[Anchor]
The handwritten manuscripts of Shim Hoon, a prominent resistance poet and novelist during the Japanese colonial period, have returned to South Korea to mark the 90th anniversary of his passing. The poetry collection "When That Day Comes," which was never published during his lifetime, clearly bears the red traces of Japanese colonial censorship.
Reporter Lee Ju-sang has the story.
[Reporter]
[Shim Sung-bo / Grandson of Shim Hoon: "When that day comes, when that day comes, even Bukhansan Mountain will rise and dance wildly, and the waters of the Han River will turn over and surge on that day."] <Note: Samgaksan refers to Bukhansan Mountain>
The original title of "When That Day Comes" was "Danjangisu," meaning a sorrow so deep it feels like one's intestines are tearing.
While preparing the "Shim Hoon Poetry Collection" in 1932, Shim Hoon changed the title of this poem to "When That Day Comes," wrote it out himself, and submitted it to the Japanese Government-General for censorship.
The response from the Government-General was a red stamp reading "Deletion."
The order was to delete the entire poem, not just a few phrases.
In the end, the poetry collection was published only in 1949, after the poet's death and national liberation.
The manuscript containing vivid evidence of censorship and the poet's handwriting has returned to his homeland for the 90th anniversary of his death.
[Im Heon-young / Director, National Museum of Korean Literature: "You can feel how thorough the Japanese colonial literary censorship and surveillance were. You can consider this as the single most vivid piece that remains today."]
The manuscript was kept by the poet's third son, Shim Jae-ho, when he immigrated to the United States, and was recently donated to the National Museum of Korean Literature.
[Shim Young-joo / Granddaughter of Shim Hoon: "My father (Shim Jae-ho) always thought it had to return to the motherland, and our family always thought so too."]
His final poem, "Oh, You Young Men of Joseon!", which was hastily handwritten on the back of a newspaper extra about Son Kee-chung's gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics about a month before the poet passed away, was also unveiled for the first time.
Some 700 pages of handwritten manuscripts for the poet's representative novel "Evergreen Tree" also returned together.
The returned manuscripts and related materials are scheduled to be permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Korean Literature, which opens early next year.
(Video by Choi Ho-jun | Video Editing by Kim Jong-mi)
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