Sin Heung-u (申興雨, March 26, 1883 (lunar calendar February 18) – March 15, 1959) was an enlightenment activist in Korea and a Methodist minister. From 1920 to 1935 he served as general secretary of the Joseon Christian YMCA, where he pursued an independence movement aimed at rural reconstruction through Christianity, the eradication of illiteracy, social movements, and the cultivation of practical capacity.
In 1896, together with Seo Jae-pil, Yun Chi-ho, Syngman Rhee, and others, he joined the organization of the Hyeopseonghoe (協成會), where he worked as a leader of its youth division, and he also took part in the Man'min Gongdonghoe and the Independence Club. He then studied in the United States and graduated from the University of Southern California, and in 1912 he served as a director of the YMCA and as principal of Paichai Haktang. He refused to take part in the March 1st Movement of 1919, and in 1920 he participated in the founding of the Joseon Sports Association, serving as its seventh president. In 1927, together with Yi Sang-jae, Heo Heon, Kim Byeong-ro, Cho Byeong-ok, and others, he joined the organization of the Singanhoe (新幹會), where he worked as one of the Christian representatives.
In the 1930s he took part in the organization of the Heungeop Club, founded the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan, and served as general secretary of the YMCA in 1932. In the late Japanese colonial period he was active as a leader of the Methodist Church in Korea, and together with Park In-deok, Jeon Pil-sun, Ham Tae-yeong, and others he organized the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan; he was also imprisoned in the Heungeop Club incident. In the late Pacific War he took part in the Korean Methodist Church's cooperation with Japanese rule. After the liberation on August 15, 1945, he was active as a politician and supported Syngman Rhee, but later he turned into a political rival. In 1952 he ran as a presidential candidate but lost, and in 1957 he joined the Democratic Party. His pen name is Geumha (錦霞).
Biography
Early life
Birth and early activities
Sin Heung-u was born on March 26, 1883 (lunar calendar February 18) in Cheongju City, North Chungcheong Province, and grew up in Hanseong. He studied Confucian classics under his father, Sin Myeon-hyu, an official, but then awakened to enlightenment thought and moved to the capital. At the age of twelve he entered Paichai Haktang (培材學堂), where he studied new learning and came into contact with enlightenment thought, Christianity, and Western civilization. In 1896 he entered Protestantism, and he took part in the youth division of the Hyeopseonghoe (協成會), an organization formed by enlightened young men including Seo Jae-pil, Yun Chi-ho, and Syngman Rhee, where he carried out enlightenment activities. He also participated, as one of the young leaders, in the Man'min Gongdonghoe and the Independence Club.
As a boy, Sin Heung-u was introduced to Syngman Rhee through his elder brother Sin Geung-u. However, immediately after liberation he was a collaborator of Syngman Rhee, but afterwards he suddenly became a political rival. Yun Chi-ho, too, was his loyal comrade until the 1910s, but the two fell out after they competed for dominance within the Methodist community. Afterwards, together with Seo Jae-pil, Syngman Rhee, Yun Chi-ho, and others, he held political debates and pursued modernization movements, but he was misunderstood as a troublesome student and came under the surveillance of the government of the Korean Empire.
Education and enlightenment activities
In 1901, while attending the Hanseong German Language School, he held a student debate; as chairman of the German department's student council, he advocated radical political reform, and he was labeled a political offender disloyal to the Emperor and imprisoned in Hanseong Prison. There is an anecdote that while in prison he and Syngman Rhee carried out educational enlightenment activities among the other prisoners and studied English.
Sin Heung-u, who had outstanding English ability, went to study in Los Angeles, United States, in 1903 through a missionary, and enrolled in the medical and liberal arts colleges of the University of Southern California, where he studied medicine, political science, economics, and law. After returning home, in 1912 he was outraged by the reality of colonial rule and tried to go into exile again, but on the advice of Yun Chi-ho he gave up the plan, became a director of the Hwangseong Christian YMCA, and served as principal of Paichai Haktang.
From October 1914, he became president of the magazine publisher Gongdosa (公道社), and until March 1919 he was engaged in the printing business.
Activities under Japanese rule
Independence movement and social activities
After his return, through the 1920s he took part, centered on the Heungeop Club, the Singanhoe, and the YMCA, in a nationalist movement along lines similar to those of Yi Sang-jae.
