Reverend Young Shik Rhee (December 13, 1894 – December 8, 1981) was the founder of

Daegu University Daegu University () is a private university in South Korea. Its campus is located a short distance outside Daegu, in Gyeongsan City, North Gyeongsang province. The school currently consists of 13 colleges from college of humanities to college o ...

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, a pioneer of special education in Korea, and a

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 ...

leader in Daegu.

In the Korean independence movement

In September 1919, Rhee was imprisoned for 18 months in Daegu Prison by the Japanese colonial authorities for his leadership role in the March 1st (''Samil'') Movement and other Korean Independence activities in Daegu. Torture by the Japanese police resulted in permanent hearing loss in one ear.

As a pastor

In 1923, Rhee attended Kobe Theological Seminary (神戶神學校) in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

, Japan. He returned to Korea and began Christian ministry in 1927 at Daegu Seomoon Presbyterian Church, where he became an ordained minister. Although popular as pastor and well known for his stirring sermons, Rhee was drawn to serving the least fortunate around him. He embarked on his lifelong journey of social work and ministry by serving as pastor at a leper treatment center in Daegu. After Korean independence from Japan in 1945, Rhee expanded his social work by looking after orphans and handicapped children. In 1946, Rhee founded the Daegu School for the Blind, the first special education school founded by a Korean. (The very first special education school in Korea, Pyongyang School for the Deaf and Blind, was founded by

Rosetta Sherwood Hall Rosetta Sherwood Hall (September 19, 1865 – April 5, 1951) was a medical missionary and educator. She founded the Pyongyang School for the Deaf and Blind. Dr. Hall spent forty-four years in Korea, helping develop educational resources for dis ...

, a medical missionary and educator from the U.S., in 1894. In 1913, the Japanese occupation government established the Seoul School for the Blind). When the devastating

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

(1950–1953) resulted in increased number of war-orphans and the handicapped, Reverend Rhee was among the few who were devoted to helping them. The orphanage housed many handicapped children—who were clothed, fed and taught skills that would help them eventually leave the orphanage and live independently. Reverend Rhee ministered to the children's spiritual and emotional needs, as well as raising funds, eliciting donations and recruiting volunteer teachers and doctors.

Founding of Daegu University

Rhee saw the need to train special education teachers and social workers in addition to furthering the education of handicapped students who had special talents. In 1956, he founded the Korea Social Work School in Daegu. The school became a formal college in 1961. In recognition for the decades of invaluable contributions made by Rhee, South Korean president

Park Chung Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

personally awarded him the 5.16 Minjok National Medal ( 5·16 민족상 교육부문 본상) in May 1969. Korea Social Work College, founded in 1961, became

in 1981. Rhee was president from 1961 to 1982. Daegu University installed the first Braille library in Korea in 1981, and the university continues its tradition of being in the forefront of social welfare and special education in Korea.

Work in the Mariana Islands

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rhee traveled extensively to the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

in the Pacific where many Korean laborers were forced to work under the Japanese military during the Japanese expansion before and during World War II. Reverend Rhee discovered decades-old burial sites of Korean laborers deep in the jungles of

Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...

and repatriated the remains to a national cemetery in Korea
National Cemetery for Overseas Koreans 국립망향의 동산 태평양 사이판 티니안 전몰 무명한국인묘
. He also founded a group that erected a Korean Peace Memorial in the island of

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

Korean Peace Memorial
at Malpi Point, Saipan) and in Tinian (
Korean Monuments on Tinian
'), in remembrance of thousands of Korean laborers who died in those islands. In 1977, Rhee was awarded the

Order of Merit for National Foundation The Order of Merit for National Foundation () is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for the Republic of Kor ...

by the South Korean government in recognition for his role in Korean independence. Rhee died of natural causes in

Tumon Tumon () is a district located on Tumon Bay along the northwest coast of the United States unincorporated territory of Guam. Located in the municipality of Tamuning, it is the center of Guam's tourist industry. History Tumon Bay or Agana Bay a ...

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

, in 1981 at age 87.

References

* Autobiography
''I Cast Out Fear'' ('두려움을 물리치고')
* Autobiography
''A True Happiness'' ('진정한 기쁨')
* Essays by Young Shik Rhee
''Sarang Ui Kil Somang Ui Kil'' ('사랑의 길 소망의 길' 이영식 목사 수상록)
* Biography
''Ai to hikari to jiyū to : Ri Eishoku no shisō to kōdō''

External links