Erasing the Japanese Flag

In Dong-A Ilbo reporter Lee Kil-yong’s memoirs contained in 3-9 pages of “Newspaper Journalists’ Notebook,” published in 1948, Lee talks about how the newspaper published a photo of Olympic track champion Sohn Kee-jung at the 1936 Berlin Olympics without the Japanese national flag on his uniform, which it had erased. In this article, he links this act to anti-Japanese sentiment in the editorial department of Dong-A Ilbo and the sentiment of the Korean people at the time that stemmed from the March 1 Independence Movement. This is the only record Lee made on the situation.

Seung-Hoon Cheon raphy@donga.com