Into the Light

Kim Sa-ryang

2013-12 · 20th Century Korean Literature · Literature Translation Institute of Korea

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 In “Into the Light,” which can be considered his greatest short story, Kim Sa-ryang accurately depicts the troubles of the main character “Nam” as he struggles to overcome the hardships of his life under oppression. Written in Japanese, this piece was first published in Japan in 1939. A candidate for the Akutagawa Award in 1940, it was even carried in Spring and Autumn Literature (Munye Choonchu). This work is a masterpiece that accurately details the discrimination and sorrow experienced by colonized Koreans living in Japan, the duplicity and distorted desire of Koreans who were trying to hide their Korean identity, and the immutable, yearning for one’s Korean mother. This is shown through the life of mixed-blood Haruo, who is born of a Korean mother and a Japanese father, and the relationship that he has with a Korean male teacher. In short, it can be said that “Into the Light” impressively draws out the pain and oppression of the Korean-Japanese living in Japan during that period. This is the very reason that this work has received such high regard in the history of modern Korean novels.

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 Kim Sa-ryang’s (1914~1950) real name is Shi-chang and he was born in 1914 in Pyeongyang, South Pyeongan Province. In 1931, after being expelled for leading a class boycott during his fifth year at Pyongyang Normal High School, he went to Japan and attended Saka High School, and then graduated from Tokyo National University in German literature. When he returned to Korea in 1943, he was sent to China as a reporter in the Japanese Army but he escaped to the coast, working as a reporter in the Korean Volunteer Army under the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and returned to Korea at the time of its independence. After Korea’s independence he was active in North Korea, and as the Korean War broke out, he participated as a war writer in the North Korean People’s Army. He died in 1950 in the Wonju region while retreating north with the North Korean People’s Army from the US Army’s Operation Chromite.

Kim Sa-ryang’s literary activities started after his enrollment at Tokyo National University when he was studying German literature. In 1936, he published his first piece, “Toe Seong Rang” which was written in Japanese in the literary coterie magazine The River Bank (Jaebang). Upon his return to Korea after graduation, the publication of his short story “Into the Light” (Bitsokae) (1939) brought him wide recognition for his creative talent. His main works during the Japanese Colonial Period include writings, such as the short story “Pegasus” (Cheonma) and the full-length novel “Taebaek Mountain Range” (Taebaek Sanmaek). He wrote “Old Horse Ten Thousand li” (Noma Manri) (1945) in China. Despite the fact that most of his works are published in Japanese, they are highly regarded for their elaborate projection of the nation’s reality of the time and the portrayal of the Korean people’s deep-rooted pain that existed due to imperial colonization.