Top five potential selections for national heroes

By Kyung Moon Hwang

In my last column I examined a very interesting lineup of five historical figures that grace South Korea’s currency. I also speculated that there were no modern people among them because of the turbulence and turmoil of Korea’s more recent history.

However, even amid the ongoing divisions over history in South Korea, which have been fueled by the intensive changes brought forth by dictatorship, democratization and an anti-communism, there seem to be plenty of good candidates. So here are my top five potential selections, along with a consideration of their contemporaries who have similar qualities but are less viable:

Park Je-ga (1750-1815)

As a sterling representative of the great scholar-officials of the “golden era” of the Joseon Kingdom, the late 18th century, Park Je-ga seems to have done it all. A renowned writer, calligrapher, and government official, Park authored one of the most innovative works to call for reforming traditional Korean society, “On Northern Learning.”

This book epitomized the forward-looking and outward-looking orientation of a circle of outstanding thinkers of his time, including the scientist Hong Dae-yong, writer Park Ji-won, philosopher Jeong Yak-yong, and King Jeongjo. The latter two are arguably just as worthy for selection, but there are already enough monarchs and especially philosophers on the Korean and other currencies.

Yu Gil-jun (1856-1914)

Perhaps the most influential of all the “enlightenment” activists at the turn of the 19th century, Yu Gil-jun was also one of the first Koreans to travel beyond East Asia. In fact, he journeyed around the world and wrote about what he observed. He was also an important, pioneering minister for the Gabo Reform governments of 1894-95.

He might be tainted by his sons’ “pro-Japanese” actions in the colonial period, but it would be difficult to categorize Yu Gil-jun himself as such. (Yu declined an offer of nobility after Japan annexed the country in 1910, which he opposed.)

Closeness to Japan also disqualifies Yu’s equally accomplished enlightenment contemporaries Kim Hong-jip, Kim Ok-gyun and Park Yeong-hyo.

Ahn Chang-ho (1878-1938)

On the U.S. west coast, Ahn Chang-ho is celebrated as not only one of the great patriots who fought for Korea’s liberation from Japan, but also one of the first Korean Americans.

Before his exploits as an independence fighter in various regions of Northeast Asia, Ahn worked tirelessly as an educator, establishing one of the “new learning” schools in his hometown of Pyongyang.

Captured by the Japanese in the early 1930s for his nationalist activities, including as a leader of the Korean government in exile, he was effectively martyred. Contemporaries who also met this end while struggling for Korean autonomy and unity include Kim Kyu-sik and Lyuh Woon-hyung, but, unlike Ahn, they survived past the 1945 liberation and became entangled in the unavoidably messy post-liberation politics.

Choe Yong-sin (1909-1935)

Like Ahn Chang-ho, Choe hailed from the northern part of Korea and was closely connected to the development of modern education. As a woman who overcame her impoverished background to gain schooling in the early 20th century, Choe was an emblem of the power of education, especially Western education, to change lives.

Moreover, as a dedicated community organizer, driven by her Methodist faith, to work on behalf of the common people in the countryside during the colonial period, she epitomized both the opportunities and limitations of her era. Although she died young (from overwork, it is claimed), she was immortalized as the heroine in a famous novel of the time.

Equally prominent female contemporaries included Na Hye-seok, whose life and public expressions broke social conventions even more dramatically, perhaps too much so; Kim Hwallan, who became notoriously pro-Japanese; and Yu Gwan-sun, who unlike Choe became glorified more for her death than for her life.

Han Yong-un (1879-1944)

Perhaps the most famous Buddhist figure in modern Korea, Han was a great author, social activist, and outspoken advocate of reform for his religion. His nationalist credentials are also impeccable, having stood as one of the 33 signers to the March 1 Declaration of Independence in 1919.

All this makes him a great representative of the many challenges that Koreans faced in the first half of the 20th century, and he seems to have overcome these challenges honorably.

Poets such as Kim Sowol, scribe of the most famous verse of modern Korea, and Cheong Chi-yong, who infused the Korean language with great beauty, were probably more accomplished, but they did not have Han’s broader social impact.

And as intellectuals who ventured into the social and political arena, Yi Kwang-su and Choe Nam-seon were probably more prominent, but their explicitly pro-Japanese activities in the colonial period tainted them.

Indeed, many cultural, economic, and political leaders had to make difficult choices as Korea passed through extreme periods of colonial subjugation, national division, the Korean War, military dictatorship, rapid industrialization, and democratization over the past century.

But this is why most of them probably will never qualify for entrance into the national pantheon, at least not as unsullied heroes enjoying a consensus popular judgment.

We might wonder about the practical merits of a thought exercise such as this, but it compels consideration of a wide range of issues about remembering national history, and hence national identity as well.

Kyung Moon Hwang is associate professor in the Department of History, University of Southern California. He is author of, “A History of Korea _ An Episodic Narrative” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). The Korean translation was published as 황경문, “맥락으로 읽는 새로운 한국사” (21세기 북스, 2011).