Son Kijŏng: 1936 Olympic marathon champion

This article is composed in a dialogic format of the research of Linh Müller and Dagmar Yu-Dembski, who died in spring 2023. Linh Müller was able to continue working with a first draft by Dagmar Yu-Dembski on Son Kijŏng's marathon victory. The final version of the text is therefore not approved by Dagmar Yu-Dembski. In order to respect the integrity of her work, the passages written by Dagmar Yu-Dembski are marked with indentation.

On August 9, 1936, Son Kijŏng won the Olympic marathon in Berlin. He was Korean, but ran under the Japanese flag, as Korea was a Japanese colony at the time. Son used his time in Berlin to make political statements and advance the anti-colonial struggle. In Korea, he became a symbol of resistance.

The marathon

On the stone plaques at the Olympic Stadium, which list the names of all the winners of the 1936 Olympic Games, you can read today: "Marathon 42195m Son Japan". Son Kitei, a runner on the Japanese national team, had won the marathon. But Son, born Son Kijŏng (also son Kee-chung, 1912–2002) in what is now North Korea, actually saw himself as a Korean. Since Korea had officially become a Japanese colony in 1910, Son had to compete under the Japanese flag at the Olympic Games.

On August 9, 1936, the marathon, the most classic discipline of the Olympic competitions, took place. It was a sunny day. The flags in the stadium hardly moved in the mild wind. 56 runners from 27 countries competed against each other in the fight for Olympic medals. Among them were four runners from Japan. After the start through the Olympic marathon gate and over the Maifeld, the run first led almost thirty kilometers through the Grunewald. From there it went over to the Avus. The highway curve was the turning point back to the stadium.

Son Kijŏng crossed the finish line first. During the award ceremony, he lowered his eyes; third-placed Nam Sŭngnyong, also Korean, who had run for the Japanese team as Nan Shoryu, did the same. Son also placed the oak sapling, which he received as the winner, in front of his jersey to cover the Japanese flag on it.

He would later say of that day: "I did not run for the Japanese. I ran for myself and my maltreated people." ^[1]

The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin

In the summer of 1936, the International Olympic Competitions took place on the grounds of the Olympic Stadium with great propaganda effort. As early as 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had awarded the Olympics to Germany. Despite various protests after the National Socialist Party came to power and discussions about a possible boycott, the IOC stood by its decision. The National Socialists saw the Olympic Games as an opportunity to present the world public with the deceptive impression of a cosmopolitan and peace-loving Reich capital.

Among other things, the press was prohibited from publishing excessively anti-Semitic and racist articles during the Olympic Games. It was not allowed to write pejoratively about African-American athletes from the USA or about Jewish athletes. Newspapers that did not comply with this requirement were punished. Attempts were also made to prevent hostility in public. However, during the same period, about 600 Roma and Sinti were interned in a camp on the outskirts of Berlin in order to hide them from the tourists of the Olympic Games. ^[2]

Son Kijŏng's perception in Germany

Like the iconic successes of the African-American runner Jesse Owens, Son Kijŏng's victory offered material with which the National Socialist regime could present itself as cosmopolitan. For example, Son and Owens each have important roles in Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Olympia. ^[3] At the same time, the prominent successes of two racialized people can also be understood as moments of subversion of Nazi racial ideology, as two "non-Aryan" athletes dominated the competitions.

In the German press, Son and other Japanese athletes were reported with admiration, but at the same time exoticizing and racializing descriptions were used. They were often characterized as "petite" or "small", without actually differing significantly from European athletes in their stature. ^[4] For example, an article in a contemporary scrapbook for cigarette pictures describes Son's run as follows:

"Small and light, gifted with an extraordinarily productive stride, which can be maintained easily and unaffected for hours, Son brings all the tenacity of his breed to this long-distance fight. The inexhaustible patience, which is always ready to take on new and difficult hardships, the traditional and exemplary training of the will of the Japanese, form the basis of the successes that have been purposefully strived for since 1928." ^[5]

Son Kijŏng between Japanese imperialism and Korean resistance

Son's success enabled the Japanese Empire to adorn itself with an Olympic champion. Son's victory also represented the success of Japan's assimilation strategy, which envisaged the full integration of colonial subjects. ^[6] In Korea, however, a major daily newspaper printed a photo of the award ceremony in which the Japanese flag on Son's jersey had been retouched. The newspaper was subsequently banned and those responsible punished, but Son had already become a symbol of Korean resistance on the world stage. ^[7]

Even today, Son is celebrated as a national hero and symbol of anti-colonial resistance in South Korea. At the opening ceremony of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Son carried the Olympic flame into the stadium. The fact that his gold medal is still attributed to Japan today causes resentment. At the same time, his role as a supporter of Japanese war efforts is timidly but critically discussed.

Son Kijŏng's time in Berlin

Son Kijŏng not only set an example during his award ceremony. He also followed his political views in his free time.

During his stay in Berlin, for example, Son avoided wearing sportswear with the Japanese red sun printed on a white background. He consistently signed autograph cards with his Korean name.

He also networked with the Korean An Ponggŭn, who came from a prominent Catholic family and was a cousin of the anti-colonial national hero An Chunggŭn.

An, who had a Chinese passport, had an eventful political past. Since he left Korea in 1914 with the Catholic missionary Father Wilhelm, his traces can be traced in various places. He had taken on various jobs as a lecturer at adult education centres and museums in Germany, worked with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and was a journalist for his homeland as a political activist. ^[8] After moving within Berlin several times, he lived as Fongkeng Han in 1936 in an apartment with a shop at Kantstraße 132.^[9] In the immediate vicinity of his apartment were several Chinese restaurants, which he apparently supplied with tofu from his own production. ^[10]

During his stay in Berlin, Son was a guest at Kantstraße several times. He reported: "We enjoyed eating together. Rice and chicken soup with tofu, which his German wife served us." ^[11] One day after the marathon, the two medal winners were invited to a private party at Kantstraße 132. There, Son discovered the Korean national flag in the premises, which he had never seen before:

"Yes, this is our flag! My whole body trembled as if I had been shocked by an electric shock. I had lost my fatherland. Now it was as if I saw the face of this dead nation. But despite oppression and surveillance, ours was still alive. This showed me: The Korean people were still alive!" ^[12]

In addition to the stone plaques honoring the Olympic champions, there is also a statue of Son Kijŏng in the Olympic Park today, erected on the bell tower of the National Sports Federation and the South Korean Son Kijŏng Foundation. A Korean flag is depicted on the jersey of the bronze figure.