by Ji-min Lee
I laugh along awkwardly. Now we’re both holding our bellies.
She loops her arm through mine. “Well, here we are, two fake blondes.” She smiles as she picks the yellow paint flecks off my shoulder.
Suddenly I feel a tingle on the tip of my nose. I burst into tears. Marilyn stares at me in shock as I laugh and cry.
I shouldn’t frighten our treasured guest. I try to explain. “It’s okay,” I tell her. “It’s nothing. I had an accident. It was because of a man.”
Her clear eyes sparkle. “Oh, no. A man causing trouble again?”
I laugh, disarmed by the girlish expression on her face, unbefitting her generous chest. “Yes, as usual. Today was really tough. Do you have days like that, when you’re fed up because of a man? When you feel so lonely? I thought maybe I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep without some pills, but now, thanks to you, I think I’ll be able to. Thank you, Marilyn.” I pull her into a hug. She’s befuddled.
She has rescued me from my despair. Having betrayed the man I loved and having been betrayed by him, I was about to succumb to a misfortune of my own making. I am honored that the person who saved me is the most beautiful woman in the world. Somehow, tonight, beauty is what ends up saving my life.
Goodbye, Blondes!
February 19, 1954
The fans are downcast, gathered at Yoido Airport to see Marilyn off. There are fewer of them than when she arrived but it’s still a large crowd. A soldier is crying, clutching a present he wants to give her. Her car pulls in and everyone rushes over.
Marilyn gets out and hugs the high-level officials. Someone taps me on the shoulder. It’s Joseph, his coat collar popped up. He beckons for me to come with him. He climbs into one of the four-engine fighters going to Tokyo. I follow him. Min-hwan is waiting there. He stands up when he sees me. He is wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a hat, still in half-hearted disguise. “We didn’t find her,” he tells me, looking anxious.
“I heard.” I glance at Joseph, who nods as if he knows nothing.
“I have to get back to Tokyo,” Min-hwan says. “You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“I’m going to stay.”
He squints at me as I stand in the doorway. His expression catches at my heart.
“Why? What’s here for you?”
“I have someone I have to find, too.”
Min-hwan’s shoulders sink and he lets out a sigh. “Are you sure?”
I look him squarely in the face. It’s taking all my courage, but I know I need to let him go. “Have a nice trip.”
“Next time, then. Let’s go back together.”
I offer him my brightest smile. “Bye.”
Min-hwan is mute with disappointment.
I scramble off. I’m glad he doesn’t come out after me.
“You’re really going to stay?” Joseph asks with concern from the top of the stairs.
“Come back when my hair turns black again. And will you burn that letter for me?”
Joseph nods gravely.
I trust that he will do it. I turn around decisively. I will wait bravely for Min-hwan’s revenge or for my fate to catch up with me. I sheathe the memory of my wrongdoing and hone my fighting spirit. This is what I need to do for myself as I embark on my battle. I cannot forget for a moment that my own war—Chong-nim’s war—hasn’t come to an end. I go back to the crowd surrounding Marilyn. People are unable to let her go. Finally, it’s my turn. She gives me a warm hug. The wind tugs my scarf off my hair. My yellow-painted hair is revealed under the sun. She smiles at me. I hand her a small package.
“What’s this?”
“A little souvenir. Open it when you get home.” It’s a portrait of Marilyn. Watching the lines of her beautiful face come alive under my hand had given me a spark of joy I haven’t felt in a long time. “Oh, and a friend of mine wanted me to wish you congratulations on your marriage.”
“Thank you. It has been wonderful. I’ll never forget Korea. Oh, Alice—I don’t even know your Korean name.”
“You would need to practice for a whole year to pronounce it correctly.”
Marilyn laughs.
“Just remember me as Alice J. Kim.”
“J? What does it stand for?” Marilyn’s brows arch like seagulls, puzzled.
“June,” I say. “The month I was born and the month the war began. I gave it to myself.”
Author’s Note
This book was inspired by two photographs.
One was of a female interpreter at work, standing between a UN soldier and a North Korean POW during the Korean War, and the other was of Marilyn Monroe, who visited Korea right after the war to perform for the American military.
I had the same question when I saw these two pictures, both against the backdrop of the Korean War but so very different from each other.
Where did all the beautiful and hopeful young women go?
