The 1978 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

BIOGRAPHY of Yoon Suk-Joong

YOON SUK-JOONG was born in May, which has become the month of children in Korea, and it is to children that he has devoted his life. His birthdate was May 25, 1911, and his birthplace and lifelong residence Seoul, the kingdom's capital. He could trace his family back more than 30 generations and many of his forbearers had given distinguished service to the Yi monarchy.

The Japanese began to win their bid for suzerainty over Korea in the early years of the 20th century. In 1905 Japan took control over Korea's foreign affairs and established Japanese residents (governors) throughout the country. In 1907 it forced King Kojong to abdicate in favor of his weak son, Sunjong, and in 1910, the year before YOON's birth, Japan officially annexed the state. In despair YOON's oldest paternal uncle attempted suicide, and with the Japanese occupation the YOON family fortune declined.

SUK-JOONG was the only child of Yoon Duk-byung and Cho Dukhee. His mother died when he was two or three and his father remarried in 1919. Meanwhile the little boy was sent to live with his widowed maternal grandmother. He did not enter elementary school until he was ten, instead studying Chinese and Korean at home. To while away lonely hours he began to make up poems--the first step in what was to become his lifetime career.

When YOON was eight years old, the country was wracked by the brutal Japanese repression of a nationwide independence movement. Mass demonstrations erupted on March 1, 1919, the day of public mourning for the death, by unknown causes, of former King Kojong. A proclamation of independence was issued by 33 prominent Koreans and a total of some 500,000 people took part in peaceful demonstrations over the next two months. The "March 1st Independence Movement" and its subsequent repression left a deep mark on the boy's mind.

During his primary school years at Kyo-dong Elementary School in Seoul (1921-1925) YOON found himself chafing under what he came to think of as the "do not" principle of society. For example, in first grade an organ--the first he had ever seen--was brought into the class room. The boy, impressed with the sound of the instrument went up to play it. "Don't touch the organ," he was told, "it is too expensive." Throughout his school years he seemed to be assailed by the same "do not" refrain: "do not talk; do not pass the Japanese flag without saluting," and hardest of all, "do not speak Korean." (Throughout the 35 year colonial period of YOON's childhood and young adulthood, Japanese was the language of education as the conquerors sought, through linguistic imperialism, to eradicate the Korean identity.)

In 1922 YOON's father, a landowner end social reformer, established the Sinsasang Yonguhoi (Korean New Life Movement), one of the first nationalist movements after World War I. That same year the So Nyun Undong Hyuphoe (Korean Youth Movement Association)--which had been founded by children's writers Bang Chung Whan and Kim Gi-jon--attempted to celebrate May 1st as Children's Day. Unable to get permission from the government, the group nevertheless paraded through the streets, protesting the government's decision and at the same time advocating the humane treatment of young people. "Let us not cheat children," admonished one of their leaflets, "let us talk to children kindly; let children have enough sleep and exercise; let children bathe often; prohibit children from saying bad things; do not let them marry early, but bring them up as good men." The nationalists realized early on that the way to maintain a Korean identity and to promote Korean nationalism was by subtle indoctrination of children. They also recognized that working with young people was the only avenue open to them under the Japanese occupation.

The following year, on March 20, 1923, Bang, better known by his pen name, Sopa, published the first children's magazine, entitled simply Onni (Children) as the organ of the movement. When he was 12 YOON chanced to meet Sopa and he recalls: "he spoke to me using polite language and I realized he was practicing what was emphasized in the magazine. . . .That was the first time I heard polite language from an older person."

Inspired by Sopa's magazine and youth association, YOON gathered two of his friends into a reading circle which they called Gott-bat-sa (Flower Garden Club). The little group formed a small lending library and mimeographed their own magazine, Gott-bat. In later years YOON came to feel that he had formed the club partly in rebellion against the restrictions of society, and in fact the club did encounter some disapproval. The youngsters had set up their library in a house owned by a friend's father, who frequently scolded them and told them not to sell their leaflets. Young YOON was less annoyed at being told what not to do than in discovering that the landlord himself was hardly above reproach: he cheated on his bills, YOON remembers, and kept two wives.

