Crossing Summary and Analysis

This quasi-historical non-fictional novel, published in 1970, occurs between 1932 and 1945 and presents the growth and development of a thirteen year-old through his eyes. The reader is immediately drawn into the family circle where he or she grows sympathetic to the boy and his nuclear and extended family. They reach the bridge on their daylong journey at twilight by the small border town that separates northern Korea, Manchuria and Siberia at the Tuman River. The year is 1933 and the boy is one year old. A young Korean mother in western-style clothes watches her husband and father of her baby boy taken off the train by Japanese at the railroad station just before the border. They stop at the last Korean town before entering Manchuria. A Japanese Thought Police detective and Japanese Military Policeman enter the train to ask her husband for papers and...