Yun Tong-ju

Infobox Korean name
hangul=윤동주
hanja=尹東柱
rr=Yun Dong(-)ju
mr=Yun Tong-ju

Yun Tong-ju (December 30 1917 - February 16 1945) was a Korean poet active during the period of Japanese rule. Known for his writing of lyric poetry as well as resistance poetry, he was born in Hwaryong-hyeon, Jiandao, in present-day northeastern China.

Life

Yun Tong-ju was the eldest son among the 4 children of his father Yun Yeong-seok and his mother Kim Yong. As a child he was called "Haehwan" (해환, 海煥). On December 27 1941, he graduated from Yeonhui Technical School, which later became Yonsei University. He had been writing poetry from time to time, and chose 19 poems to publish in a collection he intended to call "Heaven, Wind, Stars, and Poetry" (하늘과 바람과 별과 시), but he was unable to get it published.

In 1942, he went to Japan and entered the English literature department of Rikkyo University in Tokyo, before moving to Doshisha University in Kyoto six months later. On July 14 1943, he was arrested as a thought criminal by the Japanese police and detained at the Kamogawa Police Station in Kyoto. The following year, the Kyoto regional court sentenced him to two years of prison on the charge of having participated in the independence movement. He was imprisoned in Fukuoka, where he died in February 1945. The following month, he was buried in Yongjeong in Jiandao.

Posthumous activity

In January 1948, 31 of his poems were published by Jeongeumsa, together with an introduction by Chong Ji-yong; this work was also titled "Heaven, Wind, Stars, and Poetry".

In November 1968, Yonsei University and others established an endowment for the Yun Tong-ju Poetry Prize.

References

See also

* List of Korean language poets
* Korean independence movement
* Korean literature

External links

* [http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=123552 Naver Encyclopedia entry]
* [http://www.hanbooks.com/heavwinstara.html The Heaven, The Wind, The Stars, and Poetry]