Yun Dong-ju (尹東柱, December 30, 1917 – February 16, 1945) was a Korean independence activist, poet, and writer during Japanese rule of Korea. His family seat was Papyeong (坡平), and his art name was Haehwan (海煥). He was born on December 30, 1917, in Myeongdong Village (明東村) in Northern Jiandao, and hi
Born~Died Dec 30, 1917 ~ Feb 16, 1945Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 2:51 PM
Yun Ha-hyeon (grandfather), Yun Jae-ok (great-grandfather), Yun In-seok (nephew), Kim Yak-yeon (maternal uncle), Kim Hak-yeon (maternal uncle), Song Chang-hui (uncle by marriage), Yun Shin-young (uncle), Song Mong-gyu (paternal first cousin once removed on maternal side, i.e., cousin on his father's sister's side), Song Han-bok (female first cousin), Song Woo-gyu (male first cousin)
Yun Dong-ju (尹東柱, December 30, 1917 – February 16, 1945) was a Korean independence activist, poet, and writer in Korea during Japanese rule of Korea. His family seat was Papyeong (坡平), and his art name was Haehwan (海煥). He was born on December 30, 1917, in Myeongdong Village (明東村) in Northern Jiandao, and his registered domicile was Lot 76, Pohang-dong, Cheongjin City, North Hamgyong Province. Myeongdong Village was originally barren land in Eastern Jiandao. However, after Kim Yak-yeon, Kim Ha-gyu, Mun Byeong-gyu, and others from Hamgyong Province collectively migrated to Eastern Jiandao in 1899 with more than 140 dependents, and after Yun Dong-ju's grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon and others joined them, it became the largest Korean village in Eastern Jiandao, with the meaning "a place that illuminates the East" (明東村).
He studied at Myeongdong School (明東學校), and graduated from Soongsil Middle School (崇實中學校) in Pyongyang and Yeonhui College (延禧專門學校) in Seoul. While he was a second-year student at Yeonhui College, he published a poem in the magazine Sonyeon (少年), and formally made his debut in the literary world.
He went to Japan and entered Doshisha University in Kyoto in 1942. In 1943, he was arrested by Japanese police on suspicion of engaging in anti-Japanese activities and was imprisoned at Fukuoka Prison (福岡刑務所). He left more than 100 poems behind and died in prison at the age of 27. There is a view that his cause of death was related to Japanese experiments on living subjects using hydrochloric acid, and after his death claims of Maruta and human experimentation by the Imperial Japanese Army were raised, but these remain uncertain. After his death, his poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》) was published.
He was recognized as one of the conscientious intellectuals of the late Japanese rule of Korea period, and his poetry took as its subjects criticism of Japanese imperialism and the , as well as self-reflection. His cousin on his mother's side, (宋夢奎), also attempted to join the independence movement, but was arrested, classified as a subject of Japanese living-subject experiments, and died under mysterious circumstances. His Japanese name under the Sōshi-kaimei policy, "Hiranuma," became known, and this caused controversy from the late 1990s onward.
🤖 This page was machine-translated by AI from 한국어 “윤동주”. Please fix any mistakes.
This page is based on “윤동주” from 한국어 위키백과, (r42533159) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.
Yun Dong-ju was born on December 30, 1917, in Myeongdong Village (明東村) in Northern Jiandao.1 This place was originally barren land in Northern Jiandao, but after Kim Yak-yeon, Kim Ha-gyu, Mun Byeong-gyu, and others from Hamgyong Province collectively migrated to Eastern Jiandao in 1899 with more than 140 dependents, and after Yun Dong-ju's grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon and others joined them, it became the largest Korean village in Northern Jiandao, with the meaning "a place that illuminates the East" (明東村).
Yun Dong-ju's great-grandfather Yun Jae-ok (尹在玉) lived in Sangjangpo, Dongpung-myeon, Jongseong County, North Hamgyong Province, before moving to Gildong Jilin Province in 1886. His grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon, a devout Presbyterian elder, moved his livelihood to Myeongdong Village. His father Yun Yeong-seok (尹永錫) married Kim Yong, the younger sister of Kim Yak-yeon, who was the founder of Myeongdong School, in 1910, and worked as a teacher at Myeongdong School.
In the late 19th century, Koreans migrated en masse to Jiandao because famine had become severe across Hamgyong and Pyongan Provinces, and they sought new livelihoods. However, there were also cases in which, for religious reasons similar to the Puritans of America, people built new village communities, and Gusedong (救世洞), Yeongsaengdong (永生洞), Nakwondong (樂園洞), and Myeongsindong (明信洞) are representative examples. In contrast, Kim Yak-yeon, who believed in Confucianism, initially intended to build a Confucian ideal village that practiced the ideology of "trust, food, and military" (信·食·兵) based on the political philosophy of Mencius, and in 1901 he established Gyuamjae (規巖齋), a private Confucian school.
Then, after Yi Sang-seol and others came to realize the need for modern education through the Seojeon Academy (瑞甸義塾) established in the neighboring village of Daebul-dong, they founded Myeongdong School. At that time, Kim Yak-yeon invited Jeong Jae-myeon, a graduate of the Seoul Youth Academy, as a teacher, and Jeong Jae-myeon proposed as a condition of his appointment that he teach the Bible in school and hold worship services. Accordingly, Kim Yak-yeon deliberated for several days and then resolved to convert to Presbyterianism, and he studied at the Pyongyang Theological Seminary and became a Presbyterian pastor. In this way, the village was transformed into a Christian community, with churches established and religious education conducted in schools, while at the same time he invited nationalists including Yi Dong-hwi and held revival Bible conferences to devote efforts to faith training and the cultivation of national spirit.
