Yeo Unhong (呂運弘, September 1, 1891 – February 3, 1973) was a South Korean politician, and his art name was Geunnong (槿儂).1
He originally took part in the independence movement, attending the Paris Peace Conference in France in 1919. He served as a member of the Provisional Government's Provisional Legislative Assembly in 1919 and as principal of the Inseong School in Shanghai in 1920, before returning home. He was engaged in business for a time, but in the late colonial period, after the Pacific War began in 1941, he defected by giving wartime lectures and publishing pro-Japanese essays.
In 1944, he participated in the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, which was led by his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong in August 1945. After liberation in 1945, he took part from 1946 with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Kim Kyu-sik and others in the Left-Right Cooperation Movement and the North–South Joint Conference. He then followed his elder brother into the Korean People's Party and the Workers' People's Party, but in 1946, in opposition to the line of Pak Hon-yong, he left the Korean People's Party, served as party chairman of the Social Democratic Party and others, and in December 1947 he served as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Korean Self-Reliance Federation.
In April 1948, he took part in the North–South Joint Conference and visited Pyongyang, where he demanded the right to speak but was threatened by Pak Hon-yong. In May, he gave up on the negotiations and returned. After the establishment of the South Korean government in August 1948, he ran in the national legislative elections and served in the 2nd and the 5th . He also served as propaganda director of the , as chairman of the election committee of the , and as standing adviser of the . He was the younger brother of and the maternal uncle of philosopher . His family seat was , and his was Geunnong (勤農). He was from , .
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Yeo Unhong's family seat was the Yeo clan of Hamyang (咸陽). His art name was Geunnong (勤農). He was the 11th-generation descendant of Yeo U-gil (呂祐吉), whose art name was Chigye (稚溪). He was born on September 1, 1891, in a wealthy family in Myogkkol, Sinwon-ri, Yangseo-myeon, Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province (father: Yeo Jeong-hyeon (呂鼎鉉); mother: a Gyeongju Yi woman, an 11th-generation great-granddaughter of Yi Hang-bok). His elder brother was Yeo Unhyeong. He had three older brothers, but all three died young,2 so only Yeo Unhyeong, Yeo Unhong, and two sisters survived.
In October 1903 his paternal grandfather Yeo Gyu-sin died, in September 1905 his mother died, and in 1906 his father died. In 1909 he graduated from Joongang Middle School in Seoul and entered Gyeongsin School in Seoul.
Youth
Study in the United States
After graduating from Gyeongsin School in Seoul in 1911, he went to study in the United States in March 1913. At that time it was difficult to obtain a passport for study in America. He obtained a passport through a letter of introduction from Methodist missionary Rev. Harris of the United States, and borrowed 600 won without interest by mortgaging ten mac of rice paddy to Rev. Underwood, and went to America.3 In March 1913, when the Methodist missionary Harris of the United States arrived in Korea for missionary work, he expressed his wish to study in the United States to Rev. Harris.
In June 1913 he sailed for America, stayed in Japan, and on September 1 departed Yokohama aboard a ship called the Tenyōmaru, crossing the Pacific Ocean. After fifteen days, on September 16, he arrived in San Francisco, California. Having nowhere to go, Yeo Unhong went directly to the Korean National Association. Although the Young Korean Academy, established in November 1919, asked him to join, he declined in order to dedicate himself to the independence movement more broadly. He soon entered the College of Wooster in Ohio.
Needing to earn money for tuition, Yeo Unhong supported himself through manual labor and part-time jobs. In Lake Forest, Chicago, where millionaires lived, he once reportedly got up at four in the morning to shovel coal into the boilers of wealthy homes; he said the boiler work paid well. In June 1918 he graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio. After graduating, he went on to the theological seminary of Princeton University. At the seminary he mainly studied Greek, but in November of that year he contracted the Spanish flu and had to be hospitalized.
Independence movement
Participation in the Paris Peace Conference
In 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson of the United States advocated national self-determination, he tried to obtain letters of introduction to meet with Wilson, who had once been president of Princeton University. Carrying letters from several university professors and clergymen, he went to the White House on November 15, 1917. Because his English was poor, it took him a long time, but he passed the security office and was able to enter the White House. However, his attempt failed when Wilson's secretary Grace refused to meet him, and he returned.
During his student years, he toured various parts of the United States appealing to the sorrows of oppressed peoples. In late November 1918, he packed up his belongings in Princeton, withdrew from Princeton University, and returned home. He went to see Dosan Ahn Chang-ho and asked for travel expenses, but Ahn Chang-ho encouraged him, saying, "Whether the matter succeeds or not, I am moved by your patriotism and enthusiasm. Do not worry about travel expenses; go to San Francisco and try to obtain a passport."
