In 1960s South Korea, the Japanese figure of Nagamatsu was portrayed through memoirs, films, and newspaper reports as an equal figure who had experienced the turmoil of the Korean War. She was symbolized as an “imagined saint” and a “familiar stranger.” It became evident after her suicide attempt, whether this was from some imagined sense of solidarity representing a genuine formation of transcendent unity within Korean society or a fictional product created by state-led cultural politics and mass media. Nagamatsu's extreme choice of taking her life, became a turning point for Korean society to recognize her as “one of us,” showcasing a socially shared example of transcending the position of “the other” into a newly possible sense of solidarity expressed as a form of cultural compassion. Nagamatsu's case transcends her personal life and serves as an important reflection of the complex cultural and political contexts of the Cold War era as well as Korean-Japanese relations. Although her life was reconstructed within an imagined space shaped by state power and mass media, it provides critical insights into the cultural and political intersections between Korea and Japan during the tense Cold War period.