Kim Yak-yeon did not limit himself to education for the independence movement, but personally took the lead in the Korean independence movement. In November 1918, his name was listed among the 39 signatories of the Declaration of Independence of Muo in Gilin, and in March 1919, because he took part in drafting the "Proclamation of Independence of Jiandao" and led the March 13 Independence Movement in Eastern Jiandao, he was arrested by the Japanese and endured two years of imprisonment. The Japanese Jiandao Subjugation Force destroyed Myeongdong School on October 20, 1920, and in 1925 it was ordered closed. By that time, over a span of 17 years, Myeongdong School had produced more than 1,200 national leaders.
His grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon was a Presbyterian elder and a wealthy farmer, and his father Yun Yeong-seok worked as a teacher at Myeongdong School. From childhood he was influenced by his grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon, who was a Christian. His aunt Yun Shin-young married Song Chang-hui, and that aunt's son was the independence activist Song Mong-gyu, who was his first cousin on his mother's side. His paternal uncle was Yun Yeong-chun (尹永春), and Yun Hyeong-ju (尹亨柱), who later became a singer, was his second cousin once removed (6th-degree relative).
Childhood
In 1925 he entered Myeongdong Elementary School (明東小學校), and while attending, together with his cousin Song Mong-gyu and others, he published the literary magazine Sae Myeongdong (《새 명동》).2 Six years later, in 1931, at age 14, he graduated from Myeongdong Elementary School, transferred to Hwaryong Prefectural First Elementary School, and studied there for one year. After his family moved to Yongjeong, he entered Eunjin Middle School (恩眞中學校).
However, in 1935 he transferred to Soongsil Middle School in Pyongyang, where Moon Ik-hwan, a fellow elementary school alumnus, was enrolled. In October of that year, he published the poem "Gongsang" (空想) in Soongsil Hwalcheon (崇實活泉), No. 15, the student council's bulletin of Soongsil Middle School. However, in December 1935, an incident occurred in which Soongsil students refused to take part in "lantern worship," and on January 18, 1936, the school principal George S. McCune (Korean name Yun San-on) finally refused to conduct Shinto shrine worship, which resulted in his dismissal from his post on January 20 and nearly led to his deportation to the United States. Afterward, Soongsil Middle School was closed indefinitely, and he transferred together with Moon Ik-hwan to Gwangmyeong Middle School in Yongjeong. At Gwangmyeong Middle School he met Chung Il-kwon and others.
Yeonhui College years
Around 1937, when he was in his final year at Gwangmyeong Middle School, he came into conflict with his father (who hoped he would enter the medical faculty) over the question of further education, but with his grandfather's intervention he decided to enter the literature faculty of Yeonhui College. On February 17, 1938, after graduating from Gwangmyeong Middle School, he went to study in Gyeongseong (京城), Seoul, and in April of that year he entered Yeonhui College. Living in a dormitory and then in a boarding house, he walked around the neighborhood, drew inspiration for poetry, wrote poems, and discussed matters with friends. According to Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, who had grown up with Yun Dong-ju in Myeongdong Village, Yun Dong-ju knew more about the philosophy of the existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard than Moon, who was studying theology. As a student studying literature, he studied a wide range of humanities.
While he was at Yeonhui College, Yun Dong-ju studied diligently; according to a biography of Yun Dong-ju published by Hangyeoreh Eorini, the linguist the late Choi Hyun-bae gave him a perfect score in the Korean language course, and according to Cheoreom (《처럼》, written by Kim Eung-gyo) published by Moonji Publishing, he studied the languages of various countries, including French, Chinese, and Korean (called Joseon-eo during the Japanese colonial period). In 1939, while a second-year student at Yeonhui College, he published essays and poems in the student section of the Chosun Ilbo, and in that same year he published a poem in the magazine Sonyeon (《소년》), receiving his first manuscript fee.
Also, while studying at Yeonhui College, he wrote essays such as "Shooting the Moon" (《달을 쏘다》) and poems such as "Sad Tribe" (슬픈 족속), writing works based on school life. In 1940, as surveillance of students by Japanese police became stricter, he left the Yeonhui College dormitory together with his junior Jeong Byeong-uk, and they lived together in boarding houses in areas such as Bukahyeon-dong and Nusang-dong, devoting themselves to writing. Afterward, around the time he graduated from the Faculty of Literature of Yeonhui College on December 27, 1941, he selected 19 of the poems he had written in his spare time and tried to publish them as the poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》), but because of the concern of those around him about Japanese repression, specifically the persuasion of English literature professor Yun Yang-ha, he could not realize this intention, and he gave the manuscript to Jeong Byeong-uk and began preparing to study abroad at a Japanese university.
According to the Dongnehanbaquie segment on Gwangyang City, South Jeolla Province, hosted by actor Kim Young-chul, and to Cheoreom (Moonji Publishing), written by Professor Kim Eung-gyo of Sookmyung Women's University, Jeong Byeong-uk, when he was conscripted as a student soldier, had to leave for the road after entrusting the manuscript to his mother, and Jeong Byeong-uk's mother kept the poetry collection written in Korean, to avoid the Japanese policy of eradication of Korean national identity, in a jar at home.
