The best historical novel that arrived before us

A life’s work of epic brought by Hyun Ki-young, the author of Aunt Suni

Recommended by art historian Yu Hong-jun, film director Lee Chang-dong, poet and politician Do Jong-hwan, novelist Jeong Ji-a, artist Kang Yo-bae, historian Park Tae-gyun, and history teacher Choi Tae-seong!

During the military dictatorship, when it was taboo to speak of the Jeju uprising, novelist Hyun Ki-young, published Aunt Suni, exposing the truth of the massacres of innocent people to the whole nation. Now, he presents Oh, Jejudo, the masterpiece of his life that contains the roots of the modern history of Jeju and the Korean peninsula.

A story told to the younger generation through the voice of Ahn Chang-se, a survivor of the Jeju uprising, Oh, Jejudo is an epic that covers the entire modern history of Jeju through the ages, from the Japanese occupation to the uprising, revealing the origins of the current conflict and historical tragedies in Korean society with its tenacious and impressive writing. Through its robust narrative and vivid characters, this moving work depicts the aspirations and frustrations during the liberated period from 1945 to 1948 when people dreamed of building a new nation, while also honoring the countless lives that fell victim to state violence. Juxtaposed with the horrific violence that forces us to question the nature of humanity, the beauty of Jeju’s land, sea, and people shine through Hyun’s delicate, polished prose.

Having arrived in a time of conflict and hatred, Oh, Jejudo will become the singularly extraordinary historical novel to be remembered as a monumental achievement in Korean literature with a profound message that serves as a warning sign for the future generation.

The history of turbulence and turmoil engraved in Jeju and the Korean peninsula

Oh, Jejudo focuses on the period from 1943, when Japanese colonialization of Korea reached its peak after the Pacific War’s outbreak, to the winter of 1948, the year when the Jeju uprising occurred on April 3rd and the massacre occurred. The epic mainly takes place in Jocheon-ri, a seaside town in Jeju that earned the nickname “the town of traitors” for its fierce resistance against the ruling powers of mainland Korea throughout history. The novel’s five years, during which eleven-year-old Chang-se turns sixteen, are the most turbulent times in modern Korean history, and the people of Jocheon-ri stand against Japanese exploitation during the occupation and against the efforts to establish a separate South Korean government and the tyranny of the U.S. military after liberation. In the struggle of individuals against the system and power, it was evident which side would be the victor. Oh, Jejudo tells the story of those who had no choice but to act against the wrong without considering the outcome. It gives voices to struggling humans who couldn’t be fully captured with clichéd expressions like “brutal massacres” and “horrific tragedies.”

Some events and facts in the novel are widely known, but it adds a warm human touch beyond the familiar history. In the book lives the hard-working people who gather with their friends to tell stories and drink in the evenings, the haenyeos who kept their spirits up despite the hardships of housekeeping and working in the ocean, and the teuri shepherds who herded horses in the windswept meadows, humming songs… These people also lived and breathed discrimination and oppression, suffered from hard labor, were whipped for no reason, and hid under wooden porches to avoid arrest and torture. For them, anti-Japan was as natural as their own bodies. When liberation was suddenly declared one day after a series of rumors that Japan would collapse, these people had no idea what kind of history they would face next.

“What did ‘liberation’ really mean? […] First of all, it meant that the heavy burden that weighed down my back every time he went to school was gone. Chang-se was surprised and thrilled that the weight amounting to five sods of grass was gone. Oppression and liberation! The weight that had been weighing down his whole body, his back, must have been oppression, and his current state, where he felt so free and lighthearted that he felt like he could fly, this—must be liberation, he thought.” (Vol. 1, page 233)

The passionate aspirations and frustrations in search of a good world

Although they appear in the form of a memoir of Chang-se as an older man, the youth of the liberated period are the ones leading the story of Oh, Jejudo. Their understanding of various ideological trends—anarchism, communism, democracy, and right-wing nationalism—may be limited, but their desire for an independent new country and a better world burns in their hearts. For them, the liberated period is a time of realizing that the United States, which they had welcomed as the “good country” that defeated the Japanese, is “not a liberator but a disrupter” (Vol. 2, p. 162) and accepting their own fate of entering the mountains to escape torture, violence, and death “as if it was the great commission” (Vol. 3, p. 76). Armed only with a few guns and bamboo spears, along with fear and anger against the violence, they have no clue how to fight even after the Jeju uprising begins. The mountain troops “practice fiercely to overcome their inexperience” (Vol. 3, p. 85), but the public turns against them due to arrests and torture growing more brutal since the sole government is established, leaving the troops isolated. In the cold and hunger, they “make their own decisions, fight their own battles, and face their own death” (Vol. 3, p. 120). Some choose to stay with their friend in the cave to starve to death together, while others choose to go down the mountain after closing the eyes of their friend who the punitive forces have murdered. The survivors recount, “We didn’t consider ourselves alive then. We couldn’t escape either to the sky or under the ground.” (Volume 1, p. 17)

Oh, Jejudo depicts these struggles and lists the violence of the punitive expedition side by side. Based on various testimonies and research, this record of violence is expressed in language yet goes beyond human language. As first articulated in 1978 in Aunt Suni, Hyun presents this devastation in dry sentences, page after page in Oh, Jejudo, reminding us of human power and cruelty and the resilience to endure and survive it. A rare warmth amid the madness and carnage makes us hold onto a last glimmer of hope.

Unconventional, unrestrained: the sentences written by nature

Amid the endless violence, Jeju’s nature and customs couldn’t be more soothing and beautiful. When Chang-se, an excellent runner, runs along the beach with a delivery backpack, the endless sky and ocean unfold, and the plump boats on the white waves seem at arm’s length; the smell of grass seems to waft from the meadow where his uncle Yang San-do is herding horses by calling out “Eo-ryeo-ryeo- ryeo-heo heo-heo-reo-reo.” The roars of laughter of the haenyeos are as vivid as they get as they gather around the fire to warm up after their work. The descriptions of the land, sea, and people of Jeju throughout the novel demonstrate a classical quality of writing rare in the latest Korean literature, allowing the reader to feel the author’s deep affection for Jeju.

To paint a holistic picture of nature, people, and the turbulent history of Jeju, Oh, Jejudo fully utilizes all writing genres. The intriguing legends and tales quoted in the novel convey the history of Jeju and the temperament of the people nurtured by the Jeju earth and ocean. The epic also adroitly places poems, plays, short pansori stories, shaman’s grumbles, newspaper articles, manifestos, slogans, labor songs, popular songs, and resistance songs, intensively conveying a sense of reality in each part. The end of one sentence naturally flows like water into the beginning of the next, demonstrating the power of a vibrant story. Then and there, people have worked, sang, loved, shouted, and fought, and those very people appear before us today.

Self-described “shaman who appeases the spirits of the Jeju uprising,” Hyun Ki-young has set a memorable milestone in his literary journey spanning over five decades, a work that feels like a grand memorial service. This epic will leave a significant mark not only on Korean literary history but also on contemporary Korean history. As such, we shall now discuss the Jeju uprising more openly with defiance.