This is an excellent story that presents the reader with a
shocking wartime situation in which two childhood friends are now on opposite sides of
each other in a war. Tokchae is the prisoner who is to be escorted to a different
location by Songsam, who were childhood friends and shared many happy moments together
in their youth. However, now they find themselves separated by an ideological divide
that appears to be insurmountable... or does it. The story of the crane that they
trapped and then released clearly foreshadows Songsam's decision to give his friend a
chance to escape. Note how the crane's release is described in the flashback to their
childhood days:
...the boy's crane stretched its long neck with a
whoop and disappeared into the sky. For a long time the two boys could not take their
eyes away from the blue sky into which their crane had
soared.
Obviously, moved by
this memory and the sense of freedom which it had given them, Songsam feels that he is
able to overcome the ideological divide and act in his friend's best interest. Thus the
theme of this moving story is the way that the power of friendship can overcome all
barriers.
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