In the Dongnehanbaquie Gwangyang City segment, Jeong Byeong-uk's birth home and manuscripts are preserved, and the manuscripts are displayed as facsimile editions so that citizens can read them. Actually, the Incheon Modern and Contemporary Literature Museum (a literary exhibition hall that displays the history of modern and contemporary literature, with a main building and a special exhibition hall, located in Jung-gu, Incheon, along the road in front of the Jung-gu Office together with the Art Platform; it can be reached by getting off at Sinpo Station on the Incheon Suin Line and walking straight toward the Jung-gu Fire Station and Art Platform) also displays facsimile editions of poetry collections such as Kim So-wol's Azalea Flowers (진달래꽃) and Manhae Han Yong-un's The Silence of Love (님의 침묵) so that Incheon citizens can read them. As this suggests, the facsimile editions are displayed as a wise means of preventing damage to the originals.
Study in Japan
In March 1942 he went to Japan and entered the English Literature Department of the Faculty of Letters at Rikkyo University (立教大学) in Tokyo, which is run by the Japan Anglican Church; in October he transferred to the English Literature Department of Doshisha University in Kyoto.2 Doshisha University was the school attended by Jeong Ji-yong, the poet whom Yun Dong-ju liked best; it was a Protestant school run by the Congregationalist church of Japan.3
Sōshi-kaimei
The Yun family is recorded as having adopted the surname "Hiranuma" (平沼) in late 1941.4 In order to make Yun Dong-ju's departure for Japan possible, as he had intended to study in Japan, the family changed their surname to Hiranuma.
Yun Dong-ju's adoption of a Japanese name was not related to his own wishes. According to his chronology, at the end of 1941, when he graduated from the fourth year of Yeonhui College three months early due to the shortening of the school curriculum during wartime, "to escape Japanese repression at the home village and to complete the departure procedures for Dong-ju to Japan, the family changed the surname to 'Hiranuma'"56. After the name change, Yun Dong-ju is said to have suffered greatly.
Five days after he submitted the application for the name change, he wrote the poem "Repentance" (참회록), which depicts the suffering and bitter sorrow caused by the name change.7 The matter of Yun Dong-ju's name change was not well known after liberation, but it became widely known in the 1990s. It must be remembered that this was not because he conformed to colonialism, in which Japan forced Japanese language and script rather than Korean language and script in an attempt to eradicate the traditions of the Korean people, but because without taking a Japanese name he could not obtain the entry and exit documents needed for study abroad; that is, he had no choice but to do it in order to study abroad.
Study in Japan and arrest
In 1942 he went to Japan and entered the English Literature Department of Rikkyo University (立教大学) in Tokyo, and after six months he withdrew and transferred to the Faculty of Letters of Doshisha University in Kyoto. However, he was regarded as a "dangerous Korean" (不逞鮮人) and was under surveillance by Japanese police.
On July 14, 1943, before he set out on his journey home, he was arrested by Japanese police as a political offender under the Peace Preservation Law and detained at Kamogawa Police Station in Kyoto. The following year, at the Kyoto District Court, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and was confined in Fukuoka Prison. The judgment document dated March 31, 1944, under the name of Presiding Judge Ishii Hirao of the First Criminal Division of the Kyoto District Court, sentenced him to two years' imprisonment and states: "Yun Dong-ju, from childhood, received education at a national school, was steeped in ideas and culture, and through the influence of friends harbored strong national consciousness, held deep resentment about discrimination between Japan and Joseon (Naisen), and committed reckless acts aimed at realizing the ambition of Korean independence." 8 At the Kyoto District Court, together with Song Mong-gyu, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for violating Article 5 of the Peace Preservation Law, and afterward was transferred to Fukuoka Prison.
Imprisonment and death
Yun Dong-ju died in prison at Fukuoka Prison at 3:36 a.m. on February 16, 1945. His body was cremated and delivered to his family, and after a funeral held in March of that year, his remains were buried in Longjing, Jilin (aged 27). His gravestone was made from a white stone prepared as a memorial stone for his grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon.
On February 26 of the same year, a telegram reading "Dong-ju died on February 16, come to collect the body" was delivered to his home village. His father Yun Yeong-seok and his paternal uncle Yun Yeong-chun went to Japan to receive and take care of the body. However, a postal notice arrived at his home later, stating: "Dong-ju critically ill; release on bail possible. If he dies, the body will be taken away or else provided to the Medical Faculty of Kyushu Imperial University for dissection. Please hurry." Later, Yun Dong-ju's younger brother Yun Il-ju recalled this, saying, "The grief of the family upon seeing this, which arrived ten days later than the death telegram, was indescribable."
Meanwhile, regarding his death, claims have also been raised that it was the result of regularly receiving injections of an unidentified substance while in prison, and that this was part of Japanese living-subject experiments.9
After death
In February 1947, through the introduction of Jeong Ji-yong, his posthumous works were first introduced in the Kyunghyang Shinmun, and a memorial gathering was held together with it.
In February 1948, timed to the third-anniversary memorial service for Yun Dong-ju, a first edition of the posthumous poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem was temporarily published, consisting of 31 of his posthumous poems and a preface by Jeong Ji-yong, and in March of the same year it was officially published by Jeongeumsa.10 Afterward, from March 1962, when independence veterans were discovered and decorated in large numbers, a Order of National Foundation, Merit was applied for on his behalf, but his bereaved family declined. Only on August 15, 1990, was the Order of National Foundation, Independence Medal posthumously conferred. In 1985, the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award was established by the Korean Writers' Association to carry on his poetic spirit.
