Reviews
It's not that I had forgotten; I simply couldn't have known the tragedy of that era. Should I be glad to learn about it, even this way—or is learning about it this way another tragedy?
What should we call the feelings left after sorrow has been distilled? Every sentence recalling a past that cannot be shrugged off feels so warm that the book becomes all the more painful to read.
This memoir follows a young man who loved his homeland and returned to it, only to spend more than a decade in prison (December 11, 1975–March 1, 1988), reflecting on the state and future of the Korean Peninsula. The author, Lee Cheol, was a Korean resident of Japan who entered graduate school in his parents' homeland, but in the late 20th century the country branded him a spy and made him a sacrifice for the regime. Reading about his imprisonment brought me to tears several times. These
I attended the launch event for Journal of a Death-Row Inmate. While studying for a master's degree in political science and diplomacy at Korea University, the author, a Korean resident of Japan who wanted to learn about his parents' homeland, was imprisoned in December 1975 in the fabricated espionage case involving Korean students from Japan. After brutal torture, he was falsely made into a spy who had supposedly traveled repeatedly to North Korea and received orders there, despite never
Lee Cheol: Jang Dong-il Ji
During the military dictatorship, many young Korean residents of Japan became victims of fabricated espionage cases used to control the public. Last December, the Korean-Japanese Association of Former Prisoners of Conscience, formed by victims of the fabricated espionage cases involving Korean students in Japan, received the third Kim Geun-tae Award for Democracy. Early this year, the Seoul High Court issued the 34th acquittal of a victim of a fabricated spy case. Retrials continue to bring acquittals and some victims are recognized for their contributions to democracy, but that is far from enough to heal deep wounds or return the years stolen from them. The government will continue working to establish the truth and heal those wounds. Above all, as president and on behalf of the nation, I offer my heartfelt apology and consolation to the Korean residents of Japan who were deeply wounded by the violence of dictatorial power and to their families. In June 2019, President Moon Jae-in visited Osaka for the G20 summit and attended a gathering with Korean residents of Japan, where he offered the apology above to victims and families of the fabricated espionage case. It was the first official apology by a head of state. The book's author, Lee Cheol, was invited as chair of the Korean-Japanese Association of Former Prisoners of Conscience and heard the president's apology and words of comfort in person. In the 1970s and 1980s, military dictatorships routinely tortured and imprisoned Korean students from Japan after framing them as spies, using the cases to maintain their rule. Lee Cheol, a Korean-Japanese student living in Korea, was taken by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975 and tortured into becoming a supposed spy. In 1977 he received a final death sentence and became a death-row prisoner.
Korean title: 장동일지
Korean author: 이철
Korean publisher: 서해문집
ISBN-13: 9791192988580
Reviews
It's not that I had forgotten; I simply couldn't have known the tragedy of that era. Should I be glad to learn about it, even this way—or is learning about it this way another tragedy?
What should we call the feelings left after sorrow has been distilled? Every sentence recalling a past that cannot be shrugged off feels so warm that the book becomes all the more painful to read.
This memoir follows a young man who loved his homeland and returned to it, only to spend more than a decade in prison (December 11, 1975–March 1, 1988), reflecting on the state and future of the Korean Peninsula. The author, Lee Cheol, was a Korean resident of Japan who entered graduate school in his parents' homeland, but in the late 20th century the country branded him a spy and made him a sacrifice for the regime. Reading about his imprisonment brought me to tears several times. These
I attended the launch event for Journal of a Death-Row Inmate. While studying for a master's degree in political science and diplomacy at Korea University, the author, a Korean resident of Japan who wanted to learn about his parents' homeland, was imprisoned in December 1975 in the fabricated espionage case involving Korean students from Japan. After brutal torture, he was falsely made into a spy who had supposedly traveled repeatedly to North Korea and received orders there, despite never
