LA interchange to be named after Korean patriot Ahn Chang Ho

A statue of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho stands in Riverside, California.

I just read in Yonhap that a freeway interchange will be named after exiled Korean patriot Ahn Chang Ho:

The freeway interchange will be named 'Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange' in a christening ceremony slated for June 11, 66 years after the death of Ahn, one of his descendants said. Dosan is the pen name for Ahn, who arrived in California in October 1902 and engaged in various activities for Korea's independence from Japan over the following three decades.

For those not familiar with Ahn, he is one of the men (along with Rhee Syngman) who set up Korea's government-in-exile in 1919. Ahn, who took the pseudonym 'Dosan' (Island-mountain) also created a historical commission to help preserve Korean culture at a time when the Japanese occupation authorities where doing their best to wipe out Korea's language and traditions. Ahn died in 1938 in Korea, probably as the result of being tortured by Japanese authorities. It is one of the interesting "what ifs" of history to speculate what would have happened if Ahn had lived through Korea's independence and the start of South Korea's government in 1945.

Ahn's California connection
While researching for this piece, I came across a very interesting article on Ahn's relationship with California orange baron C. E. Rumsey. The piece also gives details on Ahn's early work among the Korean-American community in southern California. Ahn had come to America to continue his studies but he also had to support himself. That led him to his fateful meeting with one of his important early supporters:

When Ahn Chang Ho arrived in Riverside in March 1904, he found the Korean families and single male workers there struggling to find jobs. Ahn had come south from San Francisco to assist his countrymen, and to find a stable job of his own. By so doing he hoped to complete his studies of English and democratic government. What he discovered instead were conditions which closely reflected the problems in Korea; all the jobs in the citrus orchards were controlled by Japanese labor contractors. Those contractors walled out the Korean workers.

Ahn immediately set out to find a remedy for this problem. Work was plentiful, but he had to find a way around the Japanese control of the labor market. Somewhere along the way, Ahn impressed C. E. Rumsey. Perhaps his dignified bearing and work ethic caught the grower's attention. Dosan Ahn Chang Ho was a trained Confucian scholar, and carried himself with the distinguished bearing of his noteworthy ancestors. We now know that with the encouragement of Rumsey, Ahn formed a Korean employment agency of his own. Dosan, or "Island Mountain", as Ahn called himself, borrowed $1500 from Mr. Rumsey to capitalize the agency, and to pay for the use of a building as a dormitory for the single Korean workers. The debt was paid in full by the end of the first month. Rumsey quickly secured an arrangement with Ahn Chang Ho to supply his Alta Cresta Groves with all the Korean workers in town. Rumsey also helped to provide housing for the Koreans families living in Riverside, leading to the establishment of the first Korean village in Southern California. This settlement was located at Pachappa and Cottage, near the packing house district and the railroads.

About this time, Dosan and his friends decided to form Kongnip Hyeophoe, or Cooperative Association, in Riverside. The Kongnip Hyeophoe would become the basis for the Korean National Association, which Dosan later led as president. Around sixty Korean people lived in town by the time of the formation of the Association. We cannot know for certain how many were here, but the census reports at least fifty-one Korean residents in town at the time.1 Dosan's upright and strong moral character shaped the Cooperative Association. He applied the Analects of Confucius, and Christian principles in his governance of the settlement. A visiting Korean named Kang Myeong-hwa described the settlement in Riverside as "a splendid Dosan Republic." The Association he founded maintained structure within the Korean village, both to build up the character of individuals and to enhance the image of Koreans within the mainstream community.

While in Riverside, Dosan convinced fellow village residents to attend night classes in English and the Bible. C. E. Rumsey apparently invited the Korean people to use his large craftsman house on Rumsey Drive, for church services and for English classes. A local pastor led the flock, and American Christians volunteered to assist with classes. In this way, Dosan's Korean improvement work in Riverside helped shape his future as the spiritual leader of the Korean Independence Movement. While here, he and his compatriots drew up plans for the movement, specifically laying the groundwork for the creation of the Hung Sa Dan in 1913.

Frankly, one of the most impressive things in that piece to me was that a guy raised as a 'Confucian scholar' would bust his butt picking oranges. It certainly breaks the stereotype of Korean scholars who would rather live in genteel poverty than sully themselves doing menial labor. There is more in the article (see link above).

