Yu Eok-gyeom (兪億兼, October 23, 1896 – November 8, 1947) was an enlightenment activist, lawyer, and educator in Korea under Japanese rule. His family seat was Gigye (杞溪). He joined Singanhoe, Heungeop Gurakbu, and other groups and took part in the independence movement. He also served as vice principal of Yonhi Professional School and president of the Joseon Sports Association and was active in many social organizations, but in the late period of Japanese rule he abandoned his earlier position and engaged in active pro-Japanese activities.
After Japan's defeat in August 1945, he took part in the founding of the Korean Democratic Party in September of that year. After the US Army Military Government was stationed in Korea, he was appointed a Korean member of the Education Committee of the Bureau of Education of the US Army Military Government, became Director of the Bureau of Education of the Ministry of Education in December, and in February 1946 served as Minister of Education. He was the second son of Yu Kil-chun and the nephew of Yu Seong-jun, who served as a councillor of the Central Advisory Council of the Government-General of Chosen. His elder brother Yu Man-gyeom also served as a councillor of the Central Advisory Council.
Life
Early life
He was born in Hanseong on October 23, 1896. After studying classical Chinese privately, he entered the Seoul Private Gyesan School in April 1907 and graduated in March 1911. From April 1911 to May 1912 he studied at the Middle School Department of the Seoul Central YMCA Academy, until May. In September 1912 he entered the Elementary Department of Doshisha Middle School in Kyoto, Japan, and graduated in March 1916. In July 1916 he entered the First Division of the Kyoto Prefectural Third Higher School and graduated in June 1919. In July 1919 he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo and graduated in March 1922.
Social activities and independence movement in Korea
From April 1922 to March 1923 he studied law at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo. In the same month he returned to Korea and registered as a lawyer with the Gyeongseong District Court. In April 1923 he was appointed a teacher at Gyeongseong Central Higher Common School. In August of the same year he was appointed a professor at Yonhi Professional School, and in April 1924 he became assistant principal and in September of that year principal. In January 1924 he taught at Gyeongsin School, and from April 1925 he also held a professorship at Ewha Women's Professional School. A Christian believer, he took part in various social movements centered on the Joseon Christian YMCA. In March 1925 he joined Heungeop Gurakbu, and in September of the same year he took part as a founding member of the Joseon Sajeong Research Society, organized under the principle of "preserving the national spirit," which was led by Kim Gi-jeon, Kim Jun-yeon, Yi Gwan-yong, Cho Byeong-ok, Hong Myung-hee, and others.
Later he also joined and was active in Heungeop Gurakbu, an independence movement group that was influenced by Syngman Rhee. In November 1925, together with Shin Heung-woo, Song Jin-woo, and others, after prior consultation with Syngman Rhee in the United States, he organized the Korean branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations and served as a committee member. In January 1927 he joined Singanhoe as a founding member; it was a united left-right independence group in which non-compromising nationalists and socialists combined. In February 1934 he became vice principal of Yonhi Professional School. During his time as vice principal he was especially interested in physical education, and through his efforts the Yonhi Professional School hosted the national middle school athletic meet every year. In July 1937 he became president of the Joseon Sports Association.
When he was arrested in the Heungeop Gurakbu incident in 1938, the report of the chief of Seodaemun Police Station dated May 18 listed him as one of the members of Heungeop Gurakbu.1
Conversion to a pro-Japanese stance
In 1938, as a result of the Heungeop Gurakbu incident, he was imprisoned for three months at Seodaemun Police Station by the Japanese authorities, after which he issued a statement of conversion and was released on parole with suspended prosecution.2 Immediately after his release he resigned from his professorship at Yonhi Professional School. He had registered his law practice in 1937 and had worked temporarily as a lawyer while also holding another post, but because of the Heungeop Gurakbu incident his lawyer registration was canceled in September 1938. Only in June 1943 was he able to resume registration as a lawyer.
Until the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yu Eok-gyeom worked to advance both legal independence activities and social activities, but after the war he became a pro-Japanese collaborator. In this period, after many nationalist activists were arrested and converted, as in the Heungeop Gurakbu incident and the Suyang Dongwuhoe incident, Yu Eok-gyeom, together with Yun Chi-ho, Chung Chun-su, and others, changed direction to cooperate with Japanese rule and acted accordingly.
After Helen Kim returned from the United States, in December 1939 the professors, parents, and other prominent persons from various fields gathered to form the "Ewha Professional School Support Association." At the founding preparatory meeting, Yu Eok-gyeom, Shin Heung-woo, and Song Jin-woo were chosen as the three members of the preparatory committee for the founding general meeting, which was selected at the general meeting of founders.3 On December 18, 1939, the founding general meeting of the support association was held at the Ewha Professional School auditorium in Jeong-dong, with some 80 people attending. There they adopted the association's regulations of 12 articles and elected 25 committee members.3 Yu Eok-gyeom was also elected as one of the committee members of the Ewha Professional School Support Association.3
Active pro-Japanese activities
After the Heungeop Gurakbu incident, he showed a pattern of actively cooperating with the Japanese and took part in active pro-Japanese organizations. In July 1939 he was the chief of the 3rd branch of the Gyeongseong branch of the Siguk Daeeung Jeonseon Sasang Bogung Yeonmaeng (organized July 1938) (the 1st branch chief was Park Yeong-hee, the 2nd branch chief was Park Deuk-hyeon, and the 4th branch chief was Jang Deok-su). In the preparatory committee of the Heunga Bogukdan in August 1941, he took part together with his elder brother Yu Man-gyeom. In the same month he also took part in the Imjeon Daechaek Hyeobuihoe.