Works
Yun Dong-ju's poetry collection was published after his death and caused a great sensation.
Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》) — Most of his works are included in this posthumous poetry collection. The 1948 first edition contained 31 poems, but when poems held by the bereaved family were added, the third edition of 1976 came to include a total of 116 poems.
Complete Collection of Yun Dong-ju's Handwritten Poetry Manuscripts in Facsimile (《사진판 윤동주 자필 시고전집》)
He is regarded as a national poet of resistance and as a poet with strong will and gentle lyricism,1112 and in 1991 he was selected as the poet whom Koreans like best.13 In North Korea, he is evaluated as a "patriotic poet who inspired independence consciousness in the late Japanese colonial period."14
His poetry lyrically expresses content that rises from daily life, and it is evaluated as containing deep contemplation of humanity and the universe, the anguish of colonial intellectuals, and a sincere consciousness of self-reflection.15
Part of Underwood Hall (Pinson Hall), used as a student dormitory during Yun Dong-ju's time at Yeonhui College, has been made into the Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall. There is a plan to convert all of Pinson Hall into the Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall in the future.16
There is a Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall at Yongjeong High School in Yongjeong.18
Memorials
On November 2, 1968, a "Yun Dong-ju Poetry Monument" (詩碑), inscribed with his posthumous poem "Prologue," was erected at Yonsei University using funds raised by Yonsei University and others.
From 1985, the monthly literary magazine selected and awarded the winners of the "Yun Dong-ju Literary Award" in his commemoration every year.
In September 1992, a poetry monument inscribed with "Prologue" (序詩) was erected at Yongjeong Middle School, his alma mater.20
In 1995, a poetry monument inscribed with his handwritten "Prologue" and its Japanese translation was erected at Doshisha University in Japan.21 In 2005, a poetry monument for Jeong Ji-yong, whom Yun Dong-ju liked best, was erected beside it.22 In addition, there is a movement to erect a memorial near the place near Kyoto University where he stayed.
In 1999, he was selected by the Korean Art Critics Association as an artist of South Korea who shone in the 20th century, in the field of art.
Family relations
Great-grandfather: Yun Jae-ok
Grandfather: Yun Ha-hyeon (尹夏鉉, March 8, 1875 (lunar February 1) – September 4, 1948)
Grandmother: Lady Kang (1875 – 1947)
Father: Yun Yeong-seok (尹永錫, August 1, 1895 – April 20, 1962)
Mother: Kim Yong (金龍, October 1, 1892 – September 26, 1948, family seat Jeonju (全州))
Older sister: Yun Hye-won (尹惠媛, 1924 – December 11, 2011)
Brother-in-law: O Hyeong-beom (1924 – March 11, 2015)
Nephew (sister's son): O Cheol-ju
Younger brother: Yun Il-ju (尹一柱, childhood name Yun Dal-hwan, November 23, 1927 – November 28, 1985, former professor of architectural engineering at Sungkyunkwan University)
Nephew: Yun In-seok (尹仁石, 1956 – present, professor of architecture at Sungkyunkwan University)
Younger brother: Yun Gwang-ju (尹光柱, childhood name Yun Byeol-hwan, June 19, 1930 – October 8, 1966, poet.)
Aunt: Yun Shin-young (1897 – ?)
Uncle by marriage: Song Chang-hui (1891 – 1971)
Half-maternal uncle: Kim Yak-yeon (金躍淵, September 12, 1868 – October 29, 1942), Confucian scholar, independence activist
In-law: Jeong Byeong-uk (鄭炳昱, March 25, 1922 – October 12, 1982, Korean literature scholar)
Miscellaneous
Yun Dong-ju's adoption of a Japanese name became known after the 1990s. When his Japanese name issue was pointed out, a professor who was researching Yun Dong-ju is said to have been quite embarrassed to mention it.4 The claim about Yun Dong-ju's name change was officially mentioned and acknowledged after 2005. However, the theory that he reluctantly took part in the name change in order to study in Japan is the most plausible.
During his school days he liked football, and there is a record that he was active as a football player.23 At that time, the school football team was quite different in concept from the football teams of today, and the records also use the expression football "player." This is significant not merely as a fact that the poet Yun Dong-ju once liked football, but as the fact that he resisted the oppression of Japanese rule through physical activities and the like during the Japanese colonial period, when there was no freedom of assembly.