At that time, Syngman Rhee received a notice from Secretary of State Polk, through Woodrow Wilson, that unless some kind of uprising like the March 1st Movement occurred in Korea, it would be difficult to bring the Korean question before the Paris Conference. He wrote a letter to Yeo Unhong, who was staying in the United States, and to Dr. Sharrocks, a Medical missionary of the American Northern Presbyterian Church, requesting that they "carry out a popular movement within Korea that could support diplomatic activities at an appropriate time." He had the letter delivered to Song Jin-woo, Kim Seong-su, Ham Tae-yeong, Yang Jeon-baek and others who had supported him inside Korea.4
He returned to Korea on February 16, 1919, by way of Hawaii in 1918. On the way home he passed through Tokyo, Japan, where he informed Korean students then studying in Japan, including Kim Seong-su, Song Jin-woo and Yun Chi-young, of the situation among Korean expatriates in America and the status of fundraising for independence. In Ueno Park in Tokyo, he met Jang Duk-su, who had brought a secret message from his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, and learned of his activities. After contacting Choe Nam-seon, Yi Sang-jae, Yi Gap-seong, Ham Tae-yeong and others, he went to Shanghai, China, on February 27.
In 1918 he also participated in founding the New Korea Youth Party in Shanghai. In June 1919, together with Kim Kyu-sik and Kim Tang and others, he was selected as one of the representatives of the New Korea Youth Party delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in France and went to France.5 However, disappointed when the powers ignored the efforts of the Paris Commission to petition for Korean independence, he followed Kim Kyu-sik to the United States in August 1919.
Activities in the Provisional Government
Shortly before the March 1st Movement in 1919, he briefly returned home, then departed again and went to Shanghai, where he joined the Provisional Government. In April 1919 he was elected a member of the Provisional Legislative Assembly of the Provisional Government. That same year he attended the Paris Peace Conference together with Kim Kyu-sik, Jo So-ang and others, but failed to achieve his aims due to the indifference of the powers. He then followed Kim Kyu-sik to the United States, where he continued the independence movement together with Syngman Rhee, Seo Jae-pil and others.
In 1920 he took office as principal of the Inseong School (仁成學校), a Korean school in Shanghai, and engaged in fundraising to maintain and develop the school. The Shanghai Inseong School continued after liberation as a school for Koreans in China, but it was closed in 1980 due to declining enrollment.678 During this period he was under surveillance by the Japanese police.910 In April 1920, he was dispatched by the Provisional Government with a secret mission to carry a confidential letter from Syngman Rhee to Sun Yat-sen to Guangzhou. At this time the Provisional Government requested that the Southern Government provide substantive support for the Korean independence movement.11 In September of that year he was elected a member of the Shanghai Korean Residents' Association, and in June 1921 he was elected a committee member at the first general meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the National Representative Conference.
Late colonial period
Social activities
In September 1921 he returned home, was arrested, but was released without charges. In November 1921 he took the post of finance secretary of the "Pacific Conference Diplomatic Support Association," organized in Shanghai in preparation for the Pacific Conference to be held in Washington. From 1922 to 1925 he served as a professor of English literature at Bosung College, and he was active as a scholar of English literature. He then joined the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and from 1927 to 1939 served as general director of the company. In the 1930s, demands for his conversion continued in Japan, and Yeo Unhong, fleeing Japan, suspended his public activities.
In 1940 he took over and ran the restaurant Baengnamwon (百合苑), which had been operated by Chongni-gu Kim Dong-seong. It was a Western-style restaurant located in an alley across from the YMCA building in Gwan-cheol-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. For some time afterward, Yeo Unhong ran the Western restaurant. Baengnamwon was frequented mainly by notable figures of the time, including Baek Gwan-su, Yu Ja-hu, Yu Eok-gyeom, Baek Sang-gyu, Yeo Unhyeong, Jang Duk-su, Gu Ja-ok, Kim Chan-yeong and Yi Byeong-jik.
Allegations of pro-Japanese activity
After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 in the late colonial period, he took the path of collaboration with the Japanese. In September 1941, he participated as a founding member (Gyeongseong) of the Joseon Imjeon Bokuk Dan, the largest civilian organization of the wartime period, which had been organized to draw Koreans into cooperation with the war effort. In December of that year, together with Yi Gwang-su, Kim Dong-hwan and others, he gave one wartime lecture, and the content of his speech was published in the January 1942 issue of the magazine Samcheollli. Then in the February 1942 issue of Chogwang he contributed an essay and others supporting Naisen ittai. In December of that year he attended a roundtable on "The Prospects of the Greater East Asia War" hosted by the Maeil Sinbo company. In November 1943, he served as a member of the second group of the organizing committee for home visits and enlightenment events, hosted by the "Temporary Volunteer Soldier System Committee" to promote and encourage the volunteer soldier system in the Jongno area of Gyeongseong Prefecture, together with Ko Won-hun, Yi Gwang-su, Jo Byeong-sang, Han Sang-ryong and others. Afterward he went down to his hometown of Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, and lived in seclusion there until liberation in 1945.
Since 1941 he had secretly listened to shortwave broadcasts of the American radio program "Voice of America," which led to surveillance by the Japanese.