They shouted, "Final victory lies with our Japanese Empire, so the compatriots of the peninsula must comply with national policy and devote themselves to the Emperor as glorious sons," and to put this into practice, on September 7, 1941 they mobilized some 70 members for a "bond street guerrilla unit," shouting "Rear-line service begins with bonds." Yu Eok-gyeom was assigned to the "Gwanghwamun unit" together with Lee Seong-geun, Park Sang-jun, Yang Ju-sam, and others, and took part in its activities.
The organization that represented virtually all pro-Japanese groups at the end of the Japanese period was the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan. Founded in December 1941 at Bumin Hall by Yun Chi-ho, Choi Rin, and others, this group aimed to urge the Korean people to do labor for the national defense, surrender materials, and volunteer for defense in the war's rear areas. He also actively participated in the Heunga Bogukdan.
Yu Eok-gyeom was a director of this organization, and his elder brother Yu Man-gyeom was a member of its council. As the Pacific War expanded, he also took part in direct promotion of the war and mobilization. In November 1943 he was involved in the Student Soldier Jongno Ikchan Association, and in June 1945 he was also an honorary member of the Joseon Eonron Bogukhoe (president Choi Rin). As vice principal of Yonhi Professional School, he actively urged students to go to the battlefield.
In February 1942 he took part in propaganda through a piece titled "Victory in Battle, Conquest in Attack" (戰必勝 攻必取: fight and certainly win, attack and certainly seize) in the magazine Chogwang (朝光).
The following is an article he contributed:
"The citizens of the home front must always place absolute trust in the measures of the military officers, unite as one, practice loyalty to the Emperor, serve through their own positions, and encourage and cheer on the soldiers departing for the front." (omitted)
"The citizens of the home front... must always, in a state of tension, support one another mutually, and internally 'warn each other against idleness and decadence,' and externally 'prevent the infiltration of evil ideas,' maintaining the conviction of 'always winning and never being defeated,' constantly thinking of 'devoting oneself to serving the nation,' embodying the resolve to achieve 'the purpose of the holy war,' and never forgetting even for a moment 'to establish eternal peace in East Asia and preserve the glory of the Empire.'"
He defined the "Greater East Asia War" (大東亞戰爭) as "a holy war for the liberation of Greater East Asia for the coexistence and co-prosperity of more than a billion people within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," and he believed that the citizens of the rear could live peaceful lives as in peacetime thanks to the hardships of the matchlessly loyal and brave soldiers of the army, navy, and air force, who were fired by the conviction of "fight and certainly win, attack and certainly seize." He therefore stressed that citizens on the home front should carry the holy war through to completion and serve the nation for the glory of the Japanese Empire.4
After liberation
Immediately after liberation, in August 1945, he established the Joseon Overseas War-Victim Relief Association (朝鮮在外戰災同胞救濟會), a relief organization for overseas Koreans, and in September he took part as a founding member of the Korean Democratic Party.5 In October of that year, when the US Army Military Government arrived, he welcomed it with his fluent English. He was then appointed a Korean member of the Education Committee of the Bureau of Education of the US Army Military Government together with Kim Seong-su, Helen Kim, Paik Nak-chun, and others. In December of the same year he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Education of the Ministry of Education of the US Army Military Government, and in February 1946 he was appointed Minister of Education, in charge of overall education policy during the US Army Military Government period. As minister of education at that time, he promoted the expansion of Hangul education, an education structure centered on practical subjects, recognition of coeducation, and compulsory education, among other measures.
In May 1947 he became vice president of the Joseon Sports Association, and in September of the same year he became president. While serving as president, he worked together with Lyuh Woon-hyung and Lee Sang-baek to maintain continuous exchanges with the IOC and strove to secure participation in the 1948 Summer Olympics.
On November 8, 1947, he died at his home at No. 9, Gahoe-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, from chronic illness, a cerebral hemorrhage, overwork, and other causes.
Posthumous
In 1962 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Civil Merit, Grand Gwanghwa Medal, by the government of South Korea in the field of education. Today the "Yu Eok-gyeom Memorial Hall" at Yonsei University is named after him. In 2008 he was selected in the education/academic category of the list of people scheduled for inclusion in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators, compiled by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities for inclusion in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. He is also included in the "List of Pro-Japanese Collaborators at Yonsei University," announced in 2005 by the Student Committee of the Democratic Labor Party, a campus group at Yonsei University, and in the list of 705 pro-Japanese collaborators announced in 2009 by the Committee for the Investigation of Pro-Japanese Collaborationist Activities.6
Family
- Great-grandfather: Yu Chi-hong (兪致弘, 1800 – ?)
- Great-uncle: Yu Jin-tae, emigrated to Mexico7
- Grandfather: Yu Jin-su (兪鎭壽, 1825 – 1898)
- Grandmother: Jeonju Yi clan, daughter of Yi Gyeong-jik
- Uncle: Yu Hoe-jun (兪會濬)
- Uncle: Yu Seong-jun (兪星濬, September 7, 1860 (lunar) – February 27, 1934 (solar))
- Father: Yu Kil-chun (兪吉濬, November 21, 1856 (solar) (October 24 lunar) – September 30, 1914 (solar))
- Mother: Gyeongju Kim clan (慶州金氏, ? – 1874), the principal wife of his father Yu Kil-chun
- Mother: Chungju Yi clan (忠州李氏, ? – ?)
- Elder brother: Yu Man-gyeom (兪萬兼, July 13, 1889 – December 13, 1944)
- Sister-in-law: name unknown, daughter-in-law of a Jungin family from North Hamgyong Province, principal wife of Yu Man-gyeom
- Sister-in-law: Paepyeong Yun clan
- Wife: Yun Hui-seop (尹喜燮, November 6, 1905 – ?), daughter of Yun Taek-yeong, Prince Haepung, and younger sister of Empress Sunjeong
References
Notes