Koji Hayashi 'Biographies of Zainichi Korean Writers' 09: Yangji Lee (Part 11)

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Yangji Lee: A Second-Generation Zainichi Korean Female Writer Who Raced in Search of a Language Before Language (Part 11)

11. Sudden Death

In January 1992, having only her thesis left to complete for her master's program at Ewha Womans University Graduate School, she returned to Japan to focus on writing.
In April, she rented an apartment in Shinjuku and began living alone. She bought a word processor and became absorbed in it. She began working on a major 10-chapter work 'Voice of Stone'. She had planned for 1,500 pages.

In May, after handing over the manuscript for the monthly report of the 'Goethe Complete Works' to the publisher Ushio Shuppansha, she returned to the editorial office of 'We're', a monthly information magazine in four languages—Japanese, Chinese, English, and Korean—which her younger sister Sakae had launched, around 6:00 PM on the 18th, and then returned to her apartment in Kita-Shinjuku, saying she felt like she had a cold.
Around 7:00 AM on the 19th, she called the 'We're' office to say, 'I can't come in because I think I have a cold.'
Around noon, her mother brought her porridge and gave her cold medicine.
Around 10:00 AM on the 20th, when her sister Sakae and her father rushed over, she had a high fever and a headache, so they took her by ambulance to the Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital. However, when X-rays were taken due to Yangji's complaint of chest pain, the doctor told them, 'There is a slightly white shape in the lung, but it must be a cold that has worsened.' Even though her sister Sakae asked for her to be hospitalized, they were told there were only private rooms available and no nurses, and she was sent home.

She spent time at her sister's house in Okubo, but early on the morning of the 21st, she complained of chest pain and visited the same hospital again by taxi. She was told she had developed pneumonia, but there were no beds available, so she was transported to Josai Hospital in Ogikubo. There, she was diagnosed as being in serious condition and was transported once again to the intensive care unit at Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital. Around 8:00 PM, she was told that there was also a heart condition, so she was moved to the Cardiovascular Center, where she fell into a coma.
Early on the morning of the 22nd, at 8:42 AM, she passed away due to acute myocarditis.

Her final novel, 'Voice of Stone', was published in the August issue of 'Gunzo' after Yangji Lee's death, with the first chapter left unfinished.

(End)

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◆ References

* The copyright of this 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 Association.
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 'Theory of Zainichi Korean Japanese Literature' (1991, Shinkansha), 'Theory of Postwar Non-Japanese Literature' (1997, ibid.), and 'Manimani' (2001, New Japanese Literature Association Publishing Department).
In addition, he has written numerous papers.
His 'Gugin's Blog', which he has been keeping since 2011, http://kghayashi.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ is a treasure trove!