Do you remember the sunflowers? What did I say then? I can’t fully recall it now. Part of the memory has worn away, as though a hole had opened in the fabric of it. The gold in the sunlight was too dazzling to look at directly. The green was so clear and upright, so full…

In the small village of Suncheon, Korea, during the Japanese occupation of World War II, my life changed forever. I had been a dedicated schoolteacher until the Japanese authorities shut down our schools, leaving me to work as a seamstress. The loss of my classroom was a constant ache in my heart. One evening, as…