The Investigation (36 page)

At the end of the nineteenth century many Koreans began to move to Manchuria to avoid the deepening famine in northern Korea. Dong-ju’s great-grandfather moved his family
to Manchuria around 1886. On 30 December 1917 Dong-ju, the eldest son of Yun Yeong-seok and Kim Yong, was born in Mingdong village, Helong Prefecture, Jiandao Province, Manchuria.

As a child, Dong-ju showed talent in poetry. In 1935 he transferred to Sungsil Middle School in Pyongyang, which was closed down the following year for its refusal to worship at a Japanese
Shinto shrine. Dong-ju returned to Manchuria to finish middle school and began to publish poems in magazines. In 1938 he enrolled in Yonhi College (now Yonsei University) in Seoul. He began to
immerse himself in Korean literature, history and the nationalist movement. In 1940 he attended Hyupsung Church and Bible study on the campus of Ewha Woman’s College while continuing to write
and publish poems.

In 1941 Dong-ju graduated from Yonhi College. In celebration of that occasion, he gathered nineteen poems into his first volume of poetry, entitled
The Sky, the Wind, the Stars and
Poetry
. However, three of the poems, ‘Cross’, ‘Sad Tribe’ and ‘Another Home’, were censored. Concerned for Dong-ju’s safety, his professor urged him
to give up. Dong-ju entrusted his professor, and his friend Jeong Byeong-uk, with copies of the manuscript for safekeeping.

At the end of 1941 his family changed its surname to Hiranuma to assist in Dong-ju’s application to study abroad in Japan. The following year Dong-ju moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the
English Literature department at Rikkyo University. He visited his home town for the last time that summer. In the autumn Dong-ju transferred to Doshisha University in Kyoto.

In July 1943 Dong-ju was arrested as a political offender and all of his writings were confiscated. In 1944 he was indicted and sentenced to two years at Fukuoka Prison for the violation of
Clause V of the Maintenance of Public Order Act.

On 18 February 1945 Dong-ju’s family received a telegram notifying them of his death. At Fukuoka Prison, Dong-ju’s father and cousin witnessed fifty-odd Korean men standing in front
of the infirmary, waiting for infusions. Prison officials told them that Dong-ju died at 3.36 in the morning on 16 February. A young Japanese guard approached them and said, ‘Right before he
died, Dong-ju shouted something loudly.’ His body was cremated and brought home, and the family buried him in a church cemetery. ‘Self-Portrait’ and ‘New Path’ were
recited at his funeral.

In May 1945 the Yun family erected a tombstone inscribed ‘The Grave of Poet Yun Dong-ju’. On 15 August 1945 Japan was defeated, and Korea became newly independent. In 1947
‘Easily Composed Poem’ was published for the first time in the newspaper
Kyunghyang Sinmun
, and in 1948 Dong-ju’s friend Jeong Byeong-uk published the thirty-one poems
that the poet had entrusted to him, under the title
The Sky, the Wind, the Stars and Poetry.

In 1977 the top-secret document ‘Monthly Report of the Special Higher Police’, published during the Japanese occupation, was obtained, and Dong-ju’s interrogation records were
released. Two years later another document was declassified, confirming Dong-ju’s sentence and his participation in the independence movement. In 1982, thirty-seven years after
Dong-ju’s death, a copy of the verdict was released. In 1985 a Professor Omura, of Waseda University in Japan, and officials in Yanbian discovered Dong-ju’s grave and tombstone in
Longjing, China.

Yun Dong-ju is one of the most well-known and well-respected poets in Korea. His poetry continues to be taught in schools nationwide.

This is a work of fiction. I consulted a variety of records for an accurate description of the times. The poems by Yun Dong-ju are from Dong-ju’s only published book of
poetry. The characters’ personalities and actions are entirely fictional; I ask for the understanding of their descendants.

I would not have been able to write this novel without the books about Yun Dong-ju and his body of work, such as
The Complete Collection of Yun Dong-ju’s Poetry
, ed. Hong Jang-hak
(Munhakgwa Jisongsa),
Night Counting Stars
, ed. Lee Nam-ho (Minumsa World Poetry) and the writings and research materials of countless scholars whose names are too numerous to include,
such as
The Critical Biography of Yun Dong-ju
by Song U-hye (Purun Yeoksa),
Yun Dong-ju – 1 Study of Korean Modern Poet
by Lee Geon-cheong (Munhak Segyesa) and
If Spring
Comes to My Star – Yun Dong-ju’s Life and Literature
by Go Un-gi (Sanha).

First published 2014 by Mantle

This electronic edition published 2014 by Mantle
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
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Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-76873-4

Copyright © Jung-myung Lee 2014
Translation copyright © Chi-Young Kim 2014

The right of Jung-myung Lee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Daesan Foundation supported the translation and publication of this book.

The List of Sources
here
constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

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