As representative of Gott-bat-sa YOON attended the first officially sanctioned Children's Day celebration on May 1, 1923. For the occasion Kim Gijon wrote the Korean Children's Charter--the first of its kind in the world--which advocated humane treatment of children, including abolition of labor by those under age 14 and the provision of "homes and social institutions for children where they can learn quietly and play cheerfully." These are goals, enunciated in the 220,000 leaflets distributed throughout the country at that time, to which YOON has since dedicated his life.

At the same time that their rights were proclaimed, the children were given a code of conduct to follow. They were admonished to speak politely, especially to elders; not scribble or draw pictures on walls; not throw garbage on the road; love animals and nature, and "keep your mouth closed and your posture straight."

Implicit in the slogan of that Children's Day--"the elders have little hope; our only hope is for the children"--was a protest against Japanese rule. Children's Day continued to be celebrated in May (after 1928 on the first Sunday of the month) until it was banned--along with all public rallies--by the occupying authorities in 1937. It was reestablished after independence by YOON himself.

In 1924, after two of the Gott-bat-sa members left to go to agricultural school, YOON formed a new reading club called Gippeum-sa (Joy Club) which again mimeographed a quarterly magazine under the club name, as well as Kullong-soe (The Hoop), a magazine they circulated among fellow students. While he was still in third grade YOON began having his poems accepted by outside journals. The first one was "Bom" (Spring) which appeared in 1924 in Shin-sonyun (New Boy).

Skipping two grades, YOON graduated from elementary school in March 1925 and entered Yang Jung Middle School (Seoul). By this time some of his poems were being set to music. One, "Shi-nae" (Running Brook), written at age 13, was set to music by a member of the Dahlia Association, a girls' musical group. Another poem, "Ottugi" (A Tumbling Doll), published in Orini in 1925, was set to music by the well-known musician, Park Te Joon, and has been popular with Korean children for more than 50 years.

Through his poems, which were written in Korean, YOON protested government insistence on the use of the Japanese language--even in the nursery. In 1925, however, he also wrote an openly anti-Japanese poem called "Chosun Mulsan Jangryo Ga" (Let's Use Only Korean Goods). This poem won first prize in a contest and was set to music. One day when he was returning from school he encountered a crowd singing his song in the streets. His pleasure was brief, however, for as a result of the song's popularity the Gippeum-sa lost its meeting place and had great difficulty finding a new location.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s Korea saw the emergence of a plethora of short-lived magazines for young people, in part an expression of the nationalist movement. Since children's literature was not at first taken seriously by established authors and poets, much of what was published was contributed by young people. Many later famous writers, such as YOON, got a start this way.

In middle school YOON met Chang Mu Soe, a carpenter 12 years his senior, who established the Myung Jin (Boy's Club) and who built Korea's first children's center (1925 in Seoul). YOON, his friends and members of the Dahlia Association helped entertain the children who went there. By this time YOON also knew Sopa quite well and became a reporter for Orini, which gave him the opportunity to meet many other poets and writers of children's literature.

From these school years YOON remembers one teacher, Kim Gyo Sin, who spent a great deal of time encouraging his literary talents. Several of the poems he wrote during his middle and high school years (both taken at Yang Jung)--including "Naje Na-on Bandal" (Half-Moon in the Day Sky), "Sanbaram Kangbaram" (Mountain Breeze, River Breeze) and "Kochu Mugo Mam Mam" (Eat Hot Pepper and Whirl)--are still popular among Korean children today. YOON also enjoyed theatricals and translated a Japanese drama into Korean for his classmates to stage. At age 16 he tried his hand at scriptwriting, producing two movie scripts, one in conjunction with a popular writer. Neither of them were filmed or, YOON says, he would have become a scriptwriter. Instead he immersed himself in poetry again. At this time he began to break away from traditional forms. His new style was exemplified by "Bam Han-tol" (Falling Nuts)--which he calls his "first revolutionary work"; it was published in 1927 and so delighted listeners that it was set to music and dance form.