Political activities
Immediately after liberation
After liberation on August 15, 1945, he formed the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong and An Jae-hong and entered the political front. On the morning of August 15, his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong received word from the Vice Governor-General (Chief Secretary) that the American army would not occupy Korea and that the occupation would be carried out purely by the Soviet army.12 Spurred by this, Yeo Unhyeong returned to the Gye-dong house right after meeting with Chief Secretary Endo. Yeo Unhong asked him what they should do about the broadcasting station that he had been ordered to take over the night before. Yeo Unhyeong then said, "Because the Soviet army will be stationed in Seoul, the situation has changed." However, in September the army that landed in South Korea was not the Soviet army but the American army.12
Early on the morning of September 8, 1945, together with Jo Han-yong and Baek Sang-gyu, he requested a meeting with John R. Hodge, commander of the U.S. Army XXIV Corps, who had landed at Incheon by ship that day, but was refused.13 Afterward he was active within the People's Republic but was negative about it.14 On May 9, 1946, Yeo Unhong criticized the Communist Party and left the People's Party.15 This came two days after a letter from Cho Bong-am criticizing Pak Hon-yong was reported. On May 9, Yeo Unhong announced his statement of withdrawal from the Korean People's Party over the Central Broadcasting Station.16 In the statement, Yeo Unhong claimed that Cho Bong-am's letter had exposed the far-left errors and schemes of the Communist Party of Korea, and he condemned the Korean People's Party for having lost its independent political line due to the machinations of some impure elements within the People's Party and playing a vanguard role for the Communist Party, and he declared the founding of a new party.16
On May 11, 1946, 94 people, including Jang Gwon and about ten other executives who were members of the Central Executive Committee of the People's Party, issued a statement withdrawing from the Korean People's Party.17 Afterward, the Social Democratic Party that Yeo Unhong would found was a centrist party composed mainly of defectors from the Korean People's Party.17 Behind his departure from the People's Party lay a scheme of the U.S. Army Military Government to weaken the leftist forces of Yeo Unhyeong and Pak Hon-yong.18 With Cho Bong-am leaving the faction of Pak Hon-yong, and with Yeo Unhong leaving the faction of Yeo Unhyeong, the strength of the left-wing camp was reduced and weakened.
Participation in the Left-Right Cooperation and the Interim Legislative Assembly
In May 1946 he founded the Social Democratic Party and became its party chairman, supporting a centre-left line. At the founding ceremony of the Social Democratic Party on August 3, Syngman Rhee attended and even gave a congratulatory speech.19 Regarding the background of his leaving the Working People's Party of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Soviet sources recorded that John R. Hodge had promised Yeo Unhong the presidency.20 He later served as president of the Minbo newspaper and others, and together with Yeo Unhyeong and Kim Kyu-sik participated in the Left-Right Cooperation Movement.
In October 1946, when the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly was established, he was appointed in December by the U.S. Army Military Government as a member of the Interim Legislative Assembly. On March 12, 1947, he took office as president of the Korean Independence Newspaper.21
After his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong was assassinated in July, he continued to take part in Left-Right Cooperation and the North–South Negotiations by following Kim Kyu-sik. After the Left-Right Cooperation Committee was dissolved in December, he engaged in political activities within the faction of Kim Kyu-sik. When the Korean Self-Reliance Federation was established in December 1947, he was appointed as a member of the Central Executive Committee.
Participation in the North–South Negotiations
In January 1948, he took the post of Director of General Affairs of the central party of the Korean Self-Reliance Federation. In 1948 he took part, together with Kim Kyu-sik, Kim Ku and others, in the North–South Negotiations.22 On April 5, 1948, Yeo Unhong asked Hodge to dispatch liaison officers from the U.S. Army Military Government during the North–South Negotiations, but was refused. On the night of April 5, together with Kim Kyu-sik, Hong Myong-hui, Kim Bung-jun and others, he visited Kyungkyo Mansion and held talks on the content of the negotiations at Kim Ku's lodging.
At the North–South Joint Conference of Representatives, he was elected as a member of the drafting committee, together with Hong Myong-hui, Om Hang-seob and others, which drafted documents such as decisions on the political situation of Korea and proclamations.23 At a subcommittee meeting, when Pak Hon-yong harshly criticized the United States as imperialist and denounced participants in the May 10 separate general election as "slaves of a lost nation" and "reactionary elements" using extreme language, Yeo Unhong became enraged and protested that the decision might be acceptable to people living in the North, but would not do for those who would have to return to the South, and asked for at least the wording to be revised.23 Then Pak Hon-yong said that they should not argue back and forth but decide by vote in a democratic manner.23 The draft was passed unanimously, and when he felt a sense of fear that he could not return to Seoul if he spoke against it again, Yeo Unhong stopped all statements and abstained from voting.23 After that, he participated passively in the North–South negotiations, and in May 1948 he returned.
Participation in the establishment of the South Korean government
On May 30, 1950, in the May 30 second National Assembly general election, he ran as a candidate and was elected to the House of Representatives,24 and in the third general election in 1954 he ran in the second district of Jongno District, Seoul, but lost with 5,450 votes. He also served as propaganda director of the Liberal Party, and in the 5th general election in 1960 he was elected to the House of Councillors (with the highest vote count). During the Second Republic he was attacked by Prime Minister Chang Myon for advocating North–South negotiations.25
During the Second Republic
He was elected to the 5th House of Councillors in the May 1960 election and took his seat. Afterward he argued that negotiations for a peaceful unification with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea should begin.