Further reading
Here are some more links: The Cyber Dosan Ahn Chang-ho Memorial Hall is in need of updating but still has a lot of information on Ahn. If you want to read about Ahn's philosophy, you can clink here and here. This piece gives details on Ahn's early life and work in the Korean independence movement. Ahn kept his family in California, here is an interview with his oldest daughter in 1998.

Comments

[Sperwer]

You say: "Frankly, one of the most impressive things in that piece to me was that a guy raised as a 'Confucian scholar' would bust his butt picking oranges. It certainly breaks the stereotype of Korean scholars who would rather live in genteel poverty than sully themselves doing menial labor."

Me too, but it raises the question whether Dosan's Confucianism was of the "practical learning" reform variety. That would certainly appear to be the case. But even then he would stand out for actually getting his hands dirty; most of the practical learning proponents limited their involvement to writing books about practical subjects - e.g., improved farming tachniques -- as opposed to actually doing the work themselves. Still I wonder how much time Dosan actually spent picking organges while he was doing all his organizational and educational work, along with being the steward of the hiring hall he apparently effectively owned and operated for a profit in order to get the cash for everything else.. Somehow I doubt he let the laborers from whork he was getting a commission have much direct say in how he used it. I do not mean to denigrate his accomplishments, but simply suggest that one oguhtn't romanticize them either.

[The Yangban]

I'm not that familiar with the various schools of Confucian thought, but Ahn definitely was of the "practical" variety. Check out this from the same article on Ahn's orange picking experience:

Dosan taught his fellow workers to practice discipline as they picked oranges. He learned from Mr. Rumsey that citrus fruit had to be carefully handled in order to avoid the development of decay, due to bruises, clipper cuts, and finger nail punctures. Dosan used this information as a means of training his fellow workers to be patient, focused, and diligent on the job. "To pick one orange with care in an American orchard will help our country," he told them. In so doing they would be more productive and make more money, to save, and to support the Independence Movement.

So, Ahn learned the best way to pick oranges and taught that to other Koreans to help them do a better job, make more money and serve the cause of Korean independence. That kind of reminds me of those visits to fields and factories that Kim Jong-il makes from time to time in which he extols the workers to produce more and kinds them advice. The big difference is that Ahn actually knew something about picking oranges.

But you might be right about how many hours he actually worked picking oranges. It would seem that he would have served the company better as a supervisor.

[Philip Cuddy]

Dosan Ahn Chang Ho was not a Yangban class member or singularly a Confucian scholar. Dosan came from a normal class family in Pyongyang. He worked as a shepard in his village area before going to Seoul to get a Western Education from the missionaries there. People in Korea and here in America try to posture Dosan above his common social level and that is a mistake. Dosan was an intellgent person and made his accomplishments through honest hard work and true dedication. People in the Hung Sa Dan and the Dosan Memorial Foundation both in Korea and America have failed to make Dosan a true hero of the common person. They have used his name more for their own personal scoail gains than reforming society as Dosan wished. Dosan was a practical and frugile person. Dosan was a person with great vision and realized the merits of Confucian ideals and also realized their shortcomings for the future of Korea. Dosan understood Koreans needed to modernize their class structure, social realtionships, thought process and education system to make any progress with the rest of the world at the turn of the century. Dosan utilized many types of knowledge in his quest to improve Korean people\'s minds and character. Dosan\'s reformist ideals came before Koreans were capable of totally grasping his genius. Dosan was a man who came well before his time. Dosan\'s philosphy of \"honesty\", \"democracy\" and \"civic responsibility\" are teachings Koreans in Korea and Korean Americans should really study today.

Actually all people of any race should study Dosan\'s philosophy.

As for Syngman Rhee, Rhee was the biggest problem with Korea\'s fight for Independence. His appointment to lead the Provisional Government was the key to its failure. Rhee created more problems than productive leadership. Rhee tried to do anything he could to get Dosan out of his way. Rhee went so far as to report Dosan and other leaders in the Provisional Government to the United States government as Bolshivek Communists. There are documents in the US National Archives that tell part of this little known history. Rhee was corrupt in the early years as well as the later years when the Student Uprising of 1960 exiled him from Korea.

Recently a US Post Office in Los Angeles was dedicated in the name of Ahn Chang Ho in recognition of his life\'s accomplishements in America and Korea.

[Andy (AKA: The Yangban)]

Phillip,

Thanks for the information. I think it deserves a post of its own. Do you have a link or two?

