"Occupation" was written by Korean-American poet Suji Kwock Kim in 1994 and later included in her 2003 collection Notes from the Divided Country. The poem describes soldiers building a house with a foundation made of corpses, walls painted with blood, and a roof covered with the ash of burning bodies. While "Occupation" never mentions specific countries, readers can interpret the poem as an extended metaphor for the Japanese occupation of Korea. After annexing Korea in 1910, Japan brutally suppressed Korean culture while also conscripting hundreds of thousands of Koreans into forced labor and sexual slavery. "Occupation" depicts the horror of the Japanese rule through graphic imagery and the soldiers' sinister invitation to occupy this "house" built on the backs of the Korean people's suffering.
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The soldiers are ...
... building a house.
They hammer ...
... with blood.
Inside, the doors ...
... eyes of stone.
And the stairs ...
... ash is falling—
dark snow, ...
... falling.
Come, they say. ...
... last forever.
You shall occupy ...
... for everyone.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
A U.S. Poet Laureate Reflects on "Occupation" — Read former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky's reflections on the poem in The Washington Post.
The Occupation of Korea — Learn more about the history of the Japanese occupation of Korea.
Life Under Japanese Rule — Read more about life in Korea under Japan's rule.
Suji Kwock Kim's Life and Work — Read a brief biography courtesy of Poets.org.