When YOON was a senior in high school the country was again shaken by demonstrations, this time by a student uprising which came to be known as the 1929 Kwangju Student Uprising and Independence Movement. Many students and intellectuals who supported the movement were imprisoned by the Japanese authorities. YOON, who willingly took part in the demonstrations, found to his dismay that most of his fellow students betrayed the cause. Shocked, he rejected his graduation diploma in protest, and wrote an article entitled "Memoir on Leaving My School" for the daily newspaper Jung Oe Ilbo, to explain his stand. The article caused such a sensation that the newspaper was confiscated by the police. Teachers and friends came to him earnestly advising him to accept the graduation certificate. Only Kim, his revered teacher, supported him, using his stand as an example to other, less dedicated students. Deeply moved, YOON resolved to live up to his teacher's expectations and to "live a righteous and honest life," and to work to implant the spirit of Korean culture and resistance in the minds of Korean children. Although he declined the official paper, he felt he "had received a genuine graduation certificate from the teaching of Kim."

After leaving high school in 1930, YOON went to Japan, hoping distance would give him perspective on his country and poetic inspiration. While in Tokyo he made some good friends among the Korean painters and dramatists living there. Although life was hard and he often had little food, his poems--according to Korean writer Pa Kwa Sang who knew him there--were bright and "made him happy." YOON, however, came to believe that "good poems can be produced only in one's own country" and returned to Seoul after only six months.

Seeing the deaths in 1931 at early ages of both Sopa and Chang Mu Soe, heroes of his youth, YOON threw himself into writing folk songs and poems to foster a national spirit among Korean children. These songs, wrote one admirer, "represent the most eloquent expression of popular sentiment. They are typical, traditional melodies of Korean people and their culture." In 1932 he published a collection of 40 poems--the first book of its kind ever to appear in Korean--entitled Collection of Yoon Suk Joong's Songs for Children and illustrated by a well-known painter. Five of the poems intended for the volume were rejected by the government for their anti-Japanese sentiment. Many of those published were eventually set to music. In these poems YOON depicted the sad situation of children in society and at the same time tried to create "happy songs to wipe away their tears." A critic wrote of him at this time, "he is a giant among the contemporary writers of children's literature in Korea"; he was 21. Lost Ribbon appeared in 1933 and that same year YOON started a children's singing club. To earn his day to day living during this period the poet worked as a reporter and contributed to the children's column of the Chosun Joong-ang Ilbo (Korea Central Daily) and published the monthly magazine Orini (Children) and the daily paper called Sonyun Joongang (Central Boy).

Nevertheless his marriage prospects seemed poor--his salary was low, he had no house, and he had declined his high school diploma. In consequence he was convinced no parents would have him for a son-in-law. To one girl, Park Yong Sil, these considerations "made no difference." Yong Sil was a country girl with only an elementary education, but her parents disapproved of the fact that YOON had a stepmother, since it was a wife's duty to support her mother-in-law. Yong Sil, however, persuaded them that it did not matter whether the mother-in-law she supported was YOON's stepmother or real mother.

The couple was married on March 15, 1935 when YOON was 24 and Yong Sil 21. At YOON's insistence--and contrary to custom which equated lavish parties with status--the ceremony was simple. Although YOON's family was Buddhist, his wife was a Christian and he agreed to hold the ceremony in a church. He ruled out the customary wedding march and insisted on inviting only close relatives and in having only the two sets of parents participate in the ceremony with the bridal couple. He also opposed the custom of renting wedding garments, feeling that the couple should enter their new life together in their own clothing.

In May 1936 YOON and his friends sought to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Sopa's death and raised funds to set up a monument in his memory. On the monument they inscribed the words, "Dongshim Yosun" (A Child's Heart is Like an Angel). In August that year the Korean athlete, Son Ki Chung, won the Olympic marathon, wearing the Japanese flag on his shirt. In reporting the event for Joongang Ilbo YOON erased the flag from Son Ki Chung's shirt in the photograph, thereby provoking the immediate closure of the newspaper by the Japanese.

YOON moved over to the Chosun Ilbo publishing house in 1937 as editor in chief of Sonyun Chosun Ilbo, the first children's weekly newspaper. He also edited their monthly publications, Sonyun (Children) and Yoo-nyun (Infant), the latter the first magazine with poems and good illustrations for small children. When the magazines closed in 1937 for lack of funds, YOON and some of his colleagues put together (December 1938) a "highbrow children's book" called Selection of Children's Literature. Chosen for the publication were the best children's poems, stories, dramas and novels from the previous 15 years. One of YOON's poems that was included was later popularized as the theme song of a movie.

