Yuh Woon-Hyung

Infobox Korean name
hangul=여운형
hanja=呂運亨
rr=Yeo Un-hyeong
mr=Yǒ Unhyǒng
hangulho=몽양
hanjaho=夢陽
rrho=Mong-yang
mrho=Mongyang

Yuh Woon-Hyung (May 26 1886 – July 19 1947) was a Korean politician who argued that Korean independence was essential to world peace. His pen-name was Mongyang, the Chinese characters for "dream" and "light." He is rare among politicians in modern Korean history in that he is revered in both South and North Korea.

Lifetime

Yuh was born in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, the son of a local yangban magnate. At age 15, Yuh enrolled in the Baejae School but in less than one year moved to Heunghwa School. After moving to yet another school and leaving that school before graduation, Yuh began in 1907 to study the Bible and befriended the American missionary Charles Allen Clark, who helped him found Kidok Kwangdong School in 1909. In 1910, Yuh dramatically parted from Korean tradition by freeing slaves owned by his household. In 1911, Yuh enrolled in Pyongyang Presbyterian Theological Seminary and, in 1914, went to China where he studied English literature at a university in Nanjing. In 1917, he moved to Shanghai. In 1918, he organized the "Mindan" (Korea Resident Association) in that city, to provide a base for pro-independence activities. Yuh took part in the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in 1919 and served as a member of that body's Legislative Assembly ("Imsi Uijeongwon").

Like many in the Korean independence movement, Yuh sought aid from both right and left. In 1920, he joined the Corea Communist Party (고려 공산당, Goryo Gong-san-dang) and, in 1921, attended the First Congress of the Toilers of the Far East in Moscow. However, he joined the right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party in 1924 and worked for Sino-Korean cooperation. In 1929, he was arrested by the British police for criticizing Britain’s colonial policy and handed over to the Japanese for imprisonment in Korea. After being released from prison in 1932, Yuh took on a variety of anti-Japanese activities in areas of the media and sports. During the Berlin Olympics a Korean marathon runner, Sohn Kee-chung, won the gold medal. Sohn, however, was running for the Japanese. The Chungang Daily News, of which Yuh was the editor, ran the photograph but removed the Japanese flag from his jersey. The Japanese closed down the newspaper and arrested Yuh for the action. In addition to serving as editor of the Chungang Daily News, he also served as the president of the Choson JungAng Ilbo (조선중앙일보) and other sports associations.

In anticipation of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, Yuh organized in 1944 the Korean Restoration Brotherhood (조선건국동맹, Joseon Geon-guk Dongmaeng), a nationwide underground organization. When Japan finally surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945 and Deputy Governor General Abe transferred his government to Yuh in exchange for safeguard of Japanese in Korea, it enabled him to promptly form the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence (조선 건국 준비 위원회, Joseon Geon-guk Junbi Wiwonhoe). In September 1945, Yuh proclaimed the establishment of the Korean People's Republic and became its vice-premier. In October, he stepped down under pressure from the United States military government, and organized the People's Party of Korea, becoming its chairman. For the following months of the anti-trusteeship movement and other political changes, Yuh took a line of action in concert with the communists.

When a movement to unify the political left and the political right arose in May 1946, Lyuh represented the center-left and occupied a position on the center between the left and the right. Yuh’s political stance was, however, attacked by both the extreme right and the extreme left, and his efforts to pursue a centrist position was made increasingly untenable by the political realities of the time. On July 19, 1947, Yuh was assassinated in Seoul by a 19-year-old man named Han Chigeun, a recent refugee from North Korea and an active member of a nationalist right-wing group. Yuh's death was widely mourned.

References

Source: Paekbom Ilchi, English version, historical notes.

ee also

*History of South Korea
*Korean independence movements
*Korea under Japanese rule

External links

* [http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/1853.html Who was Yo Un-Hyung?] (Yo is another romanized name of Yuh. The actual name sounds similar to Yo, but the author of this article used Yuh, because it was the original English name that Yuh himself used.)
* [http://www.mongyang.org Mongyang Memorial Society]