I always thought it strange that my parents’ generation, having lived through the Korean War (1950–53), rarely talked about it. The Korean War, also known as the Forgotten War, is far in the past now, with fewer survivors remaining every year. As I gathered war recollections and experiences, it occurred to me that oblivion might have been critical for survival. All of the stories I heard were terrible and unjust and tragic. It made me think it would be better to forget.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the main character says he wants to write an anti-war novel. A movie maker says he should write an anti-glacier book instead. I’m sure that for someone like me, who didn’t experience war first-hand, writing about it isn’t all that different from touching only the tip of an enormous glacier. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from these two women in the photographs. They captivated me. I wanted to tell their stories. How did a woman who had a tragic life arm herself in a tragic era? Everyone has at least one weapon with which they protect their own lives, something that makes you stand your ground in the face of atrocity and violence.
In February 1954, Marilyn Monroe came to Korea to perform for American soldiers stationed here. Wearing a slinky dress on a makeshift stage, she sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” as it snowed. Ten thousand American marines went wild. Later, Monroe would look back at that performance and say that it was the first time in her life she felt like a real star. For her, Korea was an unforgettable place.
Every time I looked at the picture of Monroe, I was taken by it. It’s surreal to see the most famous bombshell of the day singing on top of rubble. At the same time, she was surprisingly approachable. This wasn’t something allowed only to Marilyn Monroe, I realized. All women who survived war had the right to revel in being alive, dancing and singing like Marilyn. It made me understand the women who frequented the dance halls in postwar Korea, which was a hotly debated issue at the time. Maybe they were emitting light and embracing life because they had experienced death. I wanted to write about the women who struggled to come alive. Marilyn Monroe herself had to change to become a goddess. I think she was the victim of her own beauty. If I could meet her, I would ask her if she could have been stronger, more vicious, more solitary so that she wouldn’t have had to sacrifice herself. Like our friend Alice J. Kim.
Though Alice and the other characters in the story could have lived in the era depicted here, they are fictional. The book is based on real events but enhanced with my imagination. I hope readers will be generous at my attempt to reveal more of the glacier. This book is deeply indebted to those who survived and those who didn’t. My sincere thanks to Yun Il-gyun and Mun Chang-jae, who allowed me to incorporate events described in their books. I am grateful to the many people who helped in the writing of this book, as well as everyone at That Book publishing company, who truly cared for this project. Thank you to my parents and my family, especially to my son and husband, who were so understanding while I wrote. As it happens, I’m writing this note on June 25
, the day the Korean War began. The gravity of the day will always be in my heart.
© Getty/Bettmann/Contributor
References
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Hughes, Dudley, Wall of Fire: A Diary of the Third Korean Winter Campaign (Central Point, OR: Hellgate Press, 2003). Translated from the English by Im In-chang (Seoul: Korea Economic Daily, 2008).
Jeong Il-hwa, Aneun geotgwa dareun maekadeoui hanguk jeonjaeng [What You Didn’t Know About MacArthur’s Korean War] (Seoul: Mirae Hankuk Sinmun, 2007).
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Kim Seong-hwan, Gobau gimseonghwanui panjachon iyagi [Life in the Shantytown] (Paju: Yeollimwon, 2005).
Kim Won-il, et al., Nareul ullin hangukjeonjaeng 100 jangmyeon [One Hundred Scenes of the Korean War That Made Me Cry], translated by Park Do (Seoul: Nunbit, 2006).
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Korea National University of Arts and Korea National Research Center for the Arts, eds., Korean Contemporary Art History Series 1 (Seoul: Sigong Art, 1999).
Arthur W. Wilson, Korean Vignettes: Faces of War (Artwork Pbns, 1996). Translated from the English by Kim Nam-hyong (Seoul: Baekam, 2008)
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Lee Yun-gyu, Deulliji anteon chongseong joingipoktan!—6.25jeonjaenggwa simrijeon [Paper Bombs, the Silent Gunfire: The Korean War and Psychological Warfare] (Seoul: Seongrim, 2006).
Monroe, Marilyn, My Story (New York: Stein and Day, 1974). Translated from the English by Lee Hyeon-jong (Seoul: Haenaem, 2003).
Mun Chang-jae, ed., Jeonjangui hayan chonesadeul—Jo Gwirye hoigorok [White Angels of the Battlefield: The Memoirs of Cho Gwi-rye] (Seoul: Hankook Munhwasa, 2007).
Rollyson, Carl, Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, rev. ed. (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2004). Translated from the English by Lee Ji-seon (Seoul: Yedam, 2003)
Yun Il-gyun, Hanmi hapdong cheopbo bihwa 6006budae [Behind the Scenes of Korean-US Intelligence Unit 6006] (Paju: Korean Studies Information, 2006).
About the Author
Ji-min Lee is a celebrated screenwriter in Korea and author of several novels.
Chi-Young Kim is the Man Asian Literary Prize-winning translator of Please Look After Mother, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, The Good Son and many others.
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