In 1939 the Anthology of Yoon Suk Joong's Songs for Children was issued, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the publication of his first poem. The same year YOON received a scholarship from the Chosun Ilbo company to study journalism at Sophia University in Tokyo. At the university YOON, who was 28 and feeling rather old for a student, studied under Ma Hae Song, a Korean expatriate and specialist in children's literature. In 1940, with the help of Father Corral, a Belgian Catholic priest, YOON was able to print a thousand copies of his fourth book of poems, Okedongmu (Close Pals); copies of the book sent to literary figures in Seoul met with good response. Father Corral was the publisher of a Korean language monthly called Light which YOON edited during his years at the university.

Although World War II broke out while YOON was still in Japan, he finished his studies, graduating and returning to Seoul in 1942. There he prepared to publish his fifth volume of verse, Moon in the Day Sky; lack of funds, however, held up publication until 1945. In the meantime YOON, who had received conscription notice from the Japanese army, fled into the mountains where he stayed until the liberation of Korea by the Allies in 1945.

After the war YOON immediately returned to publishing children's literature, establishing A-Hyup (Children's Cooperation) in 1946 to publish books for children for the first time in han-gul, the Korean alphabet. He and a colleague brought out a weekly called Jukan Sohaksang (Primary Student), and in 1946 he issued another collection of poems, Cho-sang Dall (The Crescent Moon).

During this period YOON helped organize the Korean Children's Cultural Association which published the now monthly Sohak-sang. It was distributed to elementary school children under the slogan, "Liberation is also a Delight to Children." For the first primary school graduation ceremony after liberation, the Minister of Education asked YOON to compose a special poem; the song he wrote, "Jolup Norae" (Song for the Graduation), has been sung ever since at elementary school graduations. YOON also revived Children's Day, which had been abolished during the latter period of Japanese rule, and wrote a song for the holiday expressing enthusiasm for a bright future in the hands of the young which in translation reads:

Children's Day

Fly, birds!
To the blue sky.
Race, streams!
Through the green fields.
May is green, We are growing.
Today is Children's Day,
Our own day.

When we grow up,
New workers in our land.
Helping together let's go forth,
We're friends with one another.
May is green,
We are growing.
Today is Children's Day,
Our own day.

During the late 1940s YOON continued his own writing. As his two daughters and three sons--Ju Hwa (born 1936), Tae Won (1937), Young Sun (1941), Won (1944) and Hyuk (1947)--began to grow up, neighborhood children gathered at the YOON house where they organized a singing club. YOON himself wrote poems for the group, many of which were set to music by famous composers; some of these melodies were adapted from Western melodies.

YOON's Kullong-soe (The Hoop), published in 1948 and entitled after the 1924 Joy Club student magazine, was written in a Korean unadulterated by foreign accretions. It was part of an effort to purify the Korean language of the many Japanese and English elements that had crept into it since the beginning of the century. For the same reason he translated the Japanese words of games played by Korean children into their native language, and in 1949 he organized a Korean language speech contest at Poong Mun Middle School. He later launched a campaign to Koreanize children's names.

Korea, although freed from the yoke of Japanese colonialism after World War II, did not become a unified and independent state. Instead it was divided along the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the north and the United States occupying the south until a Korean government should be set up. In 1947 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for general elections and subsequent independence and unification. However the Soviet Union and their followers in the north refused to comply with the resolution, and in 1948 two separate governments were established, a republican presidential system in the south and a communist regime in the north. Two years later the North Koreans launched an invasion into the south, plunging the country into three years of civil war.

The lightning attack by the communists resulted in the capture of Seoul. YOON and his family were evacuated by the North Koreans to Paju, north of Seoul, where they suffered great hardship, having to resort on occasion to eating bark from trees. When the North Korean police discovered that YOON had written the words to a patriotic song that had swept the south shortly before the outbreak of the war, he was forced to go into hiding. The song, "Uncle Soonkyung" (Uncle Policeman), praises the labors of the South Korean policemen who, to protect others, patrol through the night without sleep. During the next few months YOON was arrested several times but always managed to escape. When American forces recaptured Seoul in December 1950 YOON and 13 other literary figures contributed to a book called This is How I Survived.

