Anarchism in Korea Independence, Transnationalism, and the Question of National Development, 1919–1984
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Anarchism in Korea Independence, Transnationalism, and the Question of National Development, 1919–1984 Dongyoun Hwang 2016 Contents Acknowledgments ...................................... 4 A Note on Romanization .................................. 7 Introduction 8 1: Beyond Independence: The Dawn of Korean Anarchism in China 21 Becoming Anarchist in Beijing ............................... 22 Experimenting Anarchist Ideals Jointly in Shanghai ................... 33 Empowering Rural Villages through Education in Quanzhou . 41 Experimenting Place-Based Anarchism in Manchuria . 45 2: The Wind of Anarchism in Japan 50 Becoming Anarchist in Tokyo ............................... 50 Propagating Anarchism in Tokyo .............................. 58 Korean Anarchists and Labor Issues in Osaka ....................... 64 3: Pushing the Limits in Colonial Korea 76 Japan, Anarchism, and Colonial Korea ........................... 79 Anarchists in Southern Korea ................................ 81 Anarchists in Industrializing Northern Korea ....................... 85 Pushing the Limits ...................................... 92 4: Korean Anarchists in Wartime China and Japan 96 Black Newspaper (Heuksaek sinmun) and “Militant Anarchism” in Japan . 97 Terrorism in Service of the Nation and Social Revolution . 104 Under the Banner of the Korean National Front (Joseon minjok jeonseon yeonmaeng) 111 Korean Anarchists for Armed Struggle . 119 5: Deradicalized Anarchism and the Question of National Development, 1945–1984126 Under Pressure: Searching for a New Anarchist Direction . 128 Anarchists in Politics: The Independence Workers and Peasants Party (Dongnip nonong dang) and the Democratic Socialist Party (Minju sahoe dang) . 133 Rural Problem and Industry in National Development . 142 Against the State-Led Modernization: “The Nation Thrives only if Rural Villages Thrive” 149 Anarchist Solutions: The Movement to Receive and Produce (Susan undong) and the Council of the National Leaders for Rural Movement (Jeon-guk nongchon jidoja hyeopuihoe) ...................................... 154 A Forgotten Path: The Federation Anarchist Korea (Han-guk jaju in yeonmaeng) . 160 Post-1945 Korean Anarchism ................................ 161 2 Conclusion 165 Notes 172 Bibliography 173 3 Acknowledgments By scholarly training I am a specialist in modern Chinese history. So, my journey to complete this study has been a pleasant deviation from my academic expertise and plan. I wrote a paper on Korean anarchism for Professor Arif Dirlik in my first semester as a doctoral student at Duke University. It was a very rough one, and I buried it in my document folder for more than a decade. In September 2003, I was developing it to present at a conference he was organizing at the University of Oregon. Since then, I have greatly enjoyed thinking and writing about anar- chism in Korea, because I realized, somewhat belatedly, the significance of the subject after the conference. Needless to say, I am deeply indebted to Arif Dirlik, my former adviser at Duke, for not only teaching me with patience and affection about modern Chinese intellectual history but for guiding me to go beyond my specialty to understand a much broader history. Without his passionate encouragement and intellectual stimulation, this study would have never been made possible. A number of my Korean colleagues deserve my gratitude for their assistance and support. Dr. Yi Horyong kindly responded to my call for help and introduced many materials to me, when I had just begun my research on this subject a decade ago. Dr. Oh Jang-Whan also helped me with several rare materials and shared information about Korean anarchism with me. Dr. Lee Hyun-Joo at the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs provided me with the Ministry’s publications on Korean independence movement, and Professor Jo Sehyeon shared with me some Chinese and Japanese articles. Professor Baik Young-seo, former director of the Institute for Korean Studies at Yonsei University, offered me several opportunities to talk about my research on Korean anarchism at various occasions before many Korean specialists from whom I learned a lot and was encouraged with valuable comments, for which I thank him. Among others at Yonsei, Professors Yim Sung-Mo and Kim Sung-Bo showed their interest in my research and provided me with various supports whenever I visited Yonsei over past years. In particular, Professor Yim as a modern Japanese historian introduced me to some Japanese literature on Korean and/or Japanese anarchism. Professors Lee Sang-Euy, Jo Kyung Ran, and Sin Ju Back, all at Yonsei, offered me various comments. I particularly benefited from Professor Sin’s comments as a discussant atmy talk in March 2014, which made me rethink the structure of this book and my approach. During my stay at Yonsei in 2008 and 2014, I met several graduate students, who were very willing to offer their unconditional assistance and