On January 10, 1961, as the first step toward peaceful unification and exchange of personnel between South and North Korea, he argued that Kim Tu-bong, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (former head of state of North Korea), Choe Yong-gon, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Hong Myong-hui, Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet, should be invited to South Korea.2627 On January 16, Chang Taek-sang asked in reply whether this was not contrary to national policy.28Prime MinisterChang Myon stated that the proposal by House of Councillors member Yeo Unhong to invite Kim Tu-bong, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea (former head of state of North Korea), Choe Yong-gon, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Hong Myong-hui, Deputy Prime Minister, to South Korea could be overlooked if it was merely a politician's opinion, but that if it was a formal proposal it could not be ignored.29
In 1961 he visited Japan. When Yeo Unhong went to Tokyo, he met Endo and asked why he had said in the liberation period that the Soviet army would be stationed in Gyeongseong; Endo answered that it was because a telegram from the Home Ministry in Tokyo had said that Korea would be divided and occupied.12
Military government period
In 1961 there was discussion of stripping him of his legislative seat, but he was able to retain it. In 1961 he went abroad to Japan to search for materials related to his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, and encountered the May 16 military coup. When the May 16 military coup occurred, he resigned from his seat in the House of Councillors. Afterward he made a second trip around the world, including Northern Europe, and returned home by airplane in 1962.
On February 24, 1962, he sent a letter with his own signature and seal to the English-language newspaper The Japan Times, arguing that "the five-year economic development plan planned by the military government must continue to be implemented." He also said, "I am confident that candidates who will run in 1963 will support the policies and goals of the military leaders."
In December 1963, after Park Chung Hee took office as president, Yeo Unhong visited Park Chung Hee and met with him. Right after the 5.16 military coup, when land around the grave of his eldest brother Yeo Unhyeong was sold to Chae Yun-hyeok, Yeo Unhong sought a lawyer to find a way to obtain relief, but when it proved legally impossible to obtain relief, instead of filing a petition with the relevant authorities he went to Park Chung Hee and appealed to him. When Park Chung Hee heard Yeo Unhong's direct appeal, he blocked the sale of the land around the grave of Yeo Unhyeong.31
Later years
He published Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong, a compilation of the life story of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong. In 1968 he established the Yeo Unhyeong Memorial Society and invited Yun Po-sun, Park Chung Hee and others as advisers. After the 1970s, when special correspondents were dispatched to North Korea, he insisted that he himself be allowed to become a special correspondent so that he could meet his nephews living in the north, but his request was not granted.
In February 1972 he serialized the article "The Twentieth Century as I Experienced It" in the Kyunghyang Shinmun. He died at 9:45 a.m. on February 3, 1973, of old age at his home at 140-8 Gye-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. His funeral was held as a family funeral, and he was buried near the birthplace in Sinwon-ri, Yangseo-myeon, Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province. His works include the biography of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong (夢陽 呂運亨) (1967), and English Grammar.
In 1915 he attended the Christian Student Conference held at Lake Geneva in the United States
In October 1918 he attended the Conference of Oppressed Nations in New York, United States, as a Korean representative
In February 1919 he briefly returned home for the independence movement, attempting to collect a million signatures, but failed.
In September 1921, when he was entering the country, he was arrested by the Japanese police.
In 1939, when he left Singer Sewing Machine Company, he was arrested by the Japanese military police while campaigning for payment of severance pay.
In 1943, in connection with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, he was arrested by the Japanese Kempeitai.
In October 1945, just before the arrival of the US Army, as a representative of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence he attempted to meet with commander John R. Hodge by sea but was refused.
In December 1946 he was a member of the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly.
In 1952 he served as chairman of the Hankeuk Taehyeop Association (韓克泰協會).
In 1961 he went to Japan to collect materials on the activities of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong.
Works
Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong (夢陽 呂運亨) (1967)
English Grammar
Miscellaneous
His maternal nephew Pak Chan-gi is a scholar of German literature,34 and Pak Chan-ung is a legal philosopher.
Yeo Unhong evaluated the process by which the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence was reorganized into the Korean People's Republic as merely a play devised by extremist, childish Communist Party members, and said that for Yeo Unhyeong "his connection with Communists of the Pak Hon-yong faction was the greatest mistake of his political life."35 He was a fellow alumnus of Yun Chi-young (尹致暎), who served as Minister of Home Affairs and Mayor of Seoul, at Joongang School (Joongang High School).
Yeo Unhyeong and Yeo Unhong revered the Korean linguist Pak Sung-bin as their teacher,34 and later Pak Sung-bin's son Pak Jeong-seo (朴定緖) married Yeo's younger sister Yeo Yun-suk (呂允淑).
Creed
Matters of the world should ultimately return to justice (天下事當歸正義)
Related literature
Kang Jun-man, Korean Modern History Essays: 1940s Edition 1 (Inmul-gwa Sasang-sa, 2006)
Kang Jun-man, Korean Modern History Essays: 1940s Edition 2 (Inmul-gwa Sasang-sa, 2006)
Kang Jun-man (April 3, 2004). "Chapter 1: The Expression of 36 Years of Accumulated Resentment / 1945 – The U.S. Military Regarded Koreans as Enemies." 《한국 현대사 산책 1940년대편 1 (From Liberation on August 15 to the Eve of June 25)》. Seoul: Inmul gwa Sasangsa. pp. 64–65. ISBN 89-88410-89-0. ↩
Yeo Unhong (呂運弘, September 1, 1891 – February 3, 1973) was a South Korean politician, and his art name was Geunnong (槿儂).1
He originally took part in the independence movement, attending the Paris Peace Conference in France in 1919. He served as a member of the Provisional Government's Provisional Legislative Assembly in 1919 and as principal of the Inseong School in Shanghai in 1920, before returning home. He was engaged in business for a time, but in the late colonial period, after the Pacific War began in 1941, he defected by giving wartime lectures and publishing pro-Japanese essays.
