Escape from Camp 14

Shin was taken to the room in which he had first been interrogated; this time, his father was also in the room and had clearly been subjected to torture. During his time in the underground prison, the guards had told his father that Shin was the one who informed them about the escape plan. Shin’s father later agreed that it was better to notify the guards than risk concealing the plan, but his caustic tone suggested that he knew Shin’s first instinct was to inform.   

After Shin and his father signed nondisclosure forms, they were driven to the site where Shin’s mother and brother were to be executed. In subsequent years, Shin has come to feel shame about the executions and the lies that he told about his involvement. At the time, however, he was angry with his mother and brother for their self-centered scheming and the torture that he had undergone as a result. Shin refused to hold his mother’s gaze when she spotted him in the crowd, and, as she was hanged, Shin felt that she deserved to die. His brother was then shot in a gruesome and frightening spectacle, but Shin still felt that his death was justified.

It was unclear what happened to children whose parents had been executed. Shin determined that they were not usually allowed to go to school, yet he was an exception; perhaps because he had acted as an informer. Still, returning to school was not easy: his teacher was annoyed that Shin did not tell him about the escape plan first, and he said that Shin would have to work extra hard to wash away the sins of his family. He also started punishing Shin and, taking their cue from the teacher, Shin’s classmates began a regime of bullying. Shin was unsure whether or not they knew what he had done, but they never taunted him about informing on his brother and mother—this would be unwise given that they were under orders to do the same.

Prior to his time in prison, Shin had made friends with a classmate named Hong Joo Hyun. Hong was the grade leader (the job that Shin had hoped to obtain by informing on his family) and he now started watching Shin diligently. As grade leader, Hong had the authority to punish any students who were shirking their work responsibilities, and he himself would be punished if quotas were not met. When Hong saw that Shin was struggling with one of his tasks (a road repair assignment), he consequently issued a beating and told the teacher that Shin was scavenging for food instead of working. He also enlisted the other students to punish Shin.

Shin had never questioned his life before his imprisonment and subsequent bullying. He had lived a blinkered existence and believed what the guards said about original sin. However, the time he spent in the cell with Uncle had opened his eyes and he came to feel resentful. He still knew little of the outside world, but he was conscious of its existence and had experienced new emotions such as loneliness and longing. Still, it was only much later that he would feel guilt about what happened to his mother and brother—at this point, he was just angry. His father had tried to apologize to him following their execution, but there was little that he could say other than “You were unlucky to be born to us. What can you do? Things just turned out this way” (72).

Suicide was a constant temptation for prisoners in the camps, though the families of suicide victims would be punished. The mindset was that someone needed to be punished, so family members were typically targeted. For Shin, though, suicide was only a passing thought, for he had never known life outside the camp. He therefore benefited from having no point of comparison.

Shin’s luck changed one day when he found that his former teacher was gone. His new teacher was much more compassionate and did not want Shin to suffer from malnutrition. He therefore ensured that Shin had adequate food, did not have to engage in arduous tasks, and was no longer bullied by the other students. Shin did not know why the teacher made this effort, but he is certain that he would have died otherwise.