The Island of Sea Women

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This film documents a day in the life of a 12 year old Korean girl, learning to dive as a haenyeo on the island of Jeju. This novice diver is of the last generation that will engage in this vocation, and serves as an important historical document.

Sadly..the paragraph I chose was one of the most violent paragraphs in the book. My eyes were reading it before I even registered what happened. As a result, I went into the book, with horror, already knowing what was coming. This is the story of empowered women in an incredibly unempowering time. It spans decades of life on the Korean island of Jeju, during occupancy during WWII and the Korean war. The island that wants to live its life when the world won't leave it alone. Today you follow in my wake as I once followed in my mother’s wake,” Mother went on, “and as one day your daughters will follow in your wakes. You are baby-divers. Don’t reach beyond your abilities.” while the fragile connection between mi-ja and young-sook is the heart of this novel, i think the thing i found most interesting was learning about the haenyeo and the semi-matriarchal society that was established on jeju island because of their significance. definitely something i would love to witness in person!A greedy diver equals a dead diver,” Do-saeng lamented. We all knew the saying, but to hear it from a mother about her own daughter? That’s when I learned just how strong a mother must be. “This is a haenyeo’s worst sin,” she went on. “ I want that octopus. I can sell it for a lot of money.” Mother suddenly turned her attention to Mi-ja, the Kang sisters, and me. She regarded us, considering our actions. We were supposed to stay together. Mi-ja and the Kangs had, but they lookedembarrassed. Mother didn’t have to say a word before the excuses began to sputter out. For the first third of this novel, though I was liking the story, I felt like I was observing from afar, wasn't connecting emotionally with the story. I was enjoying learning about the life of the haenyo and their diving collective on the Korean island of Jeju. A matriarchal society is rare, so that was intriguing. The friendship between Mi ja and Young Sook was just beginning, so there was definitely enough to keep me reading. Also this was my monthly read with Angela and Esil, and up to this point we all felt the same. I live here, but I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Young-sook’s voice comes out even sharper and louder than Gu-sun’s, causing both Kang sisters to look her way. Are you all right? This was a bit of a slow moving read for me, probably because there were so many characters and so much detail about a multitude of things.

Since this book spans so many years we are audience to the many atrocities that accompany wars and demonstrations of control. Many people lost loved one to brutal killings by the Japanese. An uprising, later known as the 4.3 incident, caused the massacre of thousands of the islanders including women and children. Young-sook reached out to Mi-ja to help save them but she turned to her husband and left. What happens tears them apart forever. I wanted to know more about role of the village leaders, their resistance to traditional education, ( and why THE SEA trumped everything else in their lives).....when often they were left with physical pain from decades of the water pressure....to their ears, joints - headaches and even painful hips from the “Tewak” they carried. I was spellbound the moment I entered the vivid and little-known world of the diving women of Jeju. Set amid sweeping historical events,The Island of Sea Women is the extraordinary story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, of women’s daring, heartbreak, strength, and forgiveness. No one writes about female friendship, the dark and the light of it, with more insight and depth than Lisa See.” None of us yet know what the goddesses have planned for Yu-ri,” Mother said. “She may wake up tomorrow her usual chatterbox self.”

These traditional words were often repeated on Jeju, but we all nodded somberly as though hearing them for the first time.

The young man wanders off. He tries to talk to another woman, Kang Gu-ja, who’s working about ten meters away. Gu-ja, always crotchety, won’t even look up. He presses on to Gu-ja’s younger sister, Gu-sun, who yells at him. “Go away!” Young-sook snorts appreciatively. Abuse of male power is indeed as much a through line in See’s fiction as are female bonds — by bosses, fathers, brothers, husbands, lovers. See’s heroines are uniformly resilient in facing these misdeeds, although she does allow rare periods of marital bliss between Young-sook and Jun-bu: “Sometimes we went to the water’s edge. Sometimes we strolled through the olles. Other times we’d climb an oreum, stare out at the view, talk, and sometimes do nighttime activities in the broad daylight.” Sometimes when I read a book, I will thumb through it and randomly read a paragraph to see if I like the writing. I did do this with this book. The Haenyos are BEAUTIFUL WOMEN - inside and out......with AMAZING PHOTOS that can be found online. The older women are women, I would enjoy sitting with sharing tea.....( get to know them more). I was fascinated by the diving but could not really enjoy that either because of the deepening sense of DREAD. It seemed like every time they dove, something awful happened. The violence, the carnage, the brutality from the first few chapters was very graphic and married my ability to enjoy this book.Update March 3, 2019. My wife just finished reading this book, 1/3 rd of the way in she was hoping that a certain man would die.. He was a wife beater. I’m on a boat with a group of Korean grandmothers—but it’s not a cruise ship and there’s no shuffleboard in sight. It’s a motorboat and these elderly ladies are sporting wetsuits and goggles. They’re in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, and they’re about to jump into the ocean with what look like small garden hoes in hand. READ MORE

Shaman Kim chanted a few more incantations. The helpers banged their cymbals and drums. After that, there was nothing left to say or do.That’s one version,” the shaman continued. “Another says Grandmother Seolmundae, like all women, was exhausted by all she did for others, especially for her children. Her five hundred sons were always hungry. She was making them a cauldron of porridge when she became drowsy and fell into the pot. Her sons looked everywhere for her. The youngest son finally found all that remained of her—just bones—at the bottom of the pot. She had died from mother love. The sons were so overcome that they were instantly petrified into five hundred stone outcroppings, which you can see even today.” Given the dominance on Jeju of volcanic cones, which are concave at the top like a woman’s private parts, it is only natural that on our island females call and males follow,” she began. “The goddess is always supreme, while the god is merely a consort or guardian. Above all these is the creator, the giant Goddess Seolmundae.” You know going into a Lisa See novel that the depth of research into her subject is remarkable. When reading a historical fiction book, I need to trust that the author has his or her facts correct and doesn’t play loose with the truth. And that is exactly what we get with this author. The Island of Sea Women spans from the 1930's to the 1950's and reflects the historical happenings of the time. The Korean people have a strong sense of identity, but it has been mottled by Japanese occupation. The Japanese presence leaned heavily on both the culture and the language. Some Korean men traveled to Japan for work and were away from their families. Suspicion roamed the streets and caution took a palatable place in the market square. We'll also see the effects of the Korean War and the great fear of communism after the U.S. occupation. Mi-ja is an orphan who lives with her aunt and uncle. She was from the Jeju City so was used to living a different life. Her parents were financially well off and known to be Japanese collaborators. She was used to a lifestyle with pretty dresses, a nice home, etc. Her aunt and uncle treat her terribly, she is pretty much used as a slave to them, forcing her to do all of the household and field work and beat her.