In 1944, he participated in the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, which was led by his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong in August 1945. After liberation in 1945, he took part from 1946 with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Kim Kyu-sik and others in the Left-Right Cooperation Movement and the North–South Joint Conference. He then followed his elder brother into the Korean People's Party and the Workers' People's Party, but in 1946, in opposition to the line of Pak Hon-yong, he left the Korean People's Party, served as party chairman of the Social Democratic Party and others, and in December 1947 he served as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Korean Self-Reliance Federation.
In April 1948, he took part in the North–South Joint Conference and visited , where he demanded the right to speak but was threatened by . In May, he gave up on the negotiations and returned. After the establishment of the South Korean government in August 1948, he ran in the national legislative elections and served in the 2nd and the 5th . He also served as propaganda director of the , as chairman of the election committee of the , and as standing adviser of the . He was the younger brother of and the maternal uncle of philosopher . His family seat was , and his was Geunnong (勤農). He was from , .
Yeo Unhong's family seat was the Yeo clan of Hamyang (咸陽). His art name was Geunnong (勤農). He was the 11th-generation descendant of Yeo U-gil (呂祐吉), whose art name was Chigye (稚溪). He was born on September 1, 1891, in a wealthy family in Myogkkol, Sinwon-ri, Yangseo-myeon, Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province (father: Yeo Jeong-hyeon (呂鼎鉉); mother: a Gyeongju Yi woman, an 11th-generation great-granddaughter of Yi Hang-bok). His elder brother was Yeo Unhyeong. He had three older brothers, but all three died young,2 so only Yeo Unhyeong, Yeo Unhong, and two sisters survived.
In October 1903 his paternal grandfather Yeo Gyu-sin died, in September 1905 his mother died, and in 1906 his father died. In 1909 he graduated from Joongang Middle School in Seoul and entered Gyeongsin School in Seoul.
Youth
Study in the United States
After graduating from Gyeongsin School in Seoul in 1911, he went to study in the United States in March 1913. At that time it was difficult to obtain a passport for study in America. He obtained a passport through a letter of introduction from Methodist missionary Rev. Harris of the United States, and borrowed 600 won without interest by mortgaging ten mac of rice paddy to Rev. Underwood, and went to America.3 In March 1913, when the Methodist missionary Harris of the United States arrived in Korea for missionary work, he expressed his wish to study in the United States to Rev. Harris.
In June 1913 he sailed for America, stayed in Japan, and on September 1 departed Yokohama aboard a ship called the Tenyōmaru, crossing the Pacific Ocean. After fifteen days, on September 16, he arrived in San Francisco, California. Having nowhere to go, Yeo Unhong went directly to the Korean National Association. Although the Young Korean Academy, established in November 1919, asked him to join, he declined in order to dedicate himself to the independence movement more broadly. He soon entered the College of Wooster in Ohio.
Needing to earn money for tuition, Yeo Unhong supported himself through manual labor and part-time jobs. In Lake Forest, Chicago, where millionaires lived, he once reportedly got up at four in the morning to shovel coal into the boilers of wealthy homes; he said the boiler work paid well. In June 1918 he graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio. After graduating, he went on to the theological seminary of Princeton University. At the seminary he mainly studied Greek, but in November of that year he contracted the Spanish flu and had to be hospitalized.
Independence movement
Participation in the Paris Peace Conference
In 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson of the United States advocated national self-determination, he tried to obtain letters of introduction to meet with Wilson, who had once been president of Princeton University. Carrying letters from several university professors and clergymen, he went to the White House on November 15, 1917. Because his English was poor, it took him a long time, but he passed the security office and was able to enter the White House. However, his attempt failed when Wilson's secretary Grace refused to meet him, and he returned.
During his student years, he toured various parts of the United States appealing to the sorrows of oppressed peoples. In late November 1918, he packed up his belongings in Princeton, withdrew from Princeton University, and returned home. He went to see Dosan Ahn Chang-ho and asked for travel expenses, but Ahn Chang-ho encouraged him, saying, "Whether the matter succeeds or not, I am moved by your patriotism and enthusiasm. Do not worry about travel expenses; go to San Francisco and try to obtain a passport."