However, even during this period, when the nationwide March 1st Movement of 1919 broke out and Christian circles actively participated, he drew criticism for treating an illness in Pyongyang and not taking part. While Methodist believers, the Joseon Christian YMCA, and students and graduates of Paichai Higher Common School were largely joining the movement, he showed a very passive attitude. Because of this questionable conduct, the following year he was distrusted by the teachers and students of Paichai Higher Common School and resigned as principal.
But up to this point, a transformation into a pro-Japanese figure had not yet been foreshadowed. Sin Heung-u still took part as a representative in events held overseas, where he publicized the March 1st Movement and explained the justification of independence, and he supported Syngman Rhee's diplomacy-centered anti-Japanese movement. In 1920, together with Ham Tae-yeong, Yeo Woon-hyung, Song Jin-woo, and others, he took part as one of the founding sponsors of the Joseon Sports Association (the predecessor of the Korea Sports Council), and he was elected the seventh president of the Joseon Sports Association.
From 1924 he took the lead in the rural enlightenment work of the Joseon Christian YMCA and devoted himself to eliminating rural poverty, and in 1925 he resisted the anti-Christian movement of socialists by promoting Christian civic ethics and giving lecture tours. In 1927, together with Yi Sang-jae (李商在), Yi Seung-hun (李昇薰), Heo Heon, Kim Byeong-ro, Cho Byeong-ok, O Hwa-yeong (吳華英), Heo Jeong-suk, Yi Gap-seong, and others, he joined the Singanhoe (新幹會), a united national left-right front, and as a Christian representative founder of the Singanhoe he led the national movement. From 1930 he also took part in the Vnarod Movement, joining the work of rural enlightenment and the eradication of illiteracy.
Organization of the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan
While advancing the Christian youth movement, in 1930 he received a doctorate in law from his alma mater, the University of Southern California. However, through his high-handed management style he also made many enemies within the Methodist denomination. In the 1930s, a conflict arose with Yun Chi-ho and Yang Ju-sam over the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan issue within the Methodist church. In 1930, together with Jeon Pil-sun, Ham Tae-yeong, and others, he organized the Christian group Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan (積極信仰團), and in 1932 he founded the Pan-Pacific Joseon Association.
The reason for forming the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan was that the Heungeop Club, which served as a supportive and political backing organization for Syngman Rhee, included many non-Christians, and he judged that a group of purely Christian members who kept a distance from politics was needed, so he decided to organize a separate group. However, he also provoked resentment among Christian leaders, including the Methodist faction, who feared his takeover of the Christian community.
Meanwhile, according to an entry in the diary of Yun Chi-ho dated October 4, 1933, "Ahn Chang-ho told Yun Chi-ho, 'The Japanese people are recent enemies, but the Gihoe faction has been our enemy for five hundred years, so we must first eradicate the Gihoe faction and then gain independence.'"1 Thereupon, Lyuh Woon-hyung, Sin Heung-u, and other independence activists are said to have visited Yun Chi-ho and proposed a secret Gihoe-faction organization to crush the conspiracies of the Seobuk faction.1 Yun Chi-ho recorded this in his diary, and he criticized the regional sentiments of independence activists including Ahn Chang-ho, Sin Heung-u, and Lyuh Woon-hyung, saying, "Judging by regional sentiment alone, Korea is not qualified to be independent from Japan."1 However, Ahn Chang-ho was arrested by the Japanese police in Shanghai, China, in May 1932, sent back to Korea, and sentenced to four years in prison, serving his sentence at Daejeon Prison; therefore the context of Ahn Chang-ho, Lyuh Woon-hyung, or Sin Heung-u visiting Yun Chi-ho to make such a proposal does not fit. Of course, Yun Chi-ho may have been quoting what Ahn Chang-ho had said earlier.
While leading the Jeokgeuk Sinang-dan together with Jeon Pil-sun, Park In-deok, and others, he led the publication of the Gidok Sinbo (基督申報), serving a role in leading church public opinion; meanwhile he grasped the intention of the Japanese Government-General of Korea to drive out Western missionaries by treating them as potential spies, and he pledged the cooperation of Christian churches. After he was imprisoned in the Heungeop Club incident (興業俱樂部事件) in 1938, he took a clearly pro-Japanese line.
Apostasy and collaboration with Japan
After the Second Sino-Japanese War, triggered by the Suyang Dongwuhoe incident and the 1938 Heungeop Club incident, he turned away from his earlier stance and began active collaboration with Japan.