support to their “senior.” I want to express myspecial thanks to Mr. Lee Han-Gyeol and the late Ms. Lee Hwa-jung for the materials and articles they introduced me to. I would also like to thank Professors Ban Byung-yul at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Kim Kyeong-il at the Academy of Korean Studies, and Jeong Seon-tae at Kookmin University for their comments and interest. My thanks also go to Professors Bang Kwang Suk, Chung Moon Sang, Jeon In Gap, Choi Won-shik, Yim Hyung-taek, Lee Seong-Paik, Kim Seung Wook, Park Jin-su, Kwon Hee-ju, Choi Sung-sil, Kim Jang Hwan, Ha Se Bong, and Lee Hun Sang for their support and interest in my study on various occasions. Professor Emeritus Chong Key Ray gave me special support and encouragement. Professors Chung Byung Ho, Kim Gye-ja, Kim Hyo- soon, Yokoji Keiko, and Hibi Yoshitaka, all of whom I met in October 2013 at Korea University, encouraged me to pursue my regional perspective. I am also grateful to Roxann Prazniak, Rob Wilson, Bruce Cumings, Bryna Goodman, Tomoko Aoyama, Jesse Cohn, and Park Sunyoung for their interest, help, encouragement, or comments on various occasions. I would also like 4 to thank two anonymous readers for the SUNY Press for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. In the years that were spent to write this book the most crucial help in terms of materials was provided by those at the Institute for the Study of National Culture (Gungmin munhwa yeon- guso). To name them: Mr. Lee Mun-Chang, the late Mr. Jo Gwanghae, Mr. Song Heonjo, Mr. Um Dong-il, and Mr. Nam Yi-haeng, as well as Professors Oh Jang-Whan and Kim Myeongseop. Mr. Lee particularly spared his precious time with me to answer my questions and tell me about his experiences after 1945. I am also deeply grateful to Mr. Kim Young-Chun, Ms. Park Jeong-Hee, and Mr. Sin Nage, all at the Society to Commemorate Yu Rim (Yu Rim gi-nyeom sa-eophoe). In particular, Mr. Kim not only provided his writings and materials on Yu Rim but spent long time with me on two different occasions to share his view on the history of Korean anarchism. He also traveled with me to the town of Anui where he arranged my meeting with Mr. Yi Dongwon and my visit to Anui Middle School and High School, respectively. I thank both of them for their enthusiastic support. When I traveled to Tokyo in April 2014 to locate additional materials, I received warm welcome and help from Mr. Park Chan Jung and Mr. Cho Jung Bang, both of the Korea Sports Council in Japan, and President Oh Gong-Tae and Vice President Park An Soon of the Korean Residents Union in Japan. Ms. Lee Mi-Ae at the History Museum of Koreans in Japan gave me a guide to the museum, which helped me think Korean anarchists in Japan within a much broader context of the history of Koreans in Japan. My special thanks should go to Professor Sakai Hirobumi at Hitotsubashi University. I have never met him in person, but he generously responded to my inquiry and even agreed to share with me rare Chinese materials that were utilized in this study and will be further used later in a different project. When I was on my short trip toQuanzhou in June 2015 to visit Liming Vocational University and locate some additional materials there, he also introduced me to Professor Liang Yanli of Fudan University, who in turn introduced me to people at Liming. There I received warm welcome and crucial materials that I used in this study and plan on analyzing further in a different project, for which I thank Professors Wang Qiang, Su Yanming, and Lin Zhanghong, as well as Mr. Zhang Jianliang and Mr. Lin Yali. I also would like to thank my friend from Duke, Zhou Yongming at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, for introducing me to Professor Chen Shaofeng at Beida and Mr. Chen Zong, who helped me with my brief visit to the Quanzhou Library. I have also received supports from my colleagues at Soka University of America. My special thanks go to Michael Hays (now retired) and Edward Feasel. Ed, in particular, as the dean of faculty, has supported my research activities in various ways. I also thank Osamu Ishiyama for his help with Japanese translation. And it has been a great joy to work with a group of wonderful undergraduate students at Soka. When I taught the Radicalism in Eastern Asia course per request from several students, I benefited a lot from classroom discussion. I particularly want to thank Yuka Kishida (now at Bridgewater College) and Michael Bianco for their enthusiasm about the topic. The aid given by Momoca Nishimoto and Chitari Yamamoto as my research assistants in translating many articles in Japanese anarchist newspapers and journals must be noted here with gratitude. For the help with the Inter-Library Loan service at Soka, I would like to thank Lisa Polfer and Malgorzata (Gosha) Gomagala. For the years, I also visited several libraries in South Korea, Japan, and China, and I want to thank the librarians and staffs at the National Library of Korea in Seoul, the Yonsei University Library in Seoul, the National Diet Library in Tokyo, and the Quanzhou Library in Quanzhou.