The third son

Hello, this is Jan! The book I read is “The third son”-Julie Wu. The author divides the book into two chapters, "1943–1957" and "1957–1962". The first half describes the main character, Saburo’s growth in Taiwan, and the second half is about his life after studying abroad, getting married, and fighting for his own future. I am going to share the main point and some of my reflections about 1 to 5 chapters. 

This story is written in the first person of Saburo, a Taiwanese eight-year-old boy who was born in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation, and shows the society background with his monologue. When American planes bombed Taiwan in 1943, Saburo rescued a girl named Yoshiko during an air raid. Taking a new lease of life from several attacks, Saburo walked Yoshiko home, and it became one of the most wonderful memories of Saburo. Keeping walking further, Saburo recalled his little brother, who was dead from pneumonia. Every time Saburo went back home, his mom would whip him, which didn’t apply to other siblings. He understood his parents blamed this unfortunate incident on Saburo for taking his brother out, but after seeing how Yoshiko got along with her family, Saburo realized that his mom was wrong.

One day Saburo was bitten by a krait snake, he rushed to find his cousin Toru, who worked in a clinic, and escaped from death again. Saburo told Toru his dream that he wanted to go to America, then he received a book named The earth from Toru. From then on, Saburo started putting his attention to study, requesting his mom to learn with his brothers and their tutor Sato. However, just two days later, he was not allowed to attend class any more because his mom thought he would disturb his brothers. On the day the Nationalists Army arrived, there was a celebrating parade, and Saburo saw Yoshiko again, crowded to the front line. A ragged man chasing a chicken bumped into Saburo, and his book dropped out from his backpack, held by the man. Saburo wanted to take it back, but someone behind him stopped him by saying that the man was a soldier. Saburo was catched by owning a Japanese book, and his father saved him by bribery but his book that he cherished a lot also was given to his oldest brother by his father.

There are many reasons that this book attracts me. First of all, I am interested in the background of this book, which is in the early Republic of China. Originally, I thought “The third son” was a translation of the Chinese version because of the author’s name, but I found it actually was the original work after searching some related information of this book. Then, I knew that this novel was based on the real experience of the author, the second generation of Taiwanese American, and it is her family background that enabled her to delicately describe the half century of the social scenes of Taiwan. Besides, when everyone was cheering for the return of the Nationalist regime, Saburo wondered why people celebrated the defeat of Japan, and I think this is about his confusion about national identity. A child has Chinese ancestry, ruled by the Japanese government but lives in the land of Taiwan. How could he find his own idea about nationality? Moreover, during the war time and the sensitive period, only one simple mistake like a Japanese book might lead to a life-threatening outcome. Still now, with this multicultural society, some of us may miss our identity on this issue, but fortunately we have the freedom to talk and explore more and more information by ourselves, which should be valued and treasured.

Second, this story also mentions a lot of family relationships, including how Saburo gets along with his parents, and the competition or even conflicts with his oldest brother. Maybe it’s because of Saburo’s personality or his birth order, he is rebellious in his parents' eyes. All the actions he does don’t correspond to the standard of the third son. In the family, his older brothers have more right and better treatment in both material and mind aspects. When Saburo was staring at the interactions of Yoshiko and her brothers, the joyful, warm atmosphere set off the loneliness of Saburo and the essential parts that were lacking in his family. What’s more, after getting home, what Saburo faced was the beating and scolding from his mom, but these became his motivation to study harder and go abroad.

Looking forward to the following life story of Saburo, I think it is a great chance to understand what has happened in the past and dig into the history of this island and my country.