Chunwon: Korea's Leo Tolstoy

By Choi Yearn-hong

Lee Kwang-su was one of a number of great Korean writers during the Japanese colonial rule over Korea, the first 45 years of the 20th century. He is better known as Chunwon, his pen name, meaning “spring garden.” During the last phase of Japanese rule he was known as a “pro-Japanese writer,” something that was not easily pardonable. But he was a young patriot who drafted the Feb. 8 Declaration of Independence that was delivered by Korean college students in Japan in 1919 in Tokyo’s major public park, about a month before the March 1 Independence Movement in Korea.

Immediately before that event, he went to Shanghai to join the Korean government in exile, and published and edited the Independence Newspaper, an organ of the exiled government during the first part of Japanese rule over Korea. After liberation, he was imprisoned for his pro-Japanese activities, but soon freed. When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, he was abducted by North Korean agents from his home in Seoul and died in North Korea on Oct. 25, 1950. (His death was released by the North Korean government. Its trustworthiness is questionable in the minds of some scholars.)

As a young middle school and high school boy, I read Choonwon’s historical novels, “Death of Yi Chadon,” “Admiral Yi Sun-shin,” “Koguryo’s First Great King, Dongmyungsung” and “Great Master Monk Wonhyo.” I also read his nationalistic educational novels, such as “Earth,” “Heartless,” “Love,” and “Love and Sympathy.” I didn’t buy all these novels from bookstores. My father bought them and read them before I did. Certainly, Lee Kwang-soo was comparable to Russia’s great writer Leo Tolstoy.

His dream and ambition ended in despair and frustration under Japan’s half-century rule. He, as a writer, tried to educate his fellow Korean people, with his creative works mentioned above others. Later, he worked as an editor of the Donga Ilbo and the Chosun Ilbo. He was a prolific writer. Not many people know Choonwon was a poet. He was. He produced more than 400 poems, including those for young children. All aimed at educating young Koreans to open their eyes to patriotism. One good example was Admiral Yi Sun-shin. He wrote articles, poems and a major novel under the same title of Yi Sun-shin. He was a fine translator, knowledgeable in English, Chinese and Russian.

No one denies his pro-Japanese activities in the last phase of Japanese rule. I guess he believed Japanese victories in the Pacific War could eventually benefit Korea or he was forced to cooperate with Japanese authorities or face death. I never believed that he was voluntarily cooperating with the Japanese rulers. Unfortunately, many modern critics listed him as an unpardonable pro-Japanese writer and tried to erase his works from modern Korean literature.

I am now more sympathetic to him and want to pardon him personally, because his literary works had a significant impact on the generations of my father and me. My high school friends went to Seoul National University College of Agriculture after they read “Earth.” One friend went to the Korean Naval Academy in Jinhae after reading “Admiral Yi Sun-shin.” Last month, I attended a Chunwon workshop sponsored by the Asian Studies Association in Philadelphia. At the workshop, I met several scholars from Japan, experts on Chunwon, including Professor Setsuko Hatano of the University of Nigata and Tsutomu Kumaki of Fukuoka University. I asked them, “Why Lee Kwang-soo?” Their answers were quite striking, “We learn more about Japan from his novels written during the 1930s and ’40s.” They agreed to the fact that Chunwon’s works contained his unique views on Japanese history, society and culture. They speak Korean fluently. I met many admirable scholars on Chunwon in Philadelphia.

I met Chunwon’s daughter, Lee Chung-wha, a doctor in bio-chemistry, now the director of the Chunwon Cultural Exchange Program for humanitarian works under the name of her beloved father. She was a young lady of 14 when her father was arrested by North Korean agents at her house in June 1950. She remembers her father vividly. She told me and others at the workshop that her father’s favorite works were “Great Master Wonhyo” and “Love and Sympathy.” I translate “Yujung” the Korean title into “Love and Sympathy” in English. At the moment, I cannot find a proper translation of “Yujung.” Please help me, if anyone knows.

I learned a lot on Chunwon from the three-hour workshop. Two scholars from Korea offered me the major thrust of my knowledge: Professor Choi Chong-ko, retired from Seoul National University College of Law, who is currently president of the Korean Biography Study Group, and Professor Yun Hong-no, retired from Dankook University’s Korean Language and Literature Department, who is currently president of the Lee Kwang-soo Research Association. They are two leading scholars on Chunwon from Korea. From the workshop, I was motivated to translate “Yujung” into English and one or two poetry books for Western readers. It is my ambition at the moment. I don’t know whether my ability will meet my ambition.

I would like to propose the so-called pro-Japanese Korean people who collaborated with the Japanese authorities before and after the Pacific War (1940-1945), to be pardoned with our sympathy and compassion. So many good Korean people have been listed as pro-Japanese collaborators. That may be an unfair injustice to them. The heart of nationalism is sympathy and compassion. Most recently, I read one sad episode about the major newspaper editor in Pyongyang who committed suicide on the Liberation Day of 1945. He was guilty of printing an article to persuade young Korean people to serve Japan’s ``Sacred War,” the Pacific War, under the name of Cho Mann-sik, the nationalist leader in Pyongyang at that time. He was under the pressure from the Japanese government to run such an article bylined by Cho. Obviously, he could not do it. So he used Cho’s name in the article he wrote.

We should move our history forward.

Dr. Choi is a poet and writer based in the Washington area. He has been a contributor to The Korea Times since 1966.