Dr. Suh Jae-pils Statue Unveiled in US
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
A statue of Dr. Suh Jae-pil, a champion of the Korean independence movement during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), was unveiled in Washington Tuesday.
It marks the first time that a statue commemorating an ethnic Korean has been unveiled in the U.S. capital. There are more than 300 statues in the city including some 150 statues honoring foreign nationals.
The statue stands in front of the main Korean Embassy building on Massachusetts Avenue where a number of other foreign embassies are located. Korean-American leaders as well as Washington municipal representatives attended the unveiling ceremony.
The Washington D.C. municipal government also declared May 6 as the day of appreciation for Suh to commemorate his accomplishments in Korea as well as in the United States.
Organizers of the project that built the statue said they hope it will help foster a better understanding of Korea for Americans.
They also said they wished it could help second-generation Korean-Americans in the region gain a stronger sense of their shared history and their self-identity.
Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-sik said at the unveiling ceremony that ``Suh's statue is the first in Washington that honors an East Asian. We thank Washington D.C. officials for declaring this day the day of Suh.''
The new statue is similar to the one that stands in Boseong, South Jeolla Province, Suh's birthplace.
Born in 1864, Suh was a pioneer in a number of ways ― at the age of 18, he became the youngest scholar ever to receive the highest score in Korea's government service examination; he was the first ethnic Korean to attend a U.S. medical school and work as a doctor in the United State; and he is considered one of the forefathers of modern Korean journalism and a leader of the Korean independence movement during the colonial period.
In 1896, he started the first Korean newspaper, titled ``The Independent,'' that exclusively used the Korean alphabet.
Suh established in the United States the Korean Information Bureau and published the Korean Review, a monthly journal.
He also organized the League of Friends of Korea, through which he fought for the cause of Korean independence during the Japanese occupation. His ashes are buried in the National Cemetery in Seoul.