A few months later, when Seoul fell again to the communists, YOON and his family fled to Taegu where he worked at South Korean army headquarters for three months as a second rank civil official. In June of 1951, he was transferred to the U.S. 8th Army under the United Nations Command and for the next three years corrected the translation of propaganda leaflets to be disseminated in North Korea.

Recognizing the terrible disruption to children's lives during war--when many children were separated from or lost their families--YOON set up the Children's Center in Seoul in November 1951. He determined to do all that he could to protect young people from further psychological, as well as physical, ravages of war. "That is why," he later explained, "in my poems [of that period] there are many bright images, like sun, moon, stars, snow, water, plants, birds, flowers." YOON's most prolific writing took place in November 1952, when the actual fighting had ceased but a truce had not yet been arranged. Between the 5th and 15th, just 10 days, he composed 74 poems--25 on the 11th alone. These were later published as Umma Son (Mother's Hand) (1960). He also revised 220 of Aesop's fables and made them into song stories for children.

Each year at the Children's Center he collected stories the children themselves had composed and was pleased to see in them "a bright new birth." The early stories, which showed the reality of the Korean War through the eyes of children, were published in two volumes, My War Experiences (1952) and Roofless School (1953). In April 1952 YOON resumed publishing a children's column in Chosun Ilbo.

An armistice agreement was reached in July 1953 that left a divided Korea with an uneasy truce. In one of the poems YOON wrote to express his feelings over this tragedy, he said wittily that he would like to remove the formidable "38th parallel line" and let the children of the north and south use it as a jump rope!

In 1954 YOON published 100 Nursery Rhymes which had been set to music by Im Dong Hyuk and others, and in November of that year he instituted the first annual Children's Songwriting Contest at Seoul Teacher's School. In 1954 he also became editorial consultant for Chosun Ilbo a post which he held until 1959. In 1955 he began editing again Sonyun Chosun Ilbo, the children's newspaper which had resumed publication. His own publications during the 1950s included a volume of 33 biographies, Lives of Famous Men for Children (1958). Along with the lives of Christ, Beethoveh, Gandhi, Lincoln and Edison it included the life story of Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay--one of the earliest tributes to Magsaysay's role in history.

In January 1956 YOON expanded the concept of the Children's Center and set up the Saesakhoe (New Bud Society), a non-profit organization for the promotion of children's rights and welfare. He chose the name "new bud" to emphasize the importance of bringing up young children well, despite thc debilitating aftereffects of war and dislocation.

One of the society's earliest acts was to hold a festival on July 23 commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of Sopa who had established the first children's organization in Korea. The following year the society instituted the now famous Sopa Award, given annually to the person who has contributed most to the welfare of children. In 1958, which was the 25th anniversary of the publishing of YOON's first children's magazine, Orini, the society sponsored May 5 as Children's Day.

To honor a parent's devotion to children the Saesak Mothers' Club, which had been founded in 1957, established the Mother of the Year Award in 1961. The first to be so honored was a Mrs. Park who expended "superhuman effort" in rowing her only daughter by boat to and from primary school each day for six years. The Sopa and Mother of the Year awards are funded from royalties of YOON's books.

In the field of music Saesakhoe organized in 1957 the first children's concert and in 1960 the Saesak Singing Club--the third singing club organized by YOON since 1933. The club often gives performances introducing Korean folk songs and cultural life to foreigners. The children's Singing Club is occasionally joined by the Mothers' Singing Club, which at its inception included women who had performed as children in YOON's earlier clubs. The Saesak Orchestra--Korea's first children's orchestra--gave its inaugural television performance in August 1962.

In line with YOON's interest in promoting and refining the use of the Korean language the association also established composition clubs throughout the country's primary schools, and in 1962 set up the Sejong Composition Award, named in honor of King Sejong (1418-1450) whose impressive achievements included promulgating the use of the present phonetic Korean alphabet called han-gul. In 1961 the society instituted the annual Presidential Award for the society-sponsored Children's Writing Contest. None of these awards given by Saesakhoe offered cash prizes, but the prestige of receiving one was very high.

