born in Japan in 1947 to moving with his family to North Korea, where they were promised “paradise on earth,” to his escape to Japan in 1996. Unsurprisingly, the so-called paradise never materialized, and his family’s standard of living gradually diminished until it reached starvation-level.

Ishikawa tells his story in a very straight-forward conversational manner. This memoir delivered educational information about l ...more

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May 12, 2020 Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell rated it really liked it

Recommended to Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ by: Emily May

Shelves: poc-nonfic, mem-wars, nonfiction

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I picked this up last year from the Kindle store as a freebie for World Book Day because the reviews for it looked great. It took me a while to read it though, because the subject matter looked heavy. North Korea gets a lot of bad press in the U.S.-- admittedly, for good reason-- but often in a way that portrays the nation as a cartoon straw man and in a way that diminishes the psychology and the history that facilitates tyrannical rule, ...more

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Jan 02, 2018 Janelle Janson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir-biography, nonfiction, 2018, from-publisher-or-author

A RIVER OF DARKNESS by Masaji Ishikawa (translated by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown) Thank you so much to Amazon Publishing for sending me a free copy - all opinions are my own.

“Someone once said, ‘If a crying baby could tear down the universe, it would.’ Thats how I felt that day. I wanted to demolish the whole universe, but the sad truth was, it had already come crashing down around my head.”

My Review:

This story is so personal—you feel as if your friend is telling you a story. It’s not over A RIVER OF DARKNESS by Masaji Ishikawa (translated by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown) Thank you so much to Amazon Publishing for sending me a free copy - all opinions are my own.

“Someone once said, ‘If a crying baby could tear down the universe, it would.’ Thats how I felt that day. I wanted to demolish the whole universe, but the sad truth was, it had already come crashing down around my head.”

My Review:

This story is so personal—you feel as if your friend is telling you a story. It’s not overly dramatic—it doesn’t need to be. The details of this little book are very upsetting and hit straight to the heart.

Masaji Ishikawa tells his life from his childhood in Japan, up through his escape from North Korea. He was born in 1947, just after the conclusion of the Second World War, and after Japanese colonial rule in Korea ended. His father, Do Sam-dal, was Korean and his mother, Miyoko Ishikawa, Japanese. It was a tumultuous childhood, full of fear, anger, and pain. Even though his mother’s family was respected, his father was not. His father was very resentful towards his mother and took it out on her.

When Masaji was thirteen, his father insisted they move to North Korea under the regime of Kim Il-Sung. He thought he’d have a better life in North Korea, which he had told would be “paradise on Earth”. Except, as Masaji describes it, it was hell on Earth, and after reading his story, I am in 100 percent agreement.

His childhood was difficult but it did not hold a handle to the struggles of living in North Korea for thirty-six years and every time I saw the phrase, “Luckily I...” I couldn’t believe how optimistic he was—the human spirit is an amazing thing. I also thought it was interesting to see the change in his father’s temperament over the years in North Korea. And how Masaji finally understood what made his father who he was.

I loved how matter-of-factly Masaji speaks. It is very well-written memoir and I believe 170 pages is all it needed to be extremely impactful. This is an important story and one that everyone should know and understand.

For all of my reviews, please visit https://shereadswithcats.com ...more

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Sep 26, 2018 Malia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a short book, but what a harrowing, thought-provoking story it tells! It is not an easy read, this man's account of life in North Korea, his escape back to Japan and the terrible losses he and his family suffered in the process. I kept feeling stunned when the author mentioned the dates - so recent! - and that people dying of starvation seems a fairly common occurrence in North Korea. he paints a bleak picture, made bearable by the fact that he felt close bonds with his family. An eye-op ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Laura Noggle rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019, nonfiction, biography-autobiography

One Word Review: Harrowing

"So there we were—the beneficiaries of smug humanitarianism—prisoners in paradise on earth."

After reading this book, my first inclination is: What right do I have to judge Masaji Ishikawa's life story? Not much as far as I can see, my opinion is irrelevant.

"I soon learned that thought was not free in North Korea. A free thought could get you killed if it slipped out."

This is a raw, honest story of extreme suffering told in a unique voice—I'm not sure if it was the tran ...more

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About Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa

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“And I came to recognize that, no matter how difficult the reality, you mustn’t let yourself be beaten. You must have a strong will. You have to summon what you know is right from your innermost depths and follow it.” — 30 likes

“You don't choose to be born. You just are. And your birth is your destiny, some say. I say the hell with that. And I should know. I was born not just once but five times. And five times I learned the same lesson. Sometimes in life, you have to grab your so-called destiny by the throat and wring its neck.” — 19 likes

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A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea

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Preview — A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea

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