Popular culture
Broadcasting
KBS1Sing Madonna, Sing the Stars in the Wilderness (《마돈나여 광야에서 별을 노래하라》) Part 2, "Sky, Wind, Star and Poem" (〈하늘과 바람과 별과 시〉) — video poetic drama, aired December 22, 1984 (running time 120 minutes)24
KBS1Video Travelogue: March 1st Holiday — National Poet Yun Dong-ju (《영상기행3.1절 — 민족시인 尹東柱》), March 1, 1988 (running time 60 minutes)25
NHKNHK Special ("Sky, Wind, Star and Poem: Yun Dong-ju, Youth and Death under Japanese Rule" (〈하늘과 바람과 별과 詩, 尹東柱, 일본통치하의 청춘과 죽음〉)), March 11, 1995 (running time 60 minutes)26
EBSKnowledge Channel e "Sky, Wind, Star and Poem" Part 1: Stars (aired July 31, 2006), Part 2: Poetry (aired August 7, 2006)
KBSHappy Sunday – 1 Night 2 Days, special feature on a trip to Mount Baekdu, visit to Yun Dong-ju's birth home (June–July 2008)
SBSWhat Do You Want to Know, "Yun Dong-ju: The Mystery of His Death, What Happened at Fukuoka Prison" (August 15, 2009)
MBCMBC Special, "Autumn, Thinking of Yun Dong-ju" (November 4, 2011)
"Deep Emotion Woven by 'Poetry (Si) and Video'," 《Dong-A Ilbo》, 24 December 1984 – It was planned to air on Liberation Day, but was postponed over concern that it would stir anti-Japanese sentiment ahead of the Korea–Japan Talks. ↩
Yun Dong-ju (尹東柱, December 30, 1917 – February 16, 1945) was a Korean independence activist, poet, and writer in Korea during Japanese rule of Korea. His family seat was Papyeong (坡平), and his art name was Haehwan (海煥). He was born on December 30, 1917, in Myeongdong Village (明東村) in Northern Jiandao, and his registered domicile was Lot 76, Pohang-dong, Cheongjin City, North Hamgyong Province. Myeongdong Village was originally barren land in Eastern Jiandao. However, after Kim Yak-yeon, Kim Ha-gyu, Mun Byeong-gyu, and others from Hamgyong Province collectively migrated to Eastern Jiandao in 1899 with more than 140 dependents, and after Yun Dong-ju's grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon and others joined them, it became the largest Korean village in Eastern Jiandao, with the meaning "a place that illuminates the East" (明東村).
He studied at Myeongdong School (明東學校), and graduated from Soongsil Middle School (崇實中學校) in Pyongyang and Yeonhui College (延禧專門學校) in Seoul. While he was a second-year student at Yeonhui College, he published a poem in the magazine Sonyeon (少年), and formally made his debut in the literary world.
He went to Japan and entered Doshisha University in Kyoto in 1942. In 1943, he was arrested by Japanese police on suspicion of engaging in anti-Japanese activities and was imprisoned at Fukuoka Prison (福岡刑務所). He left more than 100 poems behind and died in prison at the age of 27. There is a view that his cause of death was related to Japanese experiments on living subjects using hydrochloric acid, and after his death claims of Maruta and human experimentation by the Imperial Japanese Army were raised, but these remain uncertain. After his death, his poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》) was published.
He was recognized as one of the conscientious intellectuals of the late period, and his poetry took as its subjects criticism of and the , as well as self-reflection. His cousin on his mother's side, (宋夢奎), also attempted to join the independence movement, but was arrested, classified as a subject of Japanese living-subject experiments, and died under mysterious circumstances. His Japanese name under the Sōshi-kaimei policy, "Hiranuma," became known, and this caused controversy from the late 1990s onward.
Yun Dong-ju was born on December 30, 1917, in Myeongdong Village (明東村) in Northern Jiandao.1 This place was originally barren land in Northern Jiandao, but after Kim Yak-yeon, Kim Ha-gyu, Mun Byeong-gyu, and others from Hamgyong Province collectively migrated to Eastern Jiandao in 1899 with more than 140 dependents, and after Yun Dong-ju's grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon and others joined them, it became the largest Korean village in Northern Jiandao, with the meaning "a place that illuminates the East" (明東村).
Yun Dong-ju's great-grandfather Yun Jae-ok (尹在玉) lived in Sangjangpo, Dongpung-myeon, Jongseong County, North Hamgyong Province, before moving to Gildong Jilin Province in 1886. His grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon, a devout Presbyterian elder, moved his livelihood to Myeongdong Village. His father Yun Yeong-seok (尹永錫) married Kim Yong, the younger sister of Kim Yak-yeon, who was the founder of Myeongdong School, in 1910, and worked as a teacher at Myeongdong School.
In the late 19th century, Koreans migrated en masse to Jiandao because famine had become severe across Hamgyong and Pyongan Provinces, and they sought new livelihoods. However, there were also cases in which, for religious reasons similar to the Puritans of America, people built new village communities, and Gusedong (救世洞), Yeongsaengdong (永生洞), Nakwondong (樂園洞), and Myeongsindong (明信洞) are representative examples. In contrast, Kim Yak-yeon, who believed in Confucianism, initially intended to build a Confucian ideal village that practiced the ideology of "trust, food, and military" (信·食·兵) based on the political philosophy of Mencius, and in 1901 he established Gyuamjae (規巖齋), a private Confucian school.
Then, after Yi Sang-seol and others came to realize the need for modern education through the Seojeon Academy (瑞甸義塾) established in the neighboring village of Daebul-dong, they founded Myeongdong School. At that time, Kim Yak-yeon invited Jeong Jae-myeon, a graduate of the Seoul Youth Academy, as a teacher, and Jeong Jae-myeon proposed as a condition of his appointment that he teach the Bible in school and hold worship services. Accordingly, Kim Yak-yeon deliberated for several days and then resolved to convert to Presbyterianism, and he studied at the Pyongyang Theological Seminary and became a Presbyterian pastor. In this way, the village was transformed into a Christian community, with churches established and religious education conducted in schools, while at the same time he invited nationalists including Yi Dong-hwi and held revival Bible conferences to devote efforts to faith training and the cultivation of national spirit.
Kim Yak-yeon did not limit himself to education for the independence movement, but personally took the lead in the Korean independence movement. In November 1918, his name was listed among the 39 signatories of the Declaration of Independence of Muo in Gilin, and in March 1919, because he took part in drafting the "Proclamation of Independence of Jiandao" and led the March 13 Independence Movement in Eastern Jiandao, he was arrested by the Japanese and endured two years of imprisonment. The Japanese Jiandao Subjugation Force destroyed Myeongdong School on October 20, 1920, and in 1925 it was ordered closed. By that time, over a span of 17 years, Myeongdong School had produced more than 1,200 national leaders.
His grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon was a Presbyterian elder and a wealthy farmer, and his father Yun Yeong-seok worked as a teacher at Myeongdong School. From childhood he was influenced by his grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon, who was a Christian. His aunt Yun Shin-young married Song Chang-hui, and that aunt's son was the independence activist Song Mong-gyu, who was his first cousin on his mother's side. His paternal uncle was Yun Yeong-chun (尹永春), and Yun Hyeong-ju (尹亨柱), who later became a singer, was his second cousin once removed (6th-degree relative).
Childhood
In 1925 he entered Myeongdong Elementary School (明東小學校), and while attending, together with his cousin Song Mong-gyu and others, he published the literary magazine Sae Myeongdong (《새 명동》).2 Six years later, in 1931, at age 14, he graduated from Myeongdong Elementary School, transferred to Hwaryong Prefectural First Elementary School, and studied there for one year. After his family moved to Yongjeong, he entered Eunjin Middle School (恩眞中學校).
However, in 1935 he transferred to Soongsil Middle School in Pyongyang, where Moon Ik-hwan, a fellow elementary school alumnus, was enrolled. In October of that year, he published the poem "Gongsang" (空想) in Soongsil Hwalcheon (崇實活泉), No. 15, the student council's bulletin of Soongsil Middle School. However, in December 1935, an incident occurred in which Soongsil students refused to take part in "lantern worship," and on January 18, 1936, the school principal George S. McCune (Korean name Yun San-on) finally refused to conduct Shinto shrine worship, which resulted in his dismissal from his post on January 20 and nearly led to his deportation to the United States. Afterward, Soongsil Middle School was closed indefinitely, and he transferred together with Moon Ik-hwan to Gwangmyeong Middle School in Yongjeong. At Gwangmyeong Middle School he met Chung Il-kwon and others.
Yeonhui College years
Around 1937, when he was in his final year at Gwangmyeong Middle School, he came into conflict with his father (who hoped he would enter the medical faculty) over the question of further education, but with his grandfather's intervention he decided to enter the literature faculty of Yeonhui College. On February 17, 1938, after graduating from Gwangmyeong Middle School, he went to study in Gyeongseong (京城), Seoul, and in April of that year he entered Yeonhui College. Living in a dormitory and then in a boarding house, he walked around the neighborhood, drew inspiration for poetry, wrote poems, and discussed matters with friends. According to Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, who had grown up with Yun Dong-ju in Myeongdong Village, Yun Dong-ju knew more about the philosophy of the existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard than Moon, who was studying theology. As a student studying literature, he studied a wide range of humanities.
While he was at Yeonhui College, Yun Dong-ju studied diligently; according to a biography of Yun Dong-ju published by Hangyeoreh Eorini, the linguist the late Choi Hyun-bae gave him a perfect score in the Korean language course, and according to Cheoreom (《처럼》, written by Kim Eung-gyo) published by Moonji Publishing, he studied the languages of various countries, including French, Chinese, and Korean (called Joseon-eo during the Japanese colonial period). In 1939, while a second-year student at Yeonhui College, he published essays and poems in the student section of the Chosun Ilbo, and in that same year he published a poem in the magazine Sonyeon (《소년》), receiving his first manuscript fee.
Also, while studying at Yeonhui College, he wrote essays such as "Shooting the Moon" (《달을 쏘다》) and poems such as "Sad Tribe" (슬픈 족속), writing works based on school life. In 1940, as surveillance of students by Japanese police became stricter, he left the Yeonhui College dormitory together with his junior Jeong Byeong-uk, and they lived together in boarding houses in areas such as Bukahyeon-dong and Nusang-dong, devoting themselves to writing. Afterward, around the time he graduated from the Faculty of Literature of Yeonhui College on December 27, 1941, he selected 19 of the poems he had written in his spare time and tried to publish them as the poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》), but because of the concern of those around him about Japanese repression, specifically the persuasion of English literature professor Yun Yang-ha, he could not realize this intention, and he gave the manuscript to Jeong Byeong-uk and began preparing to study abroad at a Japanese university.
According to the Dongnehanbaquie segment on Gwangyang City, South Jeolla Province, hosted by actor Kim Young-chul, and to Cheoreom (Moonji Publishing), written by Professor Kim Eung-gyo of Sookmyung Women's University, Jeong Byeong-uk, when he was conscripted as a student soldier, had to leave for the road after entrusting the manuscript to his mother, and Jeong Byeong-uk's mother kept the poetry collection written in Korean, to avoid the Japanese policy of eradication of Korean national identity, in a jar at home.
In the Dongnehanbaquie Gwangyang City segment, Jeong Byeong-uk's birth home and manuscripts are preserved, and the manuscripts are displayed as facsimile editions so that citizens can read them. Actually, the Incheon Modern and Contemporary Literature Museum (a literary exhibition hall that displays the history of modern and contemporary literature, with a main building and a special exhibition hall, located in Jung-gu, Incheon, along the road in front of the Jung-gu Office together with the Art Platform; it can be reached by getting off at Sinpo Station on the Incheon Suin Line and walking straight toward the Jung-gu Fire Station and Art Platform) also displays facsimile editions of poetry collections such as Kim So-wol's Azalea Flowers (진달래꽃) and Manhae Han Yong-un's The Silence of Love (님의 침묵) so that Incheon citizens can read them. As this suggests, the facsimile editions are displayed as a wise means of preventing damage to the originals.