Children's poetry and song writing contests are also held each May in front of monuments which were erected in 1969 to commemorate seven famous children's songs in the home towns of their composers. Among these is a monument for YOON's song, "Senara Orini" (Children of the New Nation), which was erected in the Toksu Palace in Seoul. In addition Saesakhoe sponsors a children's exhibition of short stories and pictures which is held on Teachers' Day, May 15.

In 1967 YOON began plans for a children's library which he hoped would be a center for all Saesak activities--the choirs, orchestra and clubs for writing, speaking, drama, dance, painting, science, traffic safety, reading and tourism. The society undertook to raise money for the project two years later through joint concerts of the Children's and Mothers' choirs; YOON now hopes to bring this project to fruition with funds from his Ramon Magsaysay Award. In 1969 he also began a campaign to produce songs for schools. Accompanied by a composer he traveled seven days a month to village schools around the country. The team produced 100 songs in their first year.

YOON has received wide recognition for his literary and organizational work in behalf of children. Not only has he had governmental and societal cooperation for many of his projects, he has received numerous awards. In 1961 he was given the Sam Il (March 1st) Cultural Award "for his distinguished contribution to children's literature" and for "promoting respect for Korean culture and political identity in his writings during the years of Japanese rule." He donated the 2,000,000 won prize money to welfare projects for children, including Saesak activities. In 1962 he was cited by the Korean Federation of Education Associations for establishing Saesakhoe and the Mother of the Year Award. In 1965 he received the annual "Best Teacher" prize from Seoul National University and was honored by the president of Korea with the Order of Cultural Merit "in recognition of his remarkable contribution to the promotion of children's welfare." The following year he received the People's Citation from the Ministry of Culture for his "lifelong work for the betterment of children. . . .done to promote the national spirit," and in 1973 he received the prestigious Oesol Award for Literature.

To commemorate his 60th birthday (1971) YOON published four more books of children's songs and traveled to Japan to negotiate the International Saesak Village Program, which operates under the slogan, "World Fellowship Through Children." Under this program 40 orphans from Japan and Korea were invited to an international goodwill camp. YOON hoped that, although the older generations of the two countries had fought each other, the young people would have a "good and honest relationship" with one another. Later the same year Saesakhoe held a calligraphic exhibition of YOON's poems, written by some 200 well-known Koreans; funds from the exhibition were used to give Seoul's children some time in the countryside.

YOON's lifelong dream of a large scale children's center was fulfilled during the decade of the 1970s by Madame Yook Young-soo, wife of Korean President Park Chung-hee. In 1970 she built a large multipurpose Children's Center at Nam San; four million children used it during the first four years. In consequence she laid plans for a larger facility in Neung Dong forest. This was completed by her husband after her assassination in August 1974. The mammoth three-story science and cultural halls, erected in 10.3 hectares of park, are divided into exhibition and instruction rooms and include a planetarium, library and 1,000-seat theater. YOON served on the Advisory Committee for the centers.

In 1977 Saesakhoe published a three-volume collection of Children's Stories Written by Mothers and began publishing, under YOON ‘s editorship, a quarterly called Saesak Moon-hak (Saesak Literature). The journal includes children's poems and stories, essays on Korean culture, and natural history photographs. The first issue also published a Children's Code which admonished youngsters to be clean, diligent, courteous and helpful, to enjoy nature, to love parents and respect teachers, "to be proud to be born in this land," and to make friends with all peoples in the world.

Despite YOON's continual fund of ideas for new programs, and the public's recognition of the societal significance of them, he is restrained by lack of funding from outside sources. The entire operating budget for the society, which comes to more than 1,500,000 won (US$3,000) annually, is financed personally by YOON. "I don't regret spending the money," he says, "but what I feel sorry about is that I cannot expand projects." Saesakhoe's programs are carried out, not by large expenditures, but through "the sincere effort of its staff."

