Nobel-winning Gunter Grass`s criticism against illiteracy of past history

Gunter Grass, a German writer who won the 20th century’s last Nobel Prize with his novel “The Tin Drum,” recently passed away. He had been on the Nobel Prize list since the 1970s and at last was crowned with a laurel wreath in 1999 at age 72. His debut novel “The Tin Drum (1959)” was made into a movie, which won a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. The novel is steady seller even today, loved by people around the world. "The Tin Drum" follows the life of a boy named Oskar who decides to stop his growth and stay three years old forever by deliberately falling down the stairs. His life reflects the gloomy situations of post-war Germany that was suffering from sense of guilt.

Grass has a unique connection with Korea. On the eve of the opening ceremony for 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, he recited a congratulatory poem through a video: “The ball rises gradually above the sky/People saw the grandstand full of spectators/The poet was standing lonely inside the goalpost/But the referee blew a whistle/Offside…” Grass had also joined release movements for anti-regime writers including Kim Ji-ha and Hwang Suk-young. When Germany-based scholar Song Doo-yul was arrested and charged for violating national security law, he had filed a petition.

Grass didn’t remain silent on Germany’s dark history. He opened up his past that had been kept silent in 2006. Through his autobiography “Peeling the Onion,” he confessed he had joined the Nazi SS in his teens. Some said he was courageous to speak of his past mistakes, while others said this was hypocrisy of a left-wing pacifist. Later he said “How can people, who are ignorant of how fearful and difficult it was then, make thoughtless criticism.”

Grass was a critical intellectual who had influence on the public, who went beyond literature to actively join controversial issues of the times. As he severely criticized his country’s shameful past, Grass harshly criticized the country where he visited in 2002. “Japan is incompetent in reflecting on and disclosing in humanitarian terms its bloody past. This is Japan’s big handicap. They were unable to realize their wrongdoings in the past and even now. Even if they do realize they don’t say it publicly.” This shows Grass’ insights into Japan’s unchanged illiteracy on the past history that ranges 70 years from World War II.

mskoh@donga.com