Study in Japan
In March 1942 he went to Japan and entered the English Literature Department of the Faculty of Letters at Rikkyo University (立教大学) in Tokyo, which is run by the Japan Anglican Church; in October he transferred to the English Literature Department of Doshisha University in Kyoto.2 Doshisha University was the school attended by Jeong Ji-yong, the poet whom Yun Dong-ju liked best; it was a Protestant school run by the Congregationalist church of Japan.3
Sōshi-kaimei
The Yun family is recorded as having adopted the surname "Hiranuma" (平沼) in late 1941.4 In order to make Yun Dong-ju's departure for Japan possible, as he had intended to study in Japan, the family changed their surname to Hiranuma.
Yun Dong-ju's adoption of a Japanese name was not related to his own wishes. According to his chronology, at the end of 1941, when he graduated from the fourth year of Yeonhui College three months early due to the shortening of the school curriculum during wartime, "to escape Japanese repression at the home village and to complete the departure procedures for Dong-ju to Japan, the family changed the surname to 'Hiranuma'"56. After the name change, Yun Dong-ju is said to have suffered greatly.
Five days after he submitted the application for the name change, he wrote the poem "Repentance" (참회록), which depicts the suffering and bitter sorrow caused by the name change.7 The matter of Yun Dong-ju's name change was not well known after liberation, but it became widely known in the 1990s. It must be remembered that this was not because he conformed to colonialism, in which Japan forced Japanese language and script rather than Korean language and script in an attempt to eradicate the traditions of the Korean people, but because without taking a Japanese name he could not obtain the entry and exit documents needed for study abroad; that is, he had no choice but to do it in order to study abroad.
Study in Japan and arrest
In 1942 he went to Japan and entered the English Literature Department of Rikkyo University (立教大学) in Tokyo, and after six months he withdrew and transferred to the Faculty of Letters of Doshisha University in Kyoto. However, he was regarded as a "dangerous Korean" (不逞鮮人) and was under surveillance by Japanese police.
On July 14, 1943, before he set out on his journey home, he was arrested by Japanese police as a political offender under the Peace Preservation Law and detained at Kamogawa Police Station in Kyoto. The following year, at the Kyoto District Court, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and was confined in Fukuoka Prison. The judgment document dated March 31, 1944, under the name of Presiding Judge Ishii Hirao of the First Criminal Division of the Kyoto District Court, sentenced him to two years' imprisonment and states: "Yun Dong-ju, from childhood, received education at a national school, was steeped in ideas and culture, and through the influence of friends harbored strong national consciousness, held deep resentment about discrimination between Japan and Joseon (Naisen), and committed reckless acts aimed at realizing the ambition of Korean independence." 8 At the Kyoto District Court, together with Song Mong-gyu, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for violating Article 5 of the Peace Preservation Law, and afterward was transferred to Fukuoka Prison.
Imprisonment and death
Yun Dong-ju died in prison at Fukuoka Prison at 3:36 a.m. on February 16, 1945. His body was cremated and delivered to his family, and after a funeral held in March of that year, his remains were buried in Longjing, Jilin (aged 27). His gravestone was made from a white stone prepared as a memorial stone for his grandfather Yun Ha-hyeon.
On February 26 of the same year, a telegram reading "Dong-ju died on February 16, come to collect the body" was delivered to his home village. His father Yun Yeong-seok and his paternal uncle Yun Yeong-chun went to Japan to receive and take care of the body. However, a postal notice arrived at his home later, stating: "Dong-ju critically ill; release on bail possible. If he dies, the body will be taken away or else provided to the Medical Faculty of Kyushu Imperial University for dissection. Please hurry." Later, Yun Dong-ju's younger brother Yun Il-ju recalled this, saying, "The grief of the family upon seeing this, which arrived ten days later than the death telegram, was indescribable."
Meanwhile, regarding his death, claims have also been raised that it was the result of regularly receiving injections of an unidentified substance while in prison, and that this was part of Japanese living-subject experiments.9
After death
In February 1947, through the introduction of Jeong Ji-yong, his posthumous works were first introduced in the Kyunghyang Shinmun, and a memorial gathering was held together with it.
In February 1948, timed to the third-anniversary memorial service for Yun Dong-ju, a first edition of the posthumous poetry collection Sky, Wind, Star and Poem was temporarily published, consisting of 31 of his posthumous poems and a preface by Jeong Ji-yong, and in March of the same year it was officially published by Jeongeumsa.10 Afterward, from March 1962, when independence veterans were discovered and decorated in large numbers, a Order of National Foundation, Merit was applied for on his behalf, but his bereaved family declined. Only on August 15, 1990, was the Order of National Foundation, Independence Medal posthumously conferred. In 1985, the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award was established by the Korean Writers' Association to carry on his poetic spirit.
Works
Yun Dong-ju's poetry collection was published after his death and caused a great sensation.
Sky, Wind, Star and Poem (《하늘과 바람과 별과 시》) — Most of his works are included in this posthumous poetry collection. The 1948 first edition contained 31 poems, but when poems held by the bereaved family were added, the third edition of 1976 came to include a total of 116 poems.
