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Park Yong-man (; 2 July 1881 – 17 October 1928) was a Korean
nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
and independence activist who, after spending time in prison for reformist activities, immigrated to the United States of America. There Park was involved in the establishment of various Korean nationalist organizations in
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
,
Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
and Hawaii. Park also founded the Korean National Army Corps. Following the
March 1st Movement The March First Movement was a series of protests against Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese colonial rule that was held throughout Korea and internationally by the Korean diaspora beginning on March 1, 1919. Protests were largely concentrated in ...
in 1919, Park became involved with the military training of Korean nationalists in China, but may have also engaged in anti-communist activity. Park was assassinated in Beijing by a Korean communist.


Early life

Park was born on 2 July 1881 in Cheorwon, a rural town in Gangwon province to a family with military traditions. After the death of his parents in his early childhood, Park was raised by his uncle, Park Hee-Byung. Together with his uncle, Park moved to
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
, and then to Japan. He developed reformist leanings while in Japan, and upon his return to Korea, around 1897, became involved with various reformist and protest movements. His activities were frowned upon by the government and Park was imprisoned.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17 It was while he was incarcerated that he met
Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965), also known by his art name Unam (), was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisiona ...
, another reformist. Rhee was working on a book, "The Spirit of Independence", a treatise on reform and patriotism. Park assisted Rhee in the writing of his book, and smuggled the manuscript out of prison upon his release around 1903.Choe, Kim & Han, 2003 His uncle had by now returned to Korea, and Park joined him in Sonchon, in what is now
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...
, and worked at a private school.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17 In late 1904 or early 1905, Park emigrated to the United States of America.Kim, 2003Tikhonov, 2009


Emigration to the U.S.


Life in Nebraska

Initially settling in
Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
, Park was a student at the
Hastings College Hastings College is a private Presbyterian college in Hastings, Nebraska. History The college was founded in 1882 by a group of men and women seeking to establish a Presbyterian college. Academics The college offers more than 40 underg ...
. He then moved to
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado to again join his uncle, who had also moved to the United States and was one of the first Korean immigrants to live in Denver. Together with his uncle, Park helped organise a Korean nationalist network in Denver. However, when his uncle was assassinated in 1907,McGhee, 2007 Park subsequently returned to Nebraska, this time to Lincoln to study political and military science at the
University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
.Kim, 2003 By June 1909, and now recognized as one of the leaders of the Korean-American community, Park established a military school in Kearney, Nebraska.Lee, 1963 pp. 318 Park was a firm believer in military action against Japan in order to achieve an independent Korea, and such action clearly required trained fighters.Choe, Kim & Han, 2003 With his school, he aimed to provide young Korean-Americans with military drills and training for the anticipated clash with Japan. History, English, Korean and even agriculture were also taught to students.Nielsen, 1997 By 1910, Park was dabbling in journalism and was editor of the Korean newspaper '' The New Korea'' (신한민보) published by the recently established
Korean National Association The Korean National Association (; Hanja: 大韓人國民會), also known as All Korea Korean National Association, was a political organization established on February 1, 1909, to fight Japan's colonial policies and occupation in Korea. It w ...
(KNA) in San Francisco.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17 Syngman Rhee, by now released from prison and living in the United States, was asked to take over Park's military school, which had shifted from Kearney to
Hastings, Nebraska Hastings is a List of cities in Nebraska, city in and the county seat of Adams County, Nebraska, Adams County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 25,152 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Neb ...
. Upon his arrival, Rhee was highly critical of the school and only stayed a short time before departing.Nielsen, 1997 The school eventually was closed in 1915.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17


Life in Hawaii

The KNA had one of its two headquarters in Hawaii, the other being in San Francisco,Choe, Kim & Han, 2003 and Park served as its vice-chairman for a time.Choi, 2002 pp. 43-71 This necessitated a move to
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
in 1912, and he continued his editorial work at the Korean National Herald. Also while in Hawaii, as Park still considered that a military confrontation with Japan was likely, he established the Korean National Army Corps. A firm believer in the use of military force to secure independence for Korea,


