Politics & culture (pro-Japanese collaborator)
| Life | 1903 ~ 1985 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 안동 김씨 |
Kim Gi-jin, of the Andong Kim clan and younger brother of sculptor Kim Bok-jin, was born in Cheongwon, North Chungcheong Province. After graduating from Baejae High School and studying English literature at Rikkyo University in Japan, he debuted as a poet in 1923 with "Aeryeon Mosa" in the journal Baekjo, co-founded the literary group Paskyula with Park Yeong-hui, and in 1925 led the founding of the Korea Artista Proleta Federatio (KAPF), becoming its de facto leader.
He joined the founding of the Emergency Wartime Ideology Defense League in 1938 and attended the Third Greater East Asia Writers' Conference in 1944, and as an executive of the Korean Writers' Patriotic Service Association published numerous pro-Japanese works between 1940 and 1945 in outlets such as Maeil Sinbo promoting student soldier enlistment and conscription, glorifying Japan's war of aggression. For this he was named in the findings of the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborationist Activities and listed in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators.
After liberation he was arrested during the Korean War and sentenced to death but survived, later serving as deputy head of the Army's war correspondent corps and turning into an anti-communist writer. He went on to serve as an editorial writer at Kyunghyang Shinmun, was inducted into the National Academy of Arts in 1978, and died in 1985.