8.

Arguably the most sympathetic and signifcant portrayal of a translator in japanese

literature written during the colonial period is found in the 1912 novel Chousen (Korea) by
the prominent haiku poet and writer Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959). Based on Kyoshi’s
experiences during his travels in Korea in 1911, a year after the annexation by Japan, the
novel was serialized in the two newspapers, Oosaka Mainichi Shinbun (Osaka Daily
Newspaper) and Toukyou Nichinichi Shinbun (Tokyo Daily). One of the important characters
in the novel, Hong Wonson, once a person of high standing, is now working as translator and
interpreter for Japanese visitors. He had lost his status and wealth because he was anti-
japanese at the time of the annexation. Although Kyoshi potrayed some of the pro-Japanese
high-ranked Koreans with contempt, he depicted Hong as a man of dignity and culture, an
excellent speaker who speaks Japanese fluently in the novel. Takahama Kyoshi, Chousen
(Tokyo: Jitsugyou no Nihonsha, 1912)