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Masaji Ishikawa or Do Changsun is a North Korean defector and author on Zainichi heritage. Ishikawa was thirteen years old when he moved from Japan to North Korea in 1960. His father was Zainichi Korean and his mother was Japanese. Ishikawa later defected from North Korea in 1996 via the Yalu river, leaving behind three children and a spouse. The Japanese government assisted him in leaving China. In 2003, he was working as a security guard.

Memoir

In 2000, Ishikawa published his memoirs in Japan under the title 北朝鮮大脱出地獄からの生還 and the nom de plume Shunsuke Miyazaki (宮崎 俊輔). They were translated into English in 2017 under the title A River in Darkness. Ishikawa's memoirs are published in Korean under his Korean name and the title 역사의 증언자. The book was translated into Persian in 2020. The part of the book focused on the river crossing was published in Literary Hub.

Notes

1. In the English language version of A River in Darkness this name is romanised as "Do Chan-sun" which does not match the hangul used by the Korean publisher; presumably the English translation is romanised from the Japanese ド・チャンスン instead

References

1. ^ Matsubara, Hiroshi (5 February 2003). "No welcome mat for North Korea escapees". The Japan Times. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
2. Scanlon, Charles (25 November 2002). "Identity crises for Japan's Koreans". BBC. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
3. Lee, Young Hwa (August 2002). "Shenyang asylum incident co-produced by Japan & China" (PDF). The Seiron. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
4. Ishikawa, Masaji; Kobayashi, Risa; Brown, Martin (2017). A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea (A Memoir) (First ed.). AmazonCrossing. ISBN 978-1542047197.
5. Matsubara, Hiroshi (23 January 2004). "Risky North Korea rescue left unfinished". The Japan Times. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
6. Chan, Charmaine (1 February 2018). "Review: Memoir that should be standard work on the hell of North Korea". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
7. 북랩, 북한에 표류된 한 인간의 목숨을 건 탈출기 ‘역사의 증언자’ 출간 (in Korean). Korea Newswire. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
8. "Masaji Ishikawa's "A River in Darkness" published in Persian". Tehran Times. 3 January 2020.
9. Ishikawa, Masaji (2 January 2018). "One Man's Escape From North Korea". Literary Hub. Retrieved 23 May 2021.

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