YOON has been fortunate to enjoy over the decades the support of his family as well as the respect of his nation. His son Frances Taewon Yoon, who is president of his own publishing company in Los Angeles (USA), published the first collection of his father's poems in English, Half Past Four, in 1978. He selected 80 from the more than 1,000 poems that his father has composed. In the foreword to this volume Albert Gelpi, professor of English at Stanford University, comments: "The poems are fully present--direct and accessible. The rhythms are lovely and evocative. . . .[and the nature poems] have a quiet suggestiveness and truth, a combination of fragility and firmness that will lift the hearts of parents as well as children."

YOON's concern for children has manifested itself in numerous civic activities as well as in his writings and work with Saesakhoe. After the war he served as adviser to the Children's Red Cross and the Central Youth Protection and Custody Committee, and chairman of the Commission for Promotion of Children's Welfare, a consulting body to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs; he still serves on the latter. He is also a member of the Seoul Home Court Committee, a position he has held since 1969.

At the same time he has been continuously active in promoting interest in the field of arts and letters. He has lectured on children's literature at Chungang University, Sungshin University and Sookmyung Women's University, all in Seoul. He is a member of the Seoul City Cultural Committee, the Ministry of Education's Recommendation Committee for Children's Literature, the Special Consulting Committee for the Exclusive Use of Korean Letters, and the Korean Academy's Korean Language Refining Committee. He is a director of the Korean Writers' Association and adviser to the Korean branch of PEN (the international association of poets, playwrights, essayists and novelists). He was a member of the National Art Conference in April 1978 and has served since 1966 as board chairman of a memorial project for Hong Nan Pa, the well-known violinist and pioneer of Western music in Korea. Hong composed music for about 100 children's poems, including 39 of YOON's. The project's activities have included establishing the Nan Pa Music Award and the Nan Pa Scholarship for Youth.

YOON expresses his concern for the quality of the mass media by serving as a consulting member for the Korean Broadcasting System Television Station and as chairman of the Committee of Mass Communication Ethics and Mass Communication Language. Five Korean radio and three TV stations devote a special hour to children each day, and Saesakhoe works with the media on programing; it also introduces a new song each week.

YOON is presently editorial adviser for Sonyun Chosun Ilbo, largest of the three children's weekly newspapers. Today these papers have a total circulation of 100,000 and are sent free to pupils in all schools outside Seoul; in the capital they are sold at corner newsstands. The Saesak magazine which YOON publishes, is also distributed free to the 6,700 elementary schools in the country; the cost of distribution is paid for by Rotary and other service clubs concerned with the wellbeing of society.

YOON deplores the fact that, in spite of the effort by him and others to create happy, worthwhile songs, children today are likely to be heard humming "vulgarpop" tunes. He blames this "misled emotional education of children" partly on parents who fail to give enough attention to providing children with good songs to sing and good books to read, and partly on contemporary education methods which do not develop a child's thinking ability.

YOON's songs, 40 of which appear in primary school textbooks, not only emphasize joyful, bright images, but are thought provoking. As he once commented, although children's literature is generally deemed a minor field of writing, it nevertheless conveys the writer's philosophy--even the songs, and to YOON a child's poem should be like a song and a song like a poem.

Moreover, fine children's poetry can be understood on- many levels, depending on the age and sophistication of the hearer. Two of his poems are cases in point:

The Cow

No matter how strong the hunger pangs,
The cow eats slowly, very slowly.

No matter how hard the fall of rain,
The cow walks slowly, very slowly.

No matter how glad the news may be,
The cow waits long before it smiles.

No matter how sad the news may be,
The cow waits long before it cries.

Skylark

Looking down from the sky,
The barley field looks nice.
Down comes the skylark, like an arrow.

Looking up from the field,
The bright blue sky looks nice.
Up soars the skylark, like an arrow.


Beh, beh, bah, bah, rising and falling;
Rising and falling.
A full day gone, the sun goes down.

A child will appreciate the images at face value--the ruminating cow, the darting skylark, the barley field, the bright blue sky. But the adult with his greater experience will comprehend the wider implications of the poems. He will understand, for example, the wisdom of the cow who withholds the expression of emotion, knowing that a sad event can sometimes have a happy outcome and conversely, that happiness can turn into sadness. He may recognize, too, that the skylark represents the cycles of the human mind, continually vacillating between earth and sky, secular and spiritual.