At that time, Syngman Rhee received a notice from Secretary of State Polk, through Woodrow Wilson, that unless some kind of uprising like the March 1st Movement occurred in Korea, it would be difficult to bring the Korean question before the Paris Conference. He wrote a letter to Yeo Unhong, who was staying in the United States, and to Dr. Sharrocks, a Medical missionary of the American Northern Presbyterian Church, requesting that they "carry out a popular movement within Korea that could support diplomatic activities at an appropriate time." He had the letter delivered to Song Jin-woo, Kim Seong-su, Ham Tae-yeong, Yang Jeon-baek and others who had supported him inside Korea.4
He returned to Korea on February 16, 1919, by way of Hawaii in 1918. On the way home he passed through Tokyo, Japan, where he informed Korean students then studying in Japan, including Kim Seong-su, Song Jin-woo and Yun Chi-young, of the situation among Korean expatriates in America and the status of fundraising for independence. In Ueno Park in Tokyo, he met Jang Duk-su, who had brought a secret message from his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, and learned of his activities. After contacting Choe Nam-seon, Yi Sang-jae, Yi Gap-seong, Ham Tae-yeong and others, he went to Shanghai, China, on February 27.
In 1918 he also participated in founding the New Korea Youth Party in Shanghai. In June 1919, together with Kim Kyu-sik and Kim Tang and others, he was selected as one of the representatives of the New Korea Youth Party delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in France and went to France.5 However, disappointed when the powers ignored the efforts of the Paris Commission to petition for Korean independence, he followed Kim Kyu-sik to the United States in August 1919.
Activities in the Provisional Government
Shortly before the March 1st Movement in 1919, he briefly returned home, then departed again and went to Shanghai, where he joined the Provisional Government. In April 1919 he was elected a member of the Provisional Legislative Assembly of the Provisional Government. That same year he attended the Paris Peace Conference together with Kim Kyu-sik, Jo So-ang and others, but failed to achieve his aims due to the indifference of the powers. He then followed Kim Kyu-sik to the United States, where he continued the independence movement together with Syngman Rhee, Seo Jae-pil and others.
In 1920 he took office as principal of the Inseong School (仁成學校), a Korean school in Shanghai, and engaged in fundraising to maintain and develop the school. The Shanghai Inseong School continued after liberation as a school for Koreans in China, but it was closed in 1980 due to declining enrollment.678 During this period he was under surveillance by the Japanese police.910 In April 1920, he was dispatched by the Provisional Government with a secret mission to carry a confidential letter from Syngman Rhee to Sun Yat-sen to Guangzhou. At this time the Provisional Government requested that the Southern Government provide substantive support for the Korean independence movement.11 In September of that year he was elected a member of the Shanghai Korean Residents' Association, and in June 1921 he was elected a committee member at the first general meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the National Representative Conference.
Late colonial period
Social activities
In September 1921 he returned home, was arrested, but was released without charges. In November 1921 he took the post of finance secretary of the "Pacific Conference Diplomatic Support Association," organized in Shanghai in preparation for the Pacific Conference to be held in Washington. From 1922 to 1925 he served as a professor of English literature at Bosung College, and he was active as a scholar of English literature. He then joined the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and from 1927 to 1939 served as general director of the company. In the 1930s, demands for his conversion continued in Japan, and Yeo Unhong, fleeing Japan, suspended his public activities.
In 1940 he took over and ran the restaurant Baengnamwon (百合苑), which had been operated by Chongni-gu Kim Dong-seong. It was a Western-style restaurant located in an alley across from the YMCA building in Gwan-cheol-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. For some time afterward, Yeo Unhong ran the Western restaurant. Baengnamwon was frequented mainly by notable figures of the time, including Baek Gwan-su, Yu Ja-hu, Yu Eok-gyeom, Baek Sang-gyu, Yeo Unhyeong, Jang Duk-su, Gu Ja-ok, Kim Chan-yeong and Yi Byeong-jik.
Allegations of pro-Japanese activity
After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 in the late colonial period, he took the path of collaboration with the Japanese. In September 1941, he participated as a founding member (Gyeongseong) of the Joseon Imjeon Bokuk Dan, the largest civilian organization of the wartime period, which had been organized to draw Koreans into cooperation with the war effort. In December of that year, together with Yi Gwang-su, Kim Dong-hwan and others, he gave one wartime lecture, and the content of his speech was published in the January 1942 issue of the magazine Samcheollli. Then in the February 1942 issue of Chogwang he contributed an essay and others supporting Naisen ittai. In December of that year he attended a roundtable on "The Prospects of the Greater East Asia War" hosted by the Maeil Sinbo company. In November 1943, he served as a member of the second group of the organizing committee for home visits and enlightenment events, hosted by the "Temporary Volunteer Soldier System Committee" to promote and encourage the volunteer soldier system in the Jongno area of Gyeongseong Prefecture, together with Ko Won-hun, Yi Gwang-su, Jo Byeong-sang, Han Sang-ryong and others. Afterward he went down to his hometown of Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, and lived in seclusion there until liberation in 1945.
Since 1941 he had secretly listened to shortwave broadcasts of the American radio program "Voice of America," which led to surveillance by the Japanese.
