장세정 (Jang Se-jeong)

Pro-Japanese Allegations

Jang was included in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators (2008) due to militaristic "war songs" she was forced to record in the early 1940s, such as "Mother of the Volunteer Soldier" and "You and Me".^[1] She later testified that she and her peers were under extreme duress from Japanese authorities to record these propaganda tracks.^[2]

Censorship

Many of her greatest hits were banned in the 1970s because their writers, such as Jo Myeong-am and Kim Hae-song, had defected to North Korea.^[2] Composers like Park Si-chun fought to keep her music alive by re-recording her tracks under different credits to bypass authoritarian censorship.^[2]

1. "[그 노래 그 사연] 장세정 '고향초'…피난민 아픔 어루만져준 가희". Nongmin Shinmun. December 10, 2025.
2. Cite error: The named reference RuralWomenNewspaper was invoked but never defined (see the help page).