Have the Generosity

 Pukkwan Victory Monument at Gyongbokgung                         June 16  2020

 Suhmyun Choi’s 'Have the Generosity'

Mr. Suhmyun Choi has passed away.
He was buried at a shrine in Sky Cemetery Park in Paju, Gyonggi Province. 

There was a fake shrine for him there for many years and there is a story behind how he finally came to be buried there.

After many twists and turns, Korea-Japan diplomatic relations were normalized in 1965. In the same year, Masahide Kanayama (金山政英 1909∼1997) started his new post as Japan’s ambassador to Korea. He was as energetic as any ambassador could be. One day, President Park Chunghee gave him a confidential letter for the then-Prime Minister of Japan, Eisaku Sato, asking if he wouldn’t rather be ‘Korea’s ambassador to Japan’ rather than ‘Japan’s ambassador to Korea’. The letter contained a request for technical cooperation to make Posco.

He persuaded many people including Prime Minister Sato and the president of Nippon steels, Yoshihiro Inayama who was like a finance minister of Japan and made huge contributions in establishing Posco; at first they were doubtful of the success of a steel mill in a country which “lacked a capacity to produce a screw”

After he went back to Japan, he declined a high-ranking post in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a determination to dedicate himself to the friendship between Korea and Japan. While some people might think that Japan’s diplomacy would successful as long as they had good diplomacy with the U.S., Russia, China and the U.K., he was convinced that if anything, failure in diplomacy with Korea would be a failure for Japan’s diplomacy.

Director Suhmyun Choi, who had been leading the Korea Research Institute in Tokyo, established the International Relations Research Center in the institute and appointed Kanayama as director. One day, Kanayama visited Korea with Director Choi and paid respects at Sky cemetery park in Paju where Director Choi’s mother was buried. He declared that he wanted to be buried next to Director Choi so that he could talk about Korea-Japan relations together after death.

That was how Ambassador Kanayama’s fake shrine was made. When he died in 1997, Kanayama’s son brought his remains from Tokyo and buried him there. The epitaph written by Poet Ku Sang records Kanayama’s will. “Even after death I will aid in and look over friendship between Korea and Japan.” Right after normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan, despite voices of dissent, he attended the Independence Movement Day ceremony, no other Japanese ambassadors have done this since then.

I felt a lump in my throat whenever Mr. Suh-myun Choi talked of the fake shrine.

Yet, while Ambassador Kanayama’s love for Korea was huge, Mr. Choi’s attraction and charm would have worked on that, too.

Mr. Choi was buried at the site where the fake shrine rested for 23 years.

Mr. Choi established the Korea Research Institute at Tokyo in 1958. He is a modern historian who dedicated his life to studying Dokdo and Korea-Japan relations. He is an authoritative figure in Korea-Japan relations who excavated numerous diplomatic documents, materials, old maps that prove Dokdo belongs to Korea and contributed to getting back our Pukkwan Victory Monument (a monument which commemorates the victory of Korean Righteous Army guerilla forces against Japan in Hamkyung  province during the Imjin War) which was abandoned in Yasukuni Shrine. 

He has said that Prime Minister Abe should establish a tradition of repentance like Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, his grandfather and Prime Minister Eisaku Satō, his great-uncle which pleased every Korean.

He was active as a diplomat behind the curtain between Korea and Japan, interchanging with heavyweights in Japan’s political world, mediating whenever there was a crisis in Korea-Japan relations and emphasizing communication. He kept saying: 'criticize but have the generosity to consider the other party’s perspective at the same time'  Indeed, he had that sort of generosity.

I have known Mr. Choi for a long time but it was since 2012 that I frequently met him.

Right after Japan was struck with the Great East Japan Earthquake, I wrote 250 pieces of poetry. As my poems were reported in the newspapers and on TV in Japan and Korea, I published my poetry collection in both countries. At the enthusiastic suggestion of Minister Seung-ju Han, I held a book publication party in Seoul and Tokyo. It was when Korea-Japan relations weren’t at their best, so I suppose it was a product of keen international diplomatic insight.

After holding a publication party in Seoul, doing the same in Tokyo was a problem. I gathered my acquaintances and then-Ambassador in Japan  Kak Soo Shin helped, but it wasn’t easy to find people who would truly understand the meaning of my poetry. And then Mr. Choi came to my mind. I visited his home in Gwanghwamun near my house, and a few reporters were sitting nearby despite the late hour. Even before he read my book, he showed his acting power by calling Tokyo right away.

Thanks to him, people he called came to the publication party at Tokyo the next day. They were moved and gave me a standing ovation with teary eyes and waited in a long line to shake hands with me. Mr. Choi was pleased to get a call that they were so happy that they went even though they weren’t initially interested in the poetry. 

So, whenever they came to Korea, I spent time with them. They also had a meeting every month with Mr. Choi, which I attended four times. Mr. Choi gave a lecture on the history and current situations of Korea and Japan, he sharply criticized the Japanese government. 

I learned a lot from Mr. Choi. While I was studying at Kyoto, he came from Tokyo to Kyoto with his secretaries and we toured ancient houses and Mimizuka, or Ear Tomb which enshrines sliced off ears of Korean soldiers and civilians who were killed during the Japanese invasions of Korea. In 2017, we gave an address of welcome together at his publication party in Tokyo of 'Genius of Korea Research, Choi Suh-myun' written by Hashimoto Akira who was a classmate of Japanese Emperor Akihito and interviewed Mr. Choi for several years.

After he went through lung surgery two years ago, the members paid a visit to him in Seoul as we all thought Choi Suhmyun’s Tokyo lectures were now over. I was relieved when Mr. Choi went to Tokyo several times even after that. But now he is really gone.

Japanese pro-Korean members are grieving.
He used to say “I must be the only one who is alive that has heard the voice of Mr. Kim Gu”

He had superb memory, brilliant humor and a caring and generous heart. Whenever I met and gave him my newly published book 'Why Kyoto', he read the preface in front of me again, saying 'Well done, well done'

‘Pukkwan Victory Monument’ at the yard of Gyongbokgung palace in front of my house will remind me of Mr. Choi a lot.

What a turbulent life across Korea and Japan. 

                  Please watch over us

 Mr.Choi and Sejeong Chang, then reporter specializing in diplomacy

 under spring cherry blossoms  - Yonhi dong  Seoul April 25 2013

Mr. Choi eating Bungo roll & his secretary - Nishiki Market Kyoto May 2015 

In front of Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul, July 2017