Political activities
Immediately after liberation
After liberation on August 15, 1945, he formed the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong and An Jae-hong and entered the political front. On the morning of August 15, his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong received word from the Vice Governor-General (Chief Secretary) that the American army would not occupy Korea and that the occupation would be carried out purely by the Soviet army.12 Spurred by this, Yeo Unhyeong returned to the Gye-dong house right after meeting with Chief Secretary Endo. Yeo Unhong asked him what they should do about the broadcasting station that he had been ordered to take over the night before. Yeo Unhyeong then said, "Because the Soviet army will be stationed in Seoul, the situation has changed." However, in September the army that landed in South Korea was not the Soviet army but the American army.12
Early on the morning of September 8, 1945, together with Jo Han-yong and Baek Sang-gyu, he requested a meeting with John R. Hodge, commander of the U.S. Army XXIV Corps, who had landed at Incheon by ship that day, but was refused.13 Afterward he was active within the People's Republic but was negative about it.14 On May 9, 1946, Yeo Unhong criticized the Communist Party and left the People's Party.15 This came two days after a letter from Cho Bong-am criticizing Pak Hon-yong was reported. On May 9, Yeo Unhong announced his statement of withdrawal from the Korean People's Party over the Central Broadcasting Station.16 In the statement, Yeo Unhong claimed that Cho Bong-am's letter had exposed the far-left errors and schemes of the Communist Party of Korea, and he condemned the Korean People's Party for having lost its independent political line due to the machinations of some impure elements within the People's Party and playing a vanguard role for the Communist Party, and he declared the founding of a new party.16
On May 11, 1946, 94 people, including Jang Gwon and about ten other executives who were members of the Central Executive Committee of the People's Party, issued a statement withdrawing from the Korean People's Party.17 Afterward, the Social Democratic Party that Yeo Unhong would found was a centrist party composed mainly of defectors from the Korean People's Party.17 Behind his departure from the People's Party lay a scheme of the U.S. Army Military Government to weaken the leftist forces of Yeo Unhyeong and Pak Hon-yong.18 With Cho Bong-am leaving the faction of Pak Hon-yong, and with Yeo Unhong leaving the faction of Yeo Unhyeong, the strength of the left-wing camp was reduced and weakened.
Participation in the Left-Right Cooperation and the Interim Legislative Assembly
In May 1946 he founded the Social Democratic Party and became its party chairman, supporting a centre-left line. At the founding ceremony of the Social Democratic Party on August 3, Syngman Rhee attended and even gave a congratulatory speech.19 Regarding the background of his leaving the Working People's Party of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Soviet sources recorded that John R. Hodge had promised Yeo Unhong the presidency.20 He later served as president of the Minbo newspaper and others, and together with Yeo Unhyeong and Kim Kyu-sik participated in the Left-Right Cooperation Movement.
In October 1946, when the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly was established, he was appointed in December by the U.S. Army Military Government as a member of the Interim Legislative Assembly. On March 12, 1947, he took office as president of the Korean Independence Newspaper.21
After his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong was assassinated in July, he continued to take part in Left-Right Cooperation and the North–South Negotiations by following Kim Kyu-sik. After the Left-Right Cooperation Committee was dissolved in December, he engaged in political activities within the faction of Kim Kyu-sik. When the Korean Self-Reliance Federation was established in December 1947, he was appointed as a member of the Central Executive Committee.
Participation in the North–South Negotiations
In January 1948, he took the post of Director of General Affairs of the central party of the Korean Self-Reliance Federation. In 1948 he took part, together with Kim Kyu-sik, Kim Ku and others, in the North–South Negotiations.22 On April 5, 1948, Yeo Unhong asked Hodge to dispatch liaison officers from the U.S. Army Military Government during the North–South Negotiations, but was refused. On the night of April 5, together with Kim Kyu-sik, Hong Myong-hui, Kim Bung-jun and others, he visited Kyungkyo Mansion and held talks on the content of the negotiations at Kim Ku's lodging.
At the North–South Joint Conference of Representatives, he was elected as a member of the drafting committee, together with Hong Myong-hui, Om Hang-seob and others, which drafted documents such as decisions on the political situation of Korea and proclamations.23 At a subcommittee meeting, when Pak Hon-yong harshly criticized the United States as imperialist and denounced participants in the May 10 separate general election as "slaves of a lost nation" and "reactionary elements" using extreme language, Yeo Unhong became enraged and protested that the decision might be acceptable to people living in the North, but would not do for those who would have to return to the South, and asked for at least the wording to be revised.23 Then Pak Hon-yong said that they should not argue back and forth but decide by vote in a democratic manner.23 The draft was passed unanimously, and when he felt a sense of fear that he could not return to Seoul if he spoke against it again, Yeo Unhong stopped all statements and abstained from voting.23 After that, he participated passively in the North–South negotiations, and in May 1948 he returned.
Participation in the establishment of the South Korean government
On May 30, 1950, in the May 30 second National Assembly general election, he ran as a candidate and was elected to the House of Representatives,24 and in the third general election in 1954 he ran in the second district of Jongno District, Seoul, but lost with 5,450 votes. He also served as propaganda director of the Liberal Party, and in the 5th general election in 1960 he was elected to the House of Councillors (with the highest vote count). During the Second Republic he was attacked by Prime Minister Chang Myon for advocating North–South negotiations.25
During the Second Republic
He was elected to the 5th House of Councillors in the May 1960 election and took his seat. Afterward he argued that negotiations for a peaceful unification with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea should begin.
