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Lyuh Woon-hyung

Lyuh Woon-hyung (Korean: 여운형; RR: Yeo Un-hyeong; 25 May 1886 – 19 July 1947), also known by his art name Mongyang (몽양; 夢陽), was a Korean independence activist and reunification activist.

Lyuh was a prominent figure in the Korean Provisional Government during the Japanese colonial period.[1] He is rare among politicians in modern Korean history for being revered in both South and North Korea.[citation needed]

Biography

In August 1945, Lyuh organized a meeting with the representatives of "the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence" who came from all over the country.

Lyuh was born in 1886 in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Joseon. He was born into the Hamyang Yeo clan to father Yŏ Chŏng-hyŏn (여정현; 呂鼎鉉). At around age 14, he married Yu Se-yŏng (유세영; 柳世永), but she died, and he remarried to Jin Sang-ha (진상하; 陳相夏).[2]

In 1900, Lyuh enrolled in the Western-style Pai Chai School. Soon afterwards, he switched to studying at the Hŭnghwa School [ko] and Umu School (우무학당; 郵務學堂).[2] In 1907, he became involved in the National Debt Repayment Movement, part of the Korean independence movement. Also around this time, he became a Protestant Christian and became associated with the American missionary Charles Allen Clark. Through his relationship with Clark and Christianity, he became active in intellectual circles in Korea of the time.[2]

With assistance with Clark, he found the Kidok Kwangdong School in 1909.[citation needed] In 1910, Lyuh dramatically parted from Korean tradition by freeing slaves owned by his household.[citation needed] In 1911, Lyuh enrolled in Pyongyang Presbyterian Theological Seminary.[citation needed]

In 1914, Lyuh went to China where he studied English literature at a university in Nanjing.[citation needed] In 1917, he moved to Shanghai.[2] While in China, he became significantly involved in the Korean independence movement. In 1918, he established what eventually became the Shanghai Korean People's Association [ko].[2] That year, he also led the New Korean Youth League [ko].[2]

In 1919, Lyuh participated in the creation of the February 8 Declaration of Independence in Tokyo.[2] This declaration is considered a direct precursor to the Korean Declaration of Independence which began the landmark March 1st Movement protests in Korea.[3] Concurrently, he participated in efforts to send Korean representatives to the 1919–1920 Paris Peace Conference, in hopes that they could advocate for Korean independence there.[2]

In April 1919, Lyuh became one of the founders of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.[2] He would serve in a variety of roles in the government, such as being a member of the organization's Legislative Assembly [ko]. He also established a Korean school called Insŏng School [ko] in Shanghai around this time. That year, he also visited Japan and met with several high-ranking Japanese politicians, during which he advocated for Korea's independence.[2]

In 1920, he joined the Korean Communist Party and became active in both its Shanghai and Irkutsk chapters.[2] In 1922, he attended the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Moscow.[2][4] In Moscow, he met with Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin.[4] That year, he organized the Korean Veterans Association [ko] alongside Kim Ku and Son Jŏng-do [ko].[2] In 1925, at the recommendation of Sun Yat-sen, he joined the Chinese Nationalist Party and worked to improve Sino-Korean ties.[2] In 1929, he was arrested by Japanese authorities in Shanghai and sentenced to three years in prison.[2]

In 1932, he was released from prison.[2] In 1933, he became the head of the Chŏson Chungang Ilbo [ko] newspaper. In 1934, he became head of the Joseon Sports Council.[2] In 1936, he was forced by Japanese authorities to step down from his position at the newspaper, after involved he became involved in the Sohn Kee-chung uniform scandal. During this scandal, Korean newspapers erased the Japanese flag off of images of Sohn, the first ethnic Korean to win an Olympic gold medal.[2] In 1942, he was arrested on charges of violating the Peace Preservation Law and sentenced to a year in prison and three years of probation.[2]

In 1944, in anticipation of Japan's defeat in World War II, Lyuh organized the secret Korean National Establishment Committee [ko] and served as its chairman. The organization expanded across Korea and allied itself with other Korean nationalist organizations.[2]

Just before the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Japanese official Endo Ryusaku established contact with Lyuh and agreed on the release of prisoners and the Japanese withdrawal from Korea.[5] On the 17 August, Lyuh established the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence which created over 140 subsections in North and South Korea by the end of August.[5]

On 6 September 1945, Lyuh proclaimed the People's Republic of Korea[6] with Lyuh as Chairman of the National People's Representative Conference.[7] When the United States landed on the Korean Peninsula two days later,[8] General Hodge did not recognize the government of the People's Republic of Korea that Lyuh Woon Hyung established. 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, Lyuh took a line of action in concert with the communists.[9]

When a movement to unify the political left and the political right arose in May 1946, Lyuh represented the center-left. However, Lyuh's political stance was 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.[citation needed]

Death

On 19 July 1947, Lyuh was assassinated in Seoul by a 19-year-old man named Han Chi-geun, who fled from North Korea and was an active member of the right-wing terrorist group the White Shirts Society. Lyuh's death was widely mourned.[citation needed]

Timeline

Lyuh during the Soviet-US Committee in May 1946.
Resting place in Seoul
Flag of the People's Committee of Korea

Genealogy

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ Weems, Benjamin (1948). "Behind the Korean Election". Far Eastern Survey. 17 (12): 143. doi:10.2307/3022008. ISSN 0362-8949. JSTOR 3022008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 허, 종, "여운형 (呂運亨)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 15 May 2024
  3. ^ 박, 성수, "2·8독립선언서 (二八獨立宣言書)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 29 April 2024
  4. ^ a b 김, 삼웅 (2015). 몽양 여운형 평전. 채륜. pp. 188–189.
  5. ^ a b Kim, Hakjoon (1988). "The American Military Government in South Korea, 1945–1948: Its Formation, Policies, and Legacies". Asian Perspective. 12 (1): 60–61. ISSN 0258-9184. JSTOR 42703907.
  6. ^ Bartel, Wilfried (1972). "Neues Licht auf die Frage der Schuld am Ausbruch des Korea-Krieges: Die UNO schuldet sich und der Welt eine gründliche Untersuchung der Vorgänge von 1950". Vereinte Nationen: German Review on the United Nations. 20 (2): 42. ISSN 0042-384X. JSTOR 45229279.
  7. ^ Kim, Hakjoon (1988). pp. 61–62
  8. ^ Kim, Hakjoon (1988). p. 61
  9. ^ Weems, Benjamin (1948). p. 145
  10. ^ "Joong-Ang Ilbo, 1932 November 16, page 2 column 9".
  11. ^ "Dong-A Ilbo, 1932 November 17, page 2 column 10".

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