윤복진의 월북과 「우리 대장 들어온다」

Abstract

Yun Bok-jin’s defection to North Korea was unexpected. His literary activities during the Japanese colonial period were based on the ideology of child-innocence, distinguishing him from the class-oriented children’s writers whose views had been compatible with those of the Korean Proletarian Artist Federation(KAPF). Asmost of the writers that defected to North Korea after liberation were class-oriented and were involved in KAPF, it is reasonable to find Yun Bok-jin’s defection surprising. However, it is possible to assert that Yun Bok-jin’s defection could have been foreseen, considering his literary movement after liberation. Not only did he join the KAPF, he also played a leading role in an important position in the class-based literary organization. Unlike his activities immediately after liberation, his Kkot-cho-rong Byeol-cho-rong(Flower Lanterns Star Lanterns), published in 1949, contains works focusing on the ideology of the innocence of childhood. It can be interpreted that Yun’s views matched those of the leftwing, which took control of the literary world immediately after liberation, and that he then shifted his stance again to align with the rightist government after its establishment in South Korea. His defection to North Korea during the Korean War was seen as another reversal. His move during the Japanese colonial era and after liberation was different. He himself criticized his previous literary perspective, but only published works with the ideology of innocence of childhood. Considering his defection to North Korea after the Korean War, it is difficult to say that his moves were consistent. His shifting stance could be evidence that he pursued or was forced by the current of the time. However, this explanation leaves his voluntary defection unexplained. “Uri-daejang-deuleo-onda(Here Comes Our Captain)” has been referred to as a groundwork for Yun Bok-Jin’s shift during the liberation period. Jeong Yeong-jin insisted that Yun publicly declared some kind of turnaround by joining the National Guidance of Alliance(Bodo-League) in 1949 and publishing anti-communist children’s songs. Subsequent researchers seemed to accept this criticism as it was. However, the original “Uri-daejang-deuleo-onda(Here Comes Our Captain)” reveals that this claim is unsubstantiated; Jeong Yeong-jin was incorrect about the book’s publication as well as its contents. First, Jeong wrongfully claimed that “Uri-daejang-deuleo-onda(Here Comes Our Captain)” was published after 1949, when the book was actually published on December 8, 1945. Next, Jeong’s quote of the song writes that the “Communist Army” should retreat and the “Communist Army's flag” should be ripped off. However, the original text says that the “Japanese Army” should retreat and that the “Japanese’s Army’s flag” should be ripped off, making its meaning entirely different. Since the content and publication date were confirmed to be different from those originally claimed by Jeong Yeong-jin, his argument that Yun intended to stay in South Korea, conforming to the anti-communist system by announcing “Uri-daejang-deuleo-onda(Here Comes Our Captain)” should be dismissed. I leave the task of finding consistency in Yun Bok-jin’s literary work during the Japanese colonial period and his literary activities in the liberation period to subsequent research.