On January 10, 1961, as the first step toward peaceful unification and exchange of personnel between South and North Korea, he argued that Kim Tu-bong, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (former head of state of North Korea), Choe Yong-gon, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Hong Myong-hui, Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet, should be invited to South Korea.2627 On January 16, Chang Taek-sang asked in reply whether this was not contrary to national policy.28Prime MinisterChang Myon stated that the proposal by House of Councillors member Yeo Unhong to invite Kim Tu-bong, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea (former head of state of North Korea), Choe Yong-gon, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Hong Myong-hui, Deputy Prime Minister, to South Korea could be overlooked if it was merely a politician's opinion, but that if it was a formal proposal it could not be ignored.29
In 1961 he visited Japan. When Yeo Unhong went to Tokyo, he met Endo and asked why he had said in the liberation period that the Soviet army would be stationed in Gyeongseong; Endo answered that it was because a telegram from the Home Ministry in Tokyo had said that Korea would be divided and occupied.12
Military government period
In 1961 there was discussion of stripping him of his legislative seat, but he was able to retain it. In 1961 he went abroad to Japan to search for materials related to his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, and encountered the May 16 military coup. When the May 16 military coup occurred, he resigned from his seat in the House of Councillors. Afterward he made a second trip around the world, including Northern Europe, and returned home by airplane in 1962.
On February 24, 1962, he sent a letter with his own signature and seal to the English-language newspaper The Japan Times, arguing that "the five-year economic development plan planned by the military government must continue to be implemented." He also said, "I am confident that candidates who will run in 1963 will support the policies and goals of the military leaders."
In December 1963, after Park Chung Hee took office as president, Yeo Unhong visited Park Chung Hee and met with him. Right after the 5.16 military coup, when land around the grave of his eldest brother Yeo Unhyeong was sold to Chae Yun-hyeok, Yeo Unhong sought a lawyer to find a way to obtain relief, but when it proved legally impossible to obtain relief, instead of filing a petition with the relevant authorities he went to Park Chung Hee and appealed to him. When Park Chung Hee heard Yeo Unhong's direct appeal, he blocked the sale of the land around the grave of Yeo Unhyeong.31
Later years
He published Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong, a compilation of the life story of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong. In 1968 he established the Yeo Unhyeong Memorial Society and invited Yun Po-sun, Park Chung Hee and others as advisers. After the 1970s, when special correspondents were dispatched to North Korea, he insisted that he himself be allowed to become a special correspondent so that he could meet his nephews living in the north, but his request was not granted.
In February 1972 he serialized the article "The Twentieth Century as I Experienced It" in the Kyunghyang Shinmun. He died at 9:45 a.m. on February 3, 1973, of old age at his home at 140-8 Gye-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. His funeral was held as a family funeral, and he was buried near the birthplace in Sinwon-ri, Yangseo-myeon, Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province. His works include the biography of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong (夢陽 呂運亨) (1967), and English Grammar.
In 1915 he attended the Christian Student Conference held at Lake Geneva in the United States
In October 1918 he attended the Conference of Oppressed Nations in New York, United States, as a Korean representative
In February 1919 he briefly returned home for the independence movement, attempting to collect a million signatures, but failed.
In September 1921, when he was entering the country, he was arrested by the Japanese police.
In 1939, when he left Singer Sewing Machine Company, he was arrested by the Japanese military police while campaigning for payment of severance pay.
In 1943, in connection with his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong, he was arrested by the Japanese Kempeitai.
In October 1945, just before the arrival of the US Army, as a representative of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence he attempted to meet with commander John R. Hodge by sea but was refused.
In December 1946 he was a member of the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly.
In 1952 he served as chairman of the Hankeuk Taehyeop Association (韓克泰協會).
In 1961 he went to Japan to collect materials on the activities of his elder brother Yeo Unhyeong.
Works
Mongyang Yeo Unhyeong (夢陽 呂運亨) (1967)
English Grammar
Miscellaneous
His maternal nephew Pak Chan-gi is a scholar of German literature,34 and Pak Chan-ung is a legal philosopher.
Yeo Unhong evaluated the process by which the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence was reorganized into the Korean People's Republic as merely a play devised by extremist, childish Communist Party members, and said that for Yeo Unhyeong "his connection with Communists of the Pak Hon-yong faction was the greatest mistake of his political life."35 He was a fellow alumnus of Yun Chi-young (尹致暎), who served as Minister of Home Affairs and Mayor of Seoul, at Joongang School (Joongang High School).
Yeo Unhyeong and Yeo Unhong revered the Korean linguist Pak Sung-bin as their teacher,34 and later Pak Sung-bin's son Pak Jeong-seo (朴定緖) married Yeo's younger sister Yeo Yun-suk (呂允淑).
Creed
Matters of the world should ultimately return to justice (天下事當歸正義)
Related literature
Kang Jun-man, Korean Modern History Essays: 1940s Edition 1 (Inmul-gwa Sasang-sa, 2006)
Kang Jun-man, Korean Modern History Essays: 1940s Edition 2 (Inmul-gwa Sasang-sa, 2006)
Kang Jun-man (April 3, 2004). "Chapter 1: The Expression of 36 Years of Accumulated Resentment / 1945 – The U.S. Military Regarded Koreans as Enemies." 《한국 현대사 산책 1940년대편 1 (From Liberation on August 15 to the Eve of June 25)》. Seoul: Inmul gwa Sasangsa. pp. 64–65. ISBN 89-88410-89-0. ↩