Kim Koo

I was recently interviewed by a representative of the Kim Koo commemorative organization. They told me that UNESCO has designated 2026 as the commemorative year for independence leader Kim Koo’s 150th birth anniversary. His birth date was Aug. 29, 1876, but is celebrated all year long.

Kim Koo was an important figure in 20th century Korea. Perhaps best known as the rival to Syngman Rhee until he was tragically assassinated on June 6, 1949.

He is not a figure without controversy. The Japanese, during the Japanese occupation called him “the assassin” because he killed a man whom he thought was responsible for the death of Queen Min, wife of King Gojong, in 1897. She is better known by her posthumous title Empress Myeongseong. It turns out the man he killed was not one of the squad of Japanese samurai wannabes who raided the palace and killed all the palace women there. They killed them all because on an earlier attempt on her life, she switched clothes with a maid and thus survived. So on the final attempt, the Japanese killed all the women in the queen's quarters.

Kim Koo spent most of the Japanese era in China as the president of the Korean Provisional Government. As such, he should have been the first president of the Republic of Korea after the country's liberation from Japan. But the Americans in charge of things after World War II preferred Syngman Rhee who earned degrees from American universities and spoke English well. Rhee’s rivals, Kim Koo and Leah Woonhyung, then started showing up dead, mysteriously.

The most notable thing about Kim Koo, in my view, is his way with words. His essay titled “the nation that I desire” is breathtakingly beautiful.

“I want our nation to become the most beautiful nation in the world. I do not want our nation to become the richest and most powerful nation in the world. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by another nation. I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that our wealth is such that it makes our lives abundant and our military strength such that it is able to repel others' invasion. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity is the power of a highly-developed culture. This is because the power of culture both makes ourselves happy and gives happiness to others.”

“Our people's talents, spirit and past discipline are sufficient to fulfill this mission, and so are our land's location and geographical conditions. Moreover, after experiencing the ravages of the First and Second World Wars, humanity demands from us such a mission. In addition, the historical timing of all this at a time when we are engaged in rebuilding our nation is more than appropriate for fulfilling this mission. Indeed, the days when our people will appear on the world stage as the main actors are just ahead of us.”

“What we need to do in order to fulfill this are the construction of a political system that guarantees freedom of thought and the perfection of people's education. This is the reason why I earlier emphasized a free nation and the importance of education. If our people are to fulfill the mission of building the highest culture, every one of us should, in short, become a sage.”

“No one among our people who strive to become the model for the highest cultures of mankind should be a selfish individual. Although we put extreme emphasis on the freedom of the individual, this freedom should not be the freedom used to fill one's own belly, as brute beasts do, but the freedom used to enable one's own people to live well. It should not be the freedom to pluck a flower from the park but the freedom to plant a flower in the park.”

“We should not be people who try to seize the possessions of others or people who try to receive the help of others. Instead, we should be people who make it their joy of life to give to their families, neighbors and fellow countrymen. This is what we call in our parlance seonbi or gentlemen.”

“As a result of this, our nation's mountains will be lush with forests, our fields will be abundant in all kinds of grains and fruits, and our villages and cities will be clean, rich and peaceful. So, the face of every Korean, both male and female, will always shine with peacefulness, and their bodies will radiate the fragrance of virtue. A nation such as this cannot be unfortunate even if it wanted to be unfortunate and cannot perish even if it wanted to perish.”

I particularly liked the sentence, “It should not be the freedom to pluck a flower from the park but the freedom to plant a flower in the park.” It reminds me of John Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”

Such was the vision of Kim Koo — and much of it has been achieved, in spite of the intervening chaos of the Korean War that moved things backward for a generation or more. But Korea has achieved much of Kim Koo’s dream. Thank you Kim Koo. Happy birthday.

Mark Peterson (frogoutsidethewell@gmail.com) is a professor emeritus of Korean studies at Brigham Young University in Utah. The views expressed here are his own.