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| ▲ The Wind That Brushes The Stars | ||
The Wind That Brushes The Stars is a confession written by Yuichi Watanabe, invented Japanese prison officer at a jail in Fukuoka. He says, “This is not a petition, let alone a defense.” He wants to speak about two different people who were there at the jail where he worked. One is Yoon Dong Ju, who was a well-known poet with a pure soul, and the other is Dojan Sugiyama, a prison officer, who kept an eye on Yoon.
The Wind That Brushes The Stars is written by Lee Jeong Myeong, the famous author in Korea. He is famous for his historical fictions. In addition, his name and his works have become known on a national scale after his two bestsellers were turned into historical TV dramas “Flower Garden of Wind” and “A Deep-rooted Tree.”
The works of the author are featured by a mix of fiction and non-fiction, a solid story line, and dramatic tension. This fiction also follows suit and adds its name to the list of bestsellers. However, the third characteristic, dramatic tension, is not enough compared to his previous works, despite the fact that this is a detective story. Nevertheless, the work is recommended by many people because it has more than reasoning.
The time when Yoon was imprisoned in Fukuoka was late winter, before the Pacific War in 1945 reached its end. The Japanese Empire drove the Korean people into battlefields with gun smoke and the Maintenance of the Public Order Act led them into jail. At that time, the Korean people could not use their mother language since it was one of the most severe crimes to use Korean. This book expresses how appalling it was that Korean people lived and were treated by Japanese in such a way.
Yuichi Watanabe is a prison officer and an investigator working on the mysterious death of Dojan Sugiyama. Dojan is notorious for the cruel and merciless treatment of prisoners, regardless of which country these prisoners came from, Japan or Korea. There is a soldier for national independence, Choi Chi Su, and he acts as the leader of the Korean prisoners. The most important character is Yoon Dong Ju and he makes a wind of change blow in every person, including the Korean prisoners and Dojan Sugiyama as his poems do so in the real world.
The key points of this book are confrontations which circle around Yoon. By putting the story on perspective, readers can find three forms of confrontation. The first confrontation is Yoon versus Yuichi Watanabe. Watanabe realizes that Yoon is involved in the case of murder and he interrogates the poet. As a same type of person who loves books, he feels that Yoon and himself are not different; meanwhile, he has to distinguish Korean from Japanese. Choi also forms an opposing relation with Yoon. Choi believes only violence can change people’s mind and the situation in which his country, Korea, is colonized.
The most important confrontation is Yoon versus Dojan Sugiyama. Dojan also works as a censor who thoroughly investigates prisoners’ books and letters. Yoon writes letters for the prisoners who do not know Japanese, because Korean could not be used under Japanese rule. The books themselves mean nothing but a combination of letters which contain rebellious ideas such as communism or documents for orders to Dojan. Readers should experience how the brutal prison officer changes through Yoon’s letters in this book.
The poems of Yoon Dong Ju act as evidence regarding Dojan’s death. Consequently, the poems show up in the middle of story and it gives the work an interesting point. The Wind That Brushes The Stars becomes a mixture of fiction and fact as well as poetry and literature at the same time. In addition, this book indicates how important language is in a person’s life and indeed, in the whole society.
Kwon Min Seok
emes@korea.ac.kr