Koji Hayashi 'Biographies of Zainichi Korean Writers' 09: Yangji Lee (Part 2)
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＊Header photo: (A place Nagai Kafu might have walked) A cafe street in Shinjuku in the 1930s (Photographer: Unknown - From 'Historical Photos (October 1933 issue)' by the Historical Photo Society / Public Domain / Shinjuku at night in 1930s.jpg)
Yangji Lee: A Second-Generation Zainichi Korean Female Writer Who Raced in Search of a Language Before Language (Part 2)
2. Dropping out of high school
In 1970, she entered Yamanashi Prefectural Yoshida High School. While studying Fujima-style Japanese dance, Yamada-style koto, and Ogasawara-style flower arrangement, she read authors like Nagai Kafu.
During her girlhood, Yangji Lee was almost entirely unaware that she was from Korea, and it was only in the summer of her first year of high school, when she saw her family register while taking an exam for a study-abroad program in the United States, that she realized she was Korean.
Her father, who was pragmatic and adapting to Japanese society, and her mother, who was uneducated and superstitious, were in constant conflict, and a divorce suit between her parents began when Yangji Lee was in her first year of high school.
At this time, her father was working in Tokyo. Her eldest brother, Tetsuo, was provided with a house in Sakuradai, Nerima Ward, and her second brother, Tetsutomi, began living in a separate room at the hotel her father ran.
Her mother and the three sisters remained in Yamanashi, but her father would often wait in his car at the time school ended to take his daughters for drives and meals.
When she became a second-year student, she entered a class for students aiming for private universities, but her grades dropped because she neglected her studies. According to her younger sister, Lee Yong (Saka-chan), 'My sister had good grades and was cheerful and active since elementary school, but after entering high school, she didn't study, just read books, and hardly ever went to school.' She was also a huge fan of Julie, Kenji Sawada of the Tigers.
At the end of the first semester, she wrapped tobacco leaves in oblate paper and swallowed them before going to bed, but she felt intense dizziness and nausea and vomited into a trash can. The discord between her parents was a heavy burden on Yangji's heart.
She was placed on suspension for drinking alcohol in her uniform at a bar in the back streets of Fujiyoshida. Wanting to quit school, she ran away from home in the early morning of a cold day in early February during the third term of her second year and went to Kyoto, but returned after about 10 days.
After this, she ran away from home several more times.
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◆ References
＊ The copyright of the main text belongs to the author (Mr. Koji Hayashi), and the publishing rights belong to Keikosha.
◆ Author Profile
Koji Hayashi (Hayashi Koji) Literary critic. Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1956. Former member of the New Japanese Literature Society.
His latest book, 'Zainichi Korean Literature: Beyond the Literature of Antithesis' (Shinkansha, published November 2019), has been featured in media such as the Tosho Shimbun and has been well received.
Other works include 'On Zainichi Korean Japanese Literature' (1991, Shinkansha) and 'On Postwar Non-Japanese Literature' (1997, ibid.), 'Mani Mani' (2001, New Japanese Literature Society Publishing Department).
In addition, he has written numerous papers.
The 'Gugin Blog' he has been keeping since 2011
http://kghayashi.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ is a treasure trove!