In the late 1930s he joined and was active in the Heungeop Club, an independence movement group over which Syngman Rhee held influence. However, according to a report of May 18, 1938 by the chief of the Seodaemun Police Station, based on the statement of Yun Chi-young, who was detained at the Seodaemun Police Station of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, he was reported as one of the fellow members of the Heungeop Club.2
During the Pacific War, as a representative pro-Japanese figure in Christian circles, he gave lectures encouraging volunteers for student soldiers and contributed pro-Japanese editorials. Lecture content survives in which he urged that, in order to overcome the grief of the yellow race, they must devote themselves to building a New East Asia. He actively participated in the war-cooperation organizations Imjeon Daechaek Hyeopuihoe, Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan, and Joseon Eollon Bogukhoe.
After Kim Hwal-ran returned from the United States, in December 1939 teachers, parents of students, and various local notables gathered to decide to establish the "Ewha College Support Association," and Yu Eok-gyeom, Sin Heung-u, and Song Jin-woo were selected as three of the preparatory committee members for the founding general meeting, elected at the sponsors' general meeting.3 On December 18, 1939, the founding general meeting of the support association was held in the auditorium of Ewha College in Jeong-dong, with about eighty related persons attending. There, twelve articles of the support association's regulations were passed, and twenty-five committee members were elected.3 Sin Heung-u was also elected as one of the committee members of the Ewha College support association.3
After the Pacific War, when he was encouraged by the Japanese Government-General of Korea to adopt Japanese-style names, he changed his name.
Later life
After liberation
Immediately after liberation he was active in the right-wing camp, but in 1948, when theories of North-South negotiations and of establishing a separate government emerged, he supported Syngman Rhee's theory of establishing a separate government. In May of that year he ran in the election for the National Assembly of the First Republic but lost, and in July he published the English-language Christian-oriented weekly The Union Democrat.
After the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948, in 1949 he was elected the fourth president of the Korean Sports Council. In January 1950 he was appointed the third minister of the South Korean Mission to Japan, but in May of that year he resigned to run in the general election and returned home. In May 1950 he ran in the second National Assembly election but lost.
Final years
During the Korean War, he ran as an independent presidential candidate in the 1952 South Korean presidential election but lost. Afterwards he served as an adviser and general secretary of the Korean Christian YMCA federation. Later he was active as one of the anti-Syngman Rhee camp.
In the 1956 election he attempted to file as a presidential candidate, but he failed to register his candidacy because of organized obstruction by the police. In 1957 he was elected as a standing adviser of the Democratic Party and was active as an opposition leader. His works include The Rebirth of Korea. On March 15, 1959, he died suddenly of illness.
After death
He was included in the list of 708 pro-Japanese figures made public in 2002, in the list of individuals scheduled for inclusion in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators published by the Korea Institute for Research of National Problems in 2008, and in the list of 705 persons engaged in pro-Japanese activities published in 2009 by the Committee for Investigating Pro-Japanese Collaboration of the Republic of Korea.
He was also included as one of three laypersons among the twelve Methodist figures selected as pro-Japanese collaborators within the Methodist church in the collection Put Your Hope in God Alone (하나님에게만 희망을 두고 살아라), published by the Korean Methodist Church in 2005 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of liberation.4
Works
- The Rebirth of Korea (The Rebirth of Korea)
Controversies and doubts
Controversy over active pro-Japanese collaboration
During the Pacific War, as a representative pro-Japanese figure in Christian circles, he delivered lectures and published pro-Japanese essays calling for encouragement of student volunteers and an appeal for active participation. Among these, lecture content survives in which he urged that, in order to overcome the grief of the yellow race, they must devote themselves to building a New East Asia. However, whether he truly engaged in pro-Japanese acts, or whether this was resentment toward Western missionaries, or whether it was an unavoidable choice to protect the Methodist denomination, remains a matter of dispute.
Controversy over rumors with Park In-deok
From the 1930s to the 1940s, rumors spread within Methodist circles that he was in an illicit relationship with Park In-deok, a divorcee. Because of this, some pietists, including Hyeon Dong-wan, shunned and opposed him.
Education
Family
References
- Korean Methodist Church, Korean Methodist Biographical Dictionary – Sin Heung-u entry
- Jeon Taek-bu (December 15, 1971). 인간 신흥우 (Ingan Sin Heung-u). Seoul: Christian Literature Society.
- Kim Eul-han, 여기 참사람이 있다 (Here Is a True Person) (Sintaeyangsa, 1960)
- Min Gyeong-bae, 교회와 민족 (Church and Nation) (Korea Christian Publishing, 1981)
Footnotes