YOON believes that a child's heart and mind hold fundamental human qualities--innocence, simplicity, intimacy with the natural world and a purity of perception uncontaminated by society. It is, therefore, the responsibility of every adult to encourage and preserve those qualities unique to childhood. Accordingly, the first requirement of the children's poet, he feels, is his "serious effort to approach the minds of children." In his poem, "Half-Past Four," for example, YOON expresses a child's special perception of time and nature.

Half Past Four

The child, the child
Runs to the grocer's store,
"Grandpa, grandpa!
Mommy wants to know
What time is it now?"
"Half past four."

"Half past four, half past four."
On his way back home,
He stands awhile to watch
Chickens, water-drinking.

"Half past four, half past four."
On his way back home,
He sits awhile to watch
Ants, going, coming.

"Half past four, half past four."
On his way back home,
He chases for awhile
Dragonflies a-darting.

"Half past four, half past four."
On his way back home,
He plucks a four-o'clock flower
Humming nee na nee, na nee na,
Past sundown, finally home!

"Mama!
It's half past four."

Through this poem YOON seems to remind us that in a society where time holds dictatorial sway over our lives it would be well not to lose sight of the slow rhythms that ruled our childhood. "The way to live a long time," he said recently, "is not to lose one's boyish nature." In his own case he claims that even though his body is over 60, his mind is 10 and his heart is 30.

YOON feels that he and others should create an environment conducive to creative thought and help children "live with courage and dreams." In "Shadows" he captures a child's imagination:

Shadows, shadows,
Shadows don't get wet.
Wish I had clothes made from shadows,
So I could walk on rainy days.

Shadows, shadows,
Shadows don't get caught.
Wish I had clothes made from shadows,
So I could play at hide and seek.

Shadows, shadows,
Shadows don't get muddy.
Wish I had clothes made from shadows,
So I could roll and tumble, roll and tumble.

YOON has well impressed his happy version of the world on the minds of thousands of Korean children, and as he foretold, ideas once learned in childhood are not readily forgotten. Kim Seongjin, Minister of Culture and Information, remarked recently, "I still remember many of his songs. They constitute a most enriching part of my childhood." Another admirer laughingly suggested that the key to a Korean's youthful appearance is not the fabled ginseng tea, but the poems and songs of YOON SUK JOONG. "When we were little," she said, "we learned his songs from our parents and then at kindergarten and elementary school. Later, as adults, we sang them again with our children, for through his poems and songs we feel renewed life and happiness and hope for a brighter future."

For YOON, the innocence, freshness and creativity of the child offer more than personal renewal, however; for him they are the ties that bind men of all nations and all races--the key to world understanding.

September 1978
Manila

REFERENCES:

Jeon, Ky-hoc. "English Version of 100 Children's Poems Planned," Korea Times. Seoul. September 3, 1976.

Kim, Suk-hyon. "President of Saesakhoe Devoted to Children," Korea Herald. January 30, 1969.

Korean Children's Center. Brochure. Seoul: Korean Children's Center. N.d.

Lee, Kyong-hee. "Songwriter Devoted to Children," Newsreview. Seoul. January 17, 1976.

______. "Poet Devoted to Songs, Welfare of Children," Korea Times. July 18, 1971.

"Man We Want to Meet," Children's Dongsa Daily. Seoul. July 21, 1976. Translation from the Korean.

"People," Korea Herald. November 12,1978.

"Ramon Magsaysay Awards," Hankuk Ilbo. Seoul. September 3, 1978. Translation from the Korean.

Yoon Suk-joong. "Fifty Years with the Children," Chungan Ilbo. Seoul. May 3-August 4, 1976.Translation from the Korean.

______. Half Past Four. Los Angeles; F.T. Yoon. 1978.

______. "Literature and Songs for Children." Presentation made to Group Discussion. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila. September 4, 1978. (Typewritten transcript.)

______. "The New Born Coming Out of the War: My 44 Years of Children's Movement," Sasange. Seoul. February 1967.

Interviews with and letters from persons acquainted with Yoon Suk-joong and his work.