By Kim Jin-hyun
April 9, 2011 is the 60th anniversary of Suh Jae-pil's death. Born in 1864 during the Joseon Kingdom he passed away in 1951 and is remembered as an enlightened thinker, a revolutionist, an independence activist, a soldier, a doctor, and a politician.
Suh lived many lives. As a result, he was a very insightful man who analyzed history and tried to change its flow rather than simply watching it proceed as most of his contemporaries did.
In the process, Suh's personal and family life paid a high price and he spent most of his life in exile. Nevertheless, he was a man of vision who overcame many hardships.
After he passed the state examination for military officers he worked as a soldier and recognized keenly that the Joseon Kingdom was being controlled by many countries such as Qing China, Japan and Russia.
Suh analyzed the situation and concluded the reason was weak military power and pre-modern bureaucrats. He was enlightened by an advanced role-model, Kim Ok-gyoon, and decided to study defense modernization in Japan. He played a decisive role in making a new system for military education in the Joseon Kingdom.
Later Suh participated in the Gapshin Coup of 1882, which was aimed at reforming politics, society and economy. The coup, demanding independence from Quing, failed and Suh fled to Japan. Because of his role in the coup, his family was murdered.
He was chased even in Japan and fled to America, where he went through all hardships imaginable. There he had a part-time job translating Chinese medicine books into English. Given the situation it was natural that he should learn medicine and become a doctor.
Suh gave up his life in exile and returned to Korea exactly 13 years later in 1895. He quickly helped to spread the enlightenment movement to awaken modern consciousness among Koreans through various means. He published Dongnipsinmun (the first Korean newspaper), established the Dongnip Hyeophoe (Independence Association) and set up Dongnip Tower to inspire self-reliance and civil rights.
He focused on stirring a national consciousness in the younger generation through lectures on world history at Baejae School. He influenced many people such as Syngman Rhee, who later became the first president of Korea. Another was Ahn Chang-ho, who organized Heungsadan (Young Korean Academy) and injected an independent spirit in young people, and a third was Ju Shi-kyung, a hangeul scholar who first attempted to popularize the Korean alphabet among the general public.
Suh’s virtual exile in America was due to threats from the bureaucratic old guard and some foreign diplomats in Seoul. He was just 34 years old when he first set foot in the U.S. While working as a doctor there, he never stopped working for Korea.
During the Japanese colonial period he worked as a diplomatic advisor to the government-in-exile in Shanghai, and as the Korean representative at the Pan-pacific Conference in Hawaii in 1925.
While in the United States, Suh advocated numerous activities for Korea’s independence. He also worked as a special adviser to the U.S. government after the national liberation in 1945.
Chinese novelist, Lu Hsun, said, in his novel, “Hometown,” that ``hope cannot be intrinsically existent, nor nonexistent. It is like a road on earth. There was no road on earth. The place where many strangers tread is to become a road."
Suh Jae-pil opened such a road or served as the road to guide a lagging country into a more civilized one. He did this by serving as a leader in popular enlightenment movements during the Joseon Kingdom, as a guide for numerous independence activists after Japan colonized Korea, and as a balanced mentor during the turbulent period after the nation was liberated from Japan in 1945.
In spite of his huge personal hardships Suh Jae-pil was able to spread his vision all his life because he had a dream. He devoted his life to his country. His strong sense of patriotism was combined with his ambition.
The writer is an English teacher at Yeosu Girls’ High School in South Jeolla Province. He can be reached at shinykim60@hanmail.net.