Photo/Illutration Photo: Kim Ji-ha (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Uttering words as a poet invited the risk of imprisonment under South Korea's authoritarian regime in 1972.

That year, authorities arrested poet and playwright Kim Ji-ha and placed him under house arrest for penning a satirical poem titled "Higo" (Groundless Rumor).

A movement arose in Japan to free him.

Kim told Japanese philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi, who visited him: "When a sound argument is suppressed, it is replaced with baseless rumor. Since the powers that be would fabricate their own rumor in order to justify their deception, we must propagate a rumor of the masses to counter the government's rumor."

That's according to the book "Kim Ji-ha," edited by Japanese critic Kenji Muro.

By "a rumor of the masses," Kim presumably meant the genuine voice of the people.

In his sarcastic poem "Five Bandits," Kim severely denounced the privileged class: "Plutocrats don clothes made of banknotes and wear hats made of banknotes."

As for ranking government officials, he went on, "They are lapdogs of their superiors but hunting dogs to their subordinates."

Kim died on May 8 at age 81.

His many scathing works were widely read in Japan.

When he was sentenced to death as a political offender in 1974, a spate of protest rallies were held in Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Back then, the idea of Japan-South Korea solidarity had a powerful influence on civilian activism.

Pressured also by international public opinion, the South Korea government commuted Kim's sentence.

In his "Declaration of Conscience" issued from prison, Kim discussed the meaning of democracy. He summed it up as "a philosophy that opposes silence... and a system that values free speech."

In Russia and other dictatorships today, people are also valiantly trying to speak out. Let us think of these "present-day Kim Ji-ha's."

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 12

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.