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| Novelist and literary translator Ahn Jung-hyo / Korea Times file |
By Park Han-sol
Ahn Jung-hyo, a noted novelist and a literary translator whose magnum opus, "White Badge," recounts the haunting legacy of the Vietnam War inspired by his own experiences as a war correspondent in the Southeast Asian country, died Saturday at the age of 82.
He passed away at a hospital in Seoul after a battle with cancer, his family confirmed.
Born in 1941 in Seoul's Mapo District, the late writer majored in English literature and pursued a career in journalism until 1966 when he joined the Vietnam War as a member of the White Horse Division of the Republic of Korea Army.
Upon his return, Ahn served as a culture reporter (1969-70) and later as a desk editor (1975-78) for The Korea Times. During that time, he wrote a serialized column for the paper called "Viet Vignettes" that documented his experiences in the war.
These writings eventually became the foundation of his literary debut in 1983, when his tour de force, "White Badge," first appeared in the quarterly publication, "Literature in Action." It was published in book form two years later.
His radical novel details horrors and atrocities witnessed during combat, as well as the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffered by veterans ― topics that were largely suppressed during the authoritarian regimes of Park Chung-hee and his successor Chun Doo-hwan.
During Park's tenure, South Korea sent approximately 320,000 troops to the Vietnam War, serving as allies to the U.S. More than 5,000 Korean soldiers lost their lives, while another 10,000 were wounded in the conflict.
Ahn translated the book into English himself and got it published in the United States in 1989.
After having won critical acclaim from both home and abroad, the story was adapted into a 1992 Korean film of the same name by Chung Ji-young, starring Ahn Sung-ki.
In addition to "White Badge," the novelist is known for penning "Silver Stallion," which narrates the United Nations forces' encampment in a rural Korean village during the 1950-53 Korean War and the experiences of women working as prostitutes for the military, and "The Life and Death of the Hollywood Kid" ― both of which were adapted into movies.
Ahn was also a prolific literary translator, rendering more than 150 novels and writings into Korean throughout his lifetime. His translations include notable works such as Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind," Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," John Irving's "The World According to Garp" and most recently, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American."
He received the Kim You-jeong Literary Award in 1992 for the novella "Akbujeon" and the local Korean Translation Literature Award in 1982 for his rendition of John Updike's "Rabbit Is Rich."
The writer is survived by his wife Park Kwang-ja, a professor emeritus of German Language and Literature at Chungnam National University, and two daughters, Mi-ran and So-geun.
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