Summary

When “Big Eyes” opens, the 6/25 war has begun. North Korea has invaded South Korea, and throughout Jeju Island there is disease, filth, pestilence, and executions. One hundred thousand refugees have arrived from the mainland. Young-sook states, “Killing happened on both sides here on Jeju and on the Korean mainland. Guilty and innocent died every day across our country….Day after day. Month after month. Seeing and smelling death, while mothers still tried to feed, clothe, and comfort their children” (252). The haenyeo, however, are permitted to dive again, and one day the Sut Dong collective meets another collective on the water that tells them that hundreds of bodies are being dumped in the sea. The leader of the Sut Dong collective is now Do-saeng, but in 1950 she turns 55, and it is time for...