Park Yong-man's Korean National Army Corps Articles

Park Yong-man wanted more compatriots to join the National Corps. He advertised in an article in the National Newspaper that he would not stop those who still come and would accept them if they meet the qualifications. And although collective farm life is hard, it is also not without fun, he wrote. He added that about 100 residents are finding joy in the midst of hardship by seeing the sights they saw at the Hwanghakjeong Training Center in Seoul and hearing the sounds they heard from the Three Military Branches. The creation of the National Corps, which had a gestation period of almost a year, began its labor pains only on April 12. That day, Jongsu Park’s farm stopped working. All work was closed and a simple ceremony was held with ordinary compatriots gathered. An announcement ceremony was held to announce the decision to establish a national corps. At 12:30 noon, the owner of the farm and some of Honolulu's leading figures were invited to a luncheon. From that day on, Yongman Park’s work became very busy. Even if his body was split into ten pieces, he couldn't handle it. Moon Yang-mok was a person who served as a Seodang Order of Merit in Incheon in 1903 and came to Hawaii in 1905 to apply for recruitment of sugar cane workers. In 1911, he was elected as the president of the North American Korean National Association, and the following year, he served as editor-in-chief of ‘Shinhan Minbo’. His commentary on the creation of the Korean National Army Corps was published in the June 3, 1914 issue of Kukminbo. The reason the creation of the National Corps was described as a "crossing the mountain" work was because a military school was established in Ahuimanu across the Ko'olau Mountains. Compatriots living in Honolulu called the corps members "across the mountain, Ahees." However, Japan The consulate recognized its true nature and designated it as a “military school” in the report.


Shutting down the Korean National Army Corps

Park gradually fell out with Syngman Rhee and others in the KNA, who favored a more diplomatic solution to Korea's annexation by Japan. There were also clashes over funding, with Rhee preferring the available funds collected from the Korean-American community to be spent on education rather than maintaining the Korean Military Corps.Tikhonov, 2009 The funding issue became problematic, and the Corps was shut down in 1917 because of this.Choi, 2002 pp. 43-71 Back in Korea, opposition to Japanese rule was increasing, and following the 1 March 1919 uprising which resulted in the Declaration of Independence, Park translated the Declaration into English for publication in Honolulu.Kim, 2003 Then, in May 1919, Park joined the
American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...
, which was embarking for
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17


Return to Asia

The American Expeditionary Force had been dispatched to Siberia in 1918 to assist the
Czechoslovak Legions The Czechoslovak Legion (Czech: ''Československé legie''; Slovak: ''Československé légie'') were volunteer armed forces consisting predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting on the side of the Entente powers during World War I and the ...
in their retreat from the
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s during the
Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
. Japanese forces were also present in the region, nominally to assist in fighting the Bolsheviks, but also as part of a process to expand their influence in North East Asia. Consequently, Park appears to have considered his sojourn to Siberia as an ideal start to combating Japanese colonialism.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17 His role with the American Expeditionary Force was as an intelligence officer, and it is likely that he collected information on the communist Koreans present in Siberia at the time.Kim, 2003 In the interim, three separate Korean Provisional Governments (KPG) had been established, one each in
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
,
Vladivistok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...
and Shanghai. By September 1919, these had merged into a single government in Shanghai, with Syngman Rhee (in absentia) appointed as president. Park was offered the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government.Neff, 2010 Park, having finished his duties with the American Expeditionary Force, arrived in Shanghai in March 1920. However, it seems that Park was only part of the KPG for a few months, if at all.Lee, 1963 pp. 318 It is possible that the selection of Syngman Rhee as head of the KPG was a factor in deterring Park from playing a more significant role with the organisation.Kim, 2002, pp. 16-17 Park was also involved with negotiations to form a secret mutual defense pact between the newly established KPG and the Soviets. Park was now based in Manchuria, spending time training recruits and preparing for a military campaign against Japan. Little is known about his activities in Manchuria, but he returned to Korea at least once, in 1924, with a group of military and business leaders of the pro-Japanese Chinese government.Kim, 2003 Park, now under suspicion of collaborating with the Japanese against
communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
due to his activities in Siberia and Manchuria, was assassinated in Beijing on 17 October 1928 by a Korean communist, Lee Hae-young.Choi, 2002 pp. 43-71


See also

*
History of Korea The Lower Paleolithic era on the Korean Peninsula and in Manchuria began roughly half a million years ago. Christopher J. Norton, "The Current State of Korean Paleoanthropology", (2000), ''Journal of Human Evolution'', 38: 803–825. The earl ...
*
Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a series of diplomatic and militant efforts to liberate Korea from Japanese rule. The movement began around the late 19th or early 20th century, and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. As independence a ...
**
List of militant Korean independence activist organizations During the Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese occupation of Korea, some groups participated in violent resistance against the Empire of Japan, as part of the Korean independence movement. They functioned as a big tent political movement that repre ...
*
Sinhan Minbo ''Sinhan Minbo'' () or ''The New Korea'' was a Korean language newspaper published in the United States. It was founded on February 10, 1909 by the Korean National Association (KNA) and published weekly from San Francisco. The newspaper became ...
* Korean National Army Corps


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Yong-man 1881 births 1928 deaths People from Cheorwon County Korean people murdered abroad University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Members of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea Korean resistance members Korean expatriates in the United States