[KS] About Park Ryol

vladimir.tikhonov at ikos.uio.no vladimir.tikhonov at ikos.uio.no
Tue Sep 12 21:50:10 EDT 2006


I have a book on my shelf entitled <Sin ChosOn hyOngmyOngnon> (On New
Korea's Revolution), and written by Pak YOl, presumably at some point
after having been released in 1945 and before eventually departing for
DPRK. The book seems to be very critical towards the Communists - quite
ironically, in view of what happened with Pak afterwards - but, shamefully
enough, I haven't read it yet in full. It was published by POmusa in 2004,
and Kyobo link is here:
http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?ejkGb=KOR&mallGb=KOR&barcode=9788908060814&orderClick=LAA

And a little note about "chabyOng" - that seems to be an old classical
term for poetic collection with diverce topics. I can recollect
"SigyOngjOng chabyOng" by Songgang ChOng Ch'Ol (1536-1593), and that is
only one among many.

Vladimir

> Park Rrrrryol, that doesn't exactly conform with
> the Republican transcription system, does it? You
> can take the term  t'ujaeng quite literally,
> meaning combat, fight -- used to refer to fights
> with military means, or later, in mainland China,
> also to ideological struggle (e.g. against
> political enemies within). You will find many
> Communist leaflets from the 1930s and 1940s with
> "t'ujaeng" in the title, and there are even a
> couple of "Bloody Struggle Histories of ..." the
> anti-Japanese movement that were published in
> South Korea between 1945 and 1949. After that the
> term has rarely been used in the South, but
> continued to be in high regard in the North and
> in Mao's China. Although I would not associate
> the term to Hitler's book. "Kampf" may well be
> translated as "t'ujaeng," that seems a good
> choice, in this case. Then again, "Kampf" is a
> much more neutral word in German, not at all as
> defined as "t'ujaeng," and by no means
> necessarily referring to military or militant
> means.
>
> I doubt that Pak Yôl published a text with such
> title, _Naûi t'ujaeng_, at least not in South
> Korea or during the colonial period. The
> anarchist journals and publications that the
> circle around Prof. Ha Ki-rak (I think he passed
> away) is publishing in T'aegu would sure have
> reproduced such text, but I never even saw a
> reference to it. The title would indicate that
> the text, if it exists, was likely published in
> North Korea. Am I wrong? Then again, I doubt it
> is a book -- maybe just a short article. Pak was
> not an intellectual, not a leader either, he
> didn't write much. There are others who did, like
> mentioned Ha Ki-rak or Chông Hwa-am, or Yu
> Cha-myông from the Korean minority in China. Even
> Yu Su-in who was once Ba Jin's Esperanto teacher
> and who returned to North Korea (from China) in
> the 1950s has left a long trace of publications
> in both Chinese and Korean from the 1920s to his
> death. (His grandson once showed me a 5000 pages
> manuscript about the anarchist movement that he
> had written.) Pak, on the other hand, had his day
> of fame when he and his lover Kaneko were picked
> by the Japanese authorities after the Kanto Earth
> Quake to go on trial -- as a representative for
> all Koreans in Japan, and as an indirect
> justification of the massacres that had happened
> in the aftermath of the earth quake.
>
> All there seems to be by Pak Yôl himself are
> poems he wrote in prison, published  in the
> popular left-wing magazine _Samchôlli_ (no. 14,
> December 1949) [just saw the reference, haven't
> seen them yet]: "Naûi okchung chap'yông"
> (Miscellaneous poems from my time in jail). The
> term "chap'yông," by the way, seems to be a
> neo-Japonism. I could only find it in a Japanese
> dictionary.
>
> Since you mention Kaneko Fumiko (1903-1926) --
> her autobiography, written in prison, for the
> trial, as was usual in the Japanese legal system
> at the time, is a full-fleged book (250 pp. in
> English translation). It is an absolutely amazing
> account! Very well written, extremely mature for
> a twenty year old woman, a woman who grew up
> under depressingly poor circumstances in Japan
> and Korea, and as sensitive and politically
> engaging as an autobiography can possibly be.
> --> _The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman_ (ISBN: 0873328027)
>
> Best,
> Frank
>
>
>>I was interested to see that KBS recently
>>prepared a documentary drama about Kaneko
>>Fumiko, the 'lover' of the Korean anarchist Park
>>Yol. I have heard that Park published an account
>>of his activities (I assume after being freed
>>from prison in 1945?) and some give the title as
>>'na ui tujaeng' (the same Korean as Mein
>>Kampf!!!) but I am unable (with my meagre
>>patience) to track this work. Can I ask if
>>anyone knows of it, and where it mmight be
>>found? I would be most grateful.
>>
>>Brother Anthony
>>Sogang University, Seoul
>>http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/
>
>
> --
> --------------------------------------
> Frank Hoffmann
> http://koreaweb.ws
>
>






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