김동인 金東仁
Pioneer of modern Korean fiction, author of Potato and Baettaragi; later designated a pro-Japanese collaborator
| Life | 1900 ~ 1951 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 전주 김씨 |
Life & career
Kim Dong-in (金東仁, 1900-1951) was a novelist and critic born in Pyongyang; his clan seat was Jeonju and his pen name Geumdong (琴童). His father Kim Dae-yun was a wealthy Pyongyang merchant and Protestant elder, and his half-brother Kim Dong-won was an independence activist and politician. He studied in Japan from 1914 and in February 1919 launched Changjo, Korea's first pure-literature coterie magazine, in Tokyo with Ju Yo-han, debuting with the story The Sorrow of the Weak.
He took part in the February 8 Declaration event in Tokyo in 1919 and was arrested and released, and the same year he was detained and given a suspended sentence for drafting a leaflet for his brother during the March 1st Movement. He later wrote short stories such as Potato (Gamja), Baettaragi and The Red Mountain, and the novel Young Ones, and is counted a pioneer of modern Korean literature for his modern prose.
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, however, he turned pro-Japanese: he joined the 1939 literary delegation to comfort Japanese troops in North China, took part in the Joseon Writers' Patriotic Association, and wrote in the Maeil Sinbo promoting assimilation and student conscription. He is therefore classified as a pro-Japanese collaborator. He died of illness in 1951 during the Korean War, and a literary monument stands in Children's Grand Park, Seoul.
Literary Achievement and Collaboration
Kim Dong-in is regarded as a pioneer of modern Korean literature for short stories in a modern style, and is also known as the first to use the third-person pronoun in Korean fiction.
His pro-Japanese activities in the later colonial period are also recorded, so his literary achievement and collaboration are judged together. After liberation he helped found the right-wing All-Joseon Writers' Association.
Descendants
His half-brother Kim Dong-won was an independence activist and politician close to Ahn Chang-ho. See also the Jeonju Kim clan page.