Complete Collection of Yun Dong-ju's Handwritten Poetry Manuscripts in Facsimile (《사진판 윤동주 자필 시고전집》)
He is regarded as a national poet of resistance and as a poet with strong will and gentle lyricism,1112 and in 1991 he was selected as the poet whom Koreans like best.13 In North Korea, he is evaluated as a "patriotic poet who inspired independence consciousness in the late Japanese colonial period."14
His poetry lyrically expresses content that rises from daily life, and it is evaluated as containing deep contemplation of humanity and the universe, the anguish of colonial intellectuals, and a sincere consciousness of self-reflection.15
Part of Underwood Hall (Pinson Hall), used as a student dormitory during Yun Dong-ju's time at Yeonhui College, has been made into the Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall. There is a plan to convert all of Pinson Hall into the Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall in the future.16
There is a Yun Dong-ju Memorial Hall at Yongjeong High School in Yongjeong.18
Memorials
On November 2, 1968, a "Yun Dong-ju Poetry Monument" (詩碑), inscribed with his posthumous poem "Prologue," was erected at Yonsei University using funds raised by Yonsei University and others.
From 1985, the monthly literary magazine selected and awarded the winners of the "Yun Dong-ju Literary Award" in his commemoration every year.
In September 1992, a poetry monument inscribed with "Prologue" (序詩) was erected at Yongjeong Middle School, his alma mater.20
In 1995, a poetry monument inscribed with his handwritten "Prologue" and its Japanese translation was erected at Doshisha University in Japan.21 In 2005, a poetry monument for Jeong Ji-yong, whom Yun Dong-ju liked best, was erected beside it.22 In addition, there is a movement to erect a memorial near the place near Kyoto University where he stayed.
In 1999, he was selected by the Korean Art Critics Association as an artist of South Korea who shone in the 20th century, in the field of art.
Family relations
Great-grandfather: Yun Jae-ok
Grandfather: Yun Ha-hyeon (尹夏鉉, March 8, 1875 (lunar February 1) – September 4, 1948)
Grandmother: Lady Kang (1875 – 1947)
Father: Yun Yeong-seok (尹永錫, August 1, 1895 – April 20, 1962)
Mother: Kim Yong (金龍, October 1, 1892 – September 26, 1948, family seat Jeonju (全州))
Older sister: Yun Hye-won (尹惠媛, 1924 – December 11, 2011)
Brother-in-law: O Hyeong-beom (1924 – March 11, 2015)
Nephew (sister's son): O Cheol-ju
Younger brother: Yun Il-ju (尹一柱, childhood name Yun Dal-hwan, November 23, 1927 – November 28, 1985, former professor of architectural engineering at Sungkyunkwan University)
Nephew: Yun In-seok (尹仁石, 1956 – present, professor of architecture at Sungkyunkwan University)
Younger brother: Yun Gwang-ju (尹光柱, childhood name Yun Byeol-hwan, June 19, 1930 – October 8, 1966, poet.)
Aunt: Yun Shin-young (1897 – ?)
Uncle by marriage: Song Chang-hui (1891 – 1971)
Half-maternal uncle: Kim Yak-yeon (金躍淵, September 12, 1868 – October 29, 1942), Confucian scholar, independence activist
In-law: Jeong Byeong-uk (鄭炳昱, March 25, 1922 – October 12, 1982, Korean literature scholar)
Miscellaneous
Yun Dong-ju's adoption of a Japanese name became known after the 1990s. When his Japanese name issue was pointed out, a professor who was researching Yun Dong-ju is said to have been quite embarrassed to mention it.4 The claim about Yun Dong-ju's name change was officially mentioned and acknowledged after 2005. However, the theory that he reluctantly took part in the name change in order to study in Japan is the most plausible.
During his school days he liked football, and there is a record that he was active as a football player.23 At that time, the school football team was quite different in concept from the football teams of today, and the records also use the expression football "player." This is significant not merely as a fact that the poet Yun Dong-ju once liked football, but as the fact that he resisted the oppression of Japanese rule through physical activities and the like during the Japanese colonial period, when there was no freedom of assembly.
Popular culture
Broadcasting
KBS1Sing Madonna, Sing the Stars in the Wilderness (《마돈나여 광야에서 별을 노래하라》) Part 2, "Sky, Wind, Star and Poem" (〈하늘과 바람과 별과 시〉) — video poetic drama, aired December 22, 1984 (running time 120 minutes)24
KBS1Video Travelogue: March 1st Holiday — National Poet Yun Dong-ju (《영상기행3.1절 — 민족시인 尹東柱》), March 1, 1988 (running time 60 minutes)25
NHKNHK Special ("Sky, Wind, Star and Poem: Yun Dong-ju, Youth and Death under Japanese Rule" (〈하늘과 바람과 별과 詩, 尹東柱, 일본통치하의 청춘과 죽음〉)), March 11, 1995 (running time 60 minutes)26
EBSKnowledge Channel e "Sky, Wind, Star and Poem" Part 1: Stars (aired July 31, 2006), Part 2: Poetry (aired August 7, 2006)
KBSHappy Sunday – 1 Night 2 Days, special feature on a trip to Mount Baekdu, visit to Yun Dong-ju's birth home (June–July 2008)
SBSWhat Do You Want to Know, "Yun Dong-ju: The Mystery of His Death, What Happened at Fukuoka Prison" (August 15, 2009)
MBCMBC Special, "Autumn, Thinking of Yun Dong-ju" (November 4, 2011)
"Deep Emotion Woven by 'Poetry (Si) and Video'," 《Dong-A Ilbo》, 24 December 1984 – It was planned to air on Liberation Day, but was postponed over concern that it would stir anti-Japanese sentiment ahead of the Korea–Japan Talks. ↩