Bereaved family: “After listening to my son’s story for 2 hours, I went
“Writing it as a novel was both a coincidence and fate.”
“A literary museum named after the Han River, etc.”
It has been confirmed that the late Moon Jae-hak, the main character in the novel ‘The Boy Is Coming’ by Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang, once lived near the author’s house. This novel, which deals with the May 18 Democratization Movement, deals with the pain of the main character, Dong-ho, with the motif of Martyr Moon, the ‘youngest citizen soldier’ at the time.
On the 12th, the reporting team visited Jungheung-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju, where a writer’s birthplace was once located. In 1997, a two-story prefabricated house was built on the site of a writer’s birthplace after the existing building was torn down, and it is currently operating as a mobile phone store. One writer entered Hyodong Elementary School in Buk-gu, Gwangju in 1977 and attended until 1979 before moving to Seoul. When he lived in Gwangju, his birthplace was 500 meters away from Hyodong Elementary School.
Martyr Moon’s house in ‘Here Comes a Boy’ was right next to Hyodong Elementary School. Martyr Moon lived in this house from 1978 to 1980. The houses of writer Han and Martyr Moon were 280 meters apart in a straight line. Hyodong Elementary School is near the main gate of Chonnam National University, where the May 18 Democratization Movement first began. Martyr Moon, who was a first-year student at Gwangju Commercial High School, was shot dead by martial law troops while guarding the Jeonnam Provincial Office on May 27, 1980. Afterwards, he was temporarily buried at the Mangwol-dong Cemetery in Buk-gu, Gwangju, and his identity was confirmed by his family 10 days later.
Moon’s mother, Kim Gil-ja (85), said in an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on the 14th, “Around 2010, writer Han Kang visited my house near Hyodong Elementary School and listened to my son’s story for two hours.” Mr. Kim told a writer at the time, “Around June 7, 1980, when I dug up the Mangwol-dong grave where my son, whose life or death was unknown, was temporarily buried, I found that the coffin was made of 2cm thick plywood, so it seemed like the body would fall if the coffin was lifted. “The body was naked and wrapped in cotton cloth,” he said.
Mr. Kim said, “When I saw the news of the Nobel Prize in Literature, tears of joy and gratitude flowed. “Thank you for letting the world know the truth about May 18 through your novel,” he said with tears in his eyes. Miyoung (62), Moon’s older sister, said, “It is a coincidence that a writer wrote a novel about his younger brother who lived in the same neighborhood, but it is also fate.” Meanwhile, Gwangju City discussed with Han Seung-won, the father of a writer, a project to commemorate his daughter’s Nobel Prize in Literature win. Writer Han Seung-won is known to have said, “My daughter does not want her name on any building (such as the Literature Museum).”
Gwangju = Reporter Lee Hyeong-ju [email protected]
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