[American]

Yangban, the nature of Ahn Chang Ho's life/works has been described to me as the "second biggest controversy in Korean Studies after the Bruce Cumings book."

That being said, all I know about the controversy is that after the Korean War, the independence leaders were categorized hapazardly on a Left-Right political spectrum and An Chang Ho was put on the Right. In fact, according to some ppl I've talked with, he is considered (by some far lefties, NK sympathizers, etc), preposterously enough, as almost a collaborator.

[passerby]

There's one point that I don't agree with.
You say that the Japanese tried to eradicate Korean language. I think the opposite is true.

When Japan made Korea her protectorate in 1905, the Japanese government wanted to cut the emotional bond Koreans had with their former suzerain state, China. The government discovered that the Chinese-character/hangul combination would be most suitable as the written form of Korean. [This method had been proposed by Yukichi Fukuzawa who assisted his student Kakugoro Inoue in the publication of the Kanjyo Shunpo (Seoul Weekly Report), the first official government report using hangul, in 1886]. Since hangul was never taught systematically before the annexation, there were various dialects in existence. After the annexation, the Chosun consulate creates a standard set of hangul and publishes textbooks for compulsory education in Korean (hangul), Chinese, and Japanese. Of the 182,000 textbooks prepared, 72,000 were in Korean, which was more than those in Japanese. Japanese children living in Korea were also required to learn Korean. Although Koreans claim that the Japanese deprived them of their mother tongue, nothing could be further from the truth. It was the Japanese who actually spread the use of hangul.

However, it is true that Korean was abolished from education, but that was with the start of the Pacific War in 1942 when all foreign language education is abolished in Japanese territory (in a frenzy of nationalism), only 3 years out of the 35 year-period under Japanese rule. However, even during this period, movies in Korean continued to be produced and Korean newspapers also remained in circulation, so it is obvious that speaking Korean in public was not prohibited.

[Shibuyaexpat]

American,
I disagree with your opinion. First, consider that Japanese annexation of Korea doesn’t happen until 1910—a full 24 years before 1886 and more importantly before Korea is officially affected by Japanese policies. Therefore, anything that happened in 1886 was under the control of the Korean government.

In reality though, “Hansong Sunbo” was first published in 1883 by Bakmunguk, the Korean government publication agency was responsible for its publication (http://www.journalist.or.kr/ifjseoul/english/presshistory_1.html). While the biography of Fukuzawa Yukichi by IBE (International Bureau of Education, a part of UNESCO) (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/Thinkers/ThinkersPdf/fukuzawe.pdf) points out that Kakugoro Inoue was dispatched by Fukuzawa in 1883, the final approval for his role as advisor came from the Korean king. Hangul was introduced when Bakmunguk started the “Hansong Jubo (Hansong Weekly)” on January 25, 1886. If anything, Inoue’s role would have been as advisor in creating a newspaper, and not that of heroic champion of Hangul language.

[Shibuyaexpat]

Oops. I just realized that I should have responded to passerby. Sorry for the confusion.

Shibuyaexpat

[passerby]

Shibuyaexpat,
I am not saying that there were no actions from the Korean side towards modernization. However, I do feel that the fact that modernization movement in Korea received support from the Japanese even before the annexation are largely ignored by the Koreans. It was Fukuzawa that ordered and paid for the first full set of Hangul type to be made in Japan and be used for Hansong Weekly. The political battle between conservatives and reformists was still raging in Korea, and the monetary and moral support provided by Fukuzawa was no small contribution (though after the assasination of Kim O-Kyun, Fukuzawa distances himself from Korean affaris). The Chosun consulate later systemizes hangul to pursue its own goal of Japanization of Korea, but I just don't think it can be equated to an intentional act of wiping out the Korean language. If the Japanese government had intended to eradicate the Korean language, it would not have allowed the publication of Korean language newspapers, books, etc, or Korean education in schools.

Japan, during her efforts at modernizization, invited and appointed as advisors many western men. Although these men were rewarded handsomely, it is also true that they shared the passion for modernization and the betterment of Japan, and their contributions are still remembered and given credit. I can understand why the Koreans are still bitter about the years of annexation, and that feeling is justified. However, I do believe that the overly simplistic perception that everything was bad and evil under Japanese rule is not fair, and that it may even be detrimental to the Koreans.