Over the Im/permeable Boundaries: Cinematization of Nianchan in South Korea and Japan

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Over the Im/permeable Boundaries: Cinematization of Nianchan in South Korea and Japan

Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2017, Vol 22, Issue 1

Abstract

Nianchan1, literally meaning “my second eldest brother,” is a journal of an orphaned second-generation zainichi girl, Yasumoto Sueko. It was first published in 1958 in Japan and became a best seller for two years. Describing Sueko and her siblings’ daily struggles against grinding poverty which is about to separate them, it was “read as something like the Japanese equivalent of Anne Frank’s diary.”2 Although it drew the largest Japanese readership in postwar Japan among the books written by a zainichi Korean, it has barely been discussed either as zainichi literature or as postwar popular Japanese literature. Another notable but underexplored aspect of this book is that it was a rare example of a cultural product that managed to cross the border between South Korea and Japan in the late 50s and enjoyed popular attention in both countries. Within three months after the Japanese publish date, Korean translations were published under two different titles.3 In 1959, Nianchan was adapted into films by two noted directors, Imamura Shōhei in Japan and Yu Hyŏn-mok in South Korea, respectively. Under the South Korean government’s rigorous censorship of any representation of contemporary Japan, how could this story have been introduced to Korean readers and audiences? What kind of modifications were at play during this cultural border crossing? By examining the process of the cultural transmission and film adaptation of Nianchan, this review discusses the im/permeability of cultural borders between the two countries, partly occasioned by Rhee Syngman regime’s ban on Japanese popular culture and the intertwined relationship between the process of making national culture and that of situating Korean diaspora on either side of these im/permeable borders. Nianchan, the original journal, its publication, and its film adaptation were all produced against the backdrop of rapidly changing relations between South Korea, North Korea, and Japan. Yasumoto Sueko’s journal covers the period between January 1953 and September 1954; given that the armistice was signed in July 1953, this period briefly overlaps with the Korean War. Furthermore, around the time when the journal was published and made into films, there were heightened tensions between South Korea, North Korea, and Japan over the issue of the zainichi Korean’s repatriation to North Korea. This repatriation effort brought about by the intermediary work of the Red Cross in 1958–59, and was met with vehement opposition from the South Korean government. When two different versions of Korean translation of the journal in question were published without author’s permission in early 1959, Kōbunsha, the original publisher in Japan, as well as the author, criticized the pirated editions in Korea, citing many instances of mistranslation.4 However, the issue of writer’s copyrights suddenly shifted to suspicion of Yasumoto’s identity, ideology, and citizenship. For example, South Korea’s Ministry of Education announced its immediate answer as follows.

Authors and Affiliations

So Hye Kim

Keywords

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EP ID EP26450
DOI https://doi.org/10.22372/ijkh.2017.22.1.179
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