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FEATURE: Celebrated Korean poet Yun still resonates 80 years on
FUKUOKA - This year marks the 80th anniversary of Korean poet Yun Dong Ju's death in a Japanese prison following his involvement in the Korean independence movement during World War II.
Celebrated as a national poet in South Korea and by fans worldwide, Yun is renowned for his childlike introspection and critical poetic resistance against Japanese colonial rule.
A poetry society in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan -- where Yun died in prison at age 27 while serving a two-year sentence for violating a wartime security law -- has held monthly gatherings in his honor for over three decades.
"There is much to be learned from his hope for peace and his hard work during the difficult period of colonial rule, transcending times and countries. His work is a source of support for us today," said Mikiko Managi, the 61-year-old leader of the Yun Dong Ju Poetry Society.
Managi addressed around a dozen members who gathered to read Yun's poetry in April. Yun's poems were not published during his lifetime, but they became powerful symbols of national identity and resistance after his death. "He has the gaze of a children's poet, and you feel no hatred in him," Managi said.
The society, established in 1994, selects one of Yun's poems each month and discusses their impressions. Its members, ranging in age from their 30s to 70s, include Korean residents of Japan and Japanese learners of the Korean language.
The poem selected for discussion in April was "Until Dawn Comes." A verse translated into Japanese by Go Ibuki and published by Shoshikankanbou in Fukuoka reads: "...If they all shed tears, let them suckle milk. And when the dawn comes, they will hear the sound of the trumpet."
There are many translations of Yun's poems, including "Sky, Wind and Stars by Yun Dong-ju," the first English translation of Yun's complete works, published in the United States in 2003. In 2020, Korean-American poet Byun Man Sik translated Yun's most notable poems into English for a book titled "Yoon Dong-ju: Selected Poems."
Each member of the Fukuoka poetry group has their own interpretation. "I think 'Dawn' may mean the liberation of the Korean people," said first-time participant Takashi Tanabe. "Yun compares crying people to babies. It is so sweet," said Managi.
Managi came across Yun's work while studying abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea, the successor to Yun's alma mater, Yonhi College. After returning to Japan, a colleague invited her to join the club in 1997.
She says Yun's work appeals to her because of its nuance, which she experiences differently each time she reads his poetry.
Yun was born in Manchuria (now northeastern China) in 1917. In 1942, he moved to Japan and enrolled in the English Literature Department at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. Later that year, he transferred to the same department at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
While studying at Doshisha in 1943, Yun was arrested by the secret police and, the following year, sentenced to two years' imprisonment for violating the Public Order and Safety Act.
He is believed to have been punished for writing poems in his native Korean language despite facing immense pressure to use Japanese during the Japanese colonial period.
Yun died in prison on Feb. 16, 1945, but the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. His poetry mainly focused on the internal struggles and moral conflicts faced by a young Korean intellectual under Japanese imperialism.
Japan's colonial rule of Korea lasted from 1910 to 1945, ending with Japan's defeat in the war. Initially involving direct military rule, it was followed by efforts to assimilate Korea into Japan through cultural suppression and economic controls.
Yun's poems often used nature as a backdrop to explore themes of national identity, personal guilt, and the search for purity during a time of oppression. His poems are also characterized by glimpses of the folk spirit and Christianity -- Yun himself was Christian.
After his death, his family and friends published a collection of his poems in South Korea in 1948. These poems were later translated into more than eight languages and compiled in the book "Sky, Wind and Stars and Poem," published in Japanese in 1984.
This year, a Japanese-Korean bilingual book of poems with the same title was published in Japan. Doshisha University also awarded Yun a posthumous honorary doctorate in culture.
Yun's work has had a significant impact in South Korea, where his poems appear in middle and high school textbooks. He was the subject of the South Korean film "Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet," released in February 2016.
In February, Yun In Seok, Yun's 68-year-old nephew who supervised the bilingual Japanese-Korean edition, toured the site of the former Fukuoka Prison with Managi as his guide.
Yun said, "He makes you think deeply about how he tried to live out his youth amid Japanese militarism. After peace came, his poetry came to be loved like crystal."
Yuki Tsujino, an associate professor of Korean language at Kyushu University, said, "It would be good if more people read his poetry and interpreted it as they wish," noting the importance of freely sharing thoughts on Yun's work.
"As long as people continue to read Yun, he will live on," Tsujino said. "There is no other Korean-language poet in the Japanese-speaking world like him."
