Hyun Soon (玄楯, 28 February 1880 – 11 July 1968) was a Methodist minister during the Japanese colonial period and an independence activist who served as a Pyeongjeonggwan (評政官) at the National Representative Assembly of the 13 Provinces during the Japanese colonial period, as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, and as Vice Minister of Home Affairs. His alias was Song Won-sang (宋元相), and he was born in Hanseong. He worked as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and as Vice Minister of Home Affairs of the Shanghai Provisional Government. From 1913 to 1915 he served as pastor of Jeongdong First Methodist Church.
In 1919, inspired by Woodrow Wilson's principle of national self-determination, he took part in the March 1st Movement, and from August 1919 he worked as a member and acting chairman of the Korean Commission to the United States. He sent President Wilson requests that the Korean Provisional Government be invited to the Peace Conference and the Disarmament Conference, along with a petition for independence. He also served as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Vice Minister of Home Affairs of the Provisional Government, and was active as a member of the Korean Commission to the United States. From 1923 he served as a Methodist pastor, establishing an immigrant church on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations, and he remained in that post until 1940. He was a native of Hanseong.
Biography
His alias was Song Won-sang (宋元相). He was born in Okin-dong (玉仁洞), Hanseong, and as a small child spent some time in Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province. In 1902 (the fifth year of Gwangmu), he travelled by ship to Hawaii in the United States, where he studied the Bible at a Christian church and was ordained as a minister.
Immigration to Hawaii
In March 1903, Hyun Soon formally emigrated to Hawaii and established churches on the Kahuku and Waialua plantations. He returned to Korea in 1911 and engaged in missionary work, but was caught up in the so-called 105-person incident, in which Yi Seung-hun, Yun Chi-ho, Yang Gi-tak and others were falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Governor-General Terauchi Masatake, and he was imprisoned. After Jeon Deok-gi, pastor of Sangdong Church in Dongdaemun, died in prison, Hyun was released and, together with Son Jeong-do, pastor of Sangdong Church in Dongdaemun, he went to Jeongdong First Methodist Church, where he worked as an evangelist and assisted senior pastor Choe Byeong-hyeon in expanding the church and its evangelical activities. He then took part, together with Son Jeong-do, Choe Byeong-heon and others, in founding the Hyeopseonghoe.
After the March 1st Movement, he cooperated in establishing a provisional government in Shanghai, and in April 1920 he went to the United States and worked at the Korean Commission to the United States in Washington, D.C.
When the March 1st Movement broke out in 1919, he actively participated as a minister on the ground in the United States.
Independence activities
In 1919 he was secretly dispatched to Shanghai, where he sent a petition for Korean independence to President T. W. Wilson, the advocate of the peace conference, and to the Peace Conference. Upon hearing of the March 1st demonstrations in Shanghai, on 9 March he sent a telegram to Ahn Chang-ho in San Francisco, so that Koreans in America could learn of the demonstrations at an early stage. He also handled communications with Paris and informed Koreans in America about the state of the independence movement. When independence activists from home and abroad gathered in Shanghai, he, together with Yi Gwang-su, Seonu Hyeok (鮮于爀), Sin Gyu-sik and others, gathered in the Bojeong-ro (寶昌路) area of the French Concession in Shanghai, established the Provisional Independence Office, was entrusted with the post of General Secretary, and issued the Declaration of Independence to the various countries. In April 1919 he was selected as a Pyeongjeonggwan at the National Representative Assembly of the 13 Provinces held in Gyeongseong, organized mainly by the Hanseong Provisional Government.
On 10 April 1919, he and Yi Dong-nyeong, Son Jeong-do and others took part in the first session of the Provisional Legislative Assembly of the unified provisional government, and he attended the Provisional Constitution Drafting Committee, where he took part in drafting the ten articles of the Provisional Charter. On 13 April he became Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and later, following a reorganization of the government, he was appointed to the Foreign Affairs Committee. At the second session of the Legislative Assembly he was elected to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Provisional Government, and later he again became Vice Minister of Home Affairs.
After Syngman Rhee established the Korean Commission to the United States in America and resigned about five months later due to a dispute with the Provisional Government, he went to Washington, D.C., and took on the post of acting chairman of the Korean Commission, but he stepped down after one year.1
On 5 August he was appointed Vice Minister of Home Affairs, and on 7 September 1919 he secretly travelled to Manchuria on a mission in his capacity as Vice Minister of Home Affairs of the Provisional Government.2 On 20 September he was dispatched to the Russian territories (露領) as a special envoy of the Provisional Government. On 23 September 1920 he returned from a secret mission in his capacity as Vice Minister of Home Affairs of the Provisional Government.3 During September he carried out intelligence and publicity activities for the Provisional Government in the Russian territories and Manchuria, and in November he returned to Shanghai. On 14 November he resigned as Vice Minister of Home Affairs and sailed to the United States.
When conflict arose among independence activists in Shanghai over whether to maintain, dissolve or reorganize the Provisional Government, he returned to Shanghai and in 1922, in order to resolve the conflict between the Provisional Legislative Assembly in Shanghai and the preparatory committee of the National Representative Assembly, which was leaning to the left, he took part, together with Ahn Chang-ho, Yi Si-yeong, Kim Gu and others, in organizing the Sisachaekjinhoe (時事策進會), and he worked to gather the opinions of the various factions and to unify the left and right.
He also sent a petition for independence to President T. W. Wilson, the advocate of the peace conference, and to the Peace Conference, stressing the necessity of Korean independence. He handled communications between Korea and Paris and informed Korean national associations across the United States about the state of the independence movement.
Ministry
On 26 April 1921 he submitted his resignation and withdrew from the post of acting chairman of the Korean Commission to the United States; it was accepted on 28 May.
In 1926 he was assigned as pastor of the Korean Methodist Church on Kauai, Hawaii, and carried out ministry there. In April 1931 he organized a unity association gathering Koreans residing in the two districts of Kapaa and Lihue on Kauai, and in 1933 he was appointed a member of the Provisional Government's Diplomatic Committee. In September 1934, for the purpose of providing financial support to the Provisional Government, he took part, together with Yi Jin-il (李晋一), Kim Gyeong (金慶), Yi Yong-jik (李容稷) and others, in fundraising activities, collecting a poll tax, patriotic donations and other funds and remitting them. Yi Jin-il was dispatched to New York, Kim Gyeong to Chicago, and Yi Yong-jik to Honolulu, while he conducted fundraising across the Hawaiian region, excluding Kauai and Honolulu.
He served in ministry on Kauai for fifteen years until 1940, when he retired, and he died in Los Angeles in 1968.
In recognition of his contributions to the independence movement, he was awarded the Order of Independence by the Order of National Foundation in 1963.
Decorations
Family
It is said that Hyun Soon had eight children. His daughter Alice Hyun, who took part in socialist activities, went to North Korea and was executed on suspicion of being a US imperialist spy, was his daughter.
- Daughter: Alice Hyun (1903–1956?)4
- Son: Peter Hyun (1906–1993)56
- Son: David Hyun (1917–2012): architect who designed Little Tokyo in Los Angeles789
References
한국판 마타하리로 불린 여인, 현앨리스의 비극 한국일보 2015. 3. 20
Footnotes