“‘They say the Japanese enemy is surrendering!’ To me, those words were not good news but as if the sky were collapsing and the ground giving way. Years of effort to prepare to enter the war came to nothing. We worked closely with the U.S. War Department, but Japan surrendered before we could carry anything out. I regretted all we had put into it, and I worried about what lay ahead.” -Baekbeom Kim Gu
UNESCO has selected Kim Gu as its “Peace Figure of the Year,” and novelist Lim Sun-man, 72, has published a new work, <Baekbeom, Lying Down on the Mountains and Rivers>, publisher Hangilsa said Wednesday.
The novel portrays Kim’s life and his personal anguish. Lim completed the book after more than a decade of reporting and about five years of writing. He said the project began when, as a reporter in 1995, he visited the shabby building that housed the Provisional Government in Chongqing, China, and felt both sadness and a sense of debt.
At the briefing, held Feb. 23 at the memorial hall in Seoul’s Yongsan district, Lim recalled the visit to the provisional government site, saying it was “so shabby” that it “really hurt.” He said something stayed with him, adding, “I felt an echo that I had to write something about this.”
The book is organized into 24 chapters, covering the Chihapo incident in which Kim killed a Japanese man in revenge for the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, his involvement with the Donghak movement and life in exile, the independence struggle of Lee Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil, post-liberation turmoil and division, opposition to trusteeship, inter-Korean talks, and Kim’s assassination at Kyunggyojang.
Hangilsa CEO Kim Eon-ho said UNESCO’s selection of Kim as “Person of the Year” has made him, beyond Korea, a great independence activist recognized worldwide. He said he hopes as many teenagers as possible will read the novel.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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