뉴스레터

Danjae Shin Chae-ho (1880-1936) is said to have met a very important turning point in his thought and national movement when he embraced anarchism. As he witnessed the people's power demonstrated through the March 1st Movement of 1919, he recognized the people as an agent of historical change. As an advocate of achieving absolute independence directly through a popular revolution, he saw anarchism as the right thought for that purpose and embraced it as such. In about 1923, he declared himself to be an anarchist. That year, he drafted the Declaration of Korean Revolution, also known as the Declaration of Righteous Brotherhood, which is said to signify his beginning as an anarchist. That Danjae was an anarchist is evident from his essays and literary works published after that.

Embracing Anarchism as Voluntary Change of Ideology and Methodology for Independence

But describing Shin Chae-ho as an anarchist still tends to be avoided or considered bad. His embrace of anarchism is even denounced, quite mistakenly, as a departure from his national movement, when it should be understood as "a change of his belief system for the better," as he explained it himself. A harsh critic of dogmatism in thought, he argued for voluntarily changing thought to fit the reality of the Korean people, that is the conditions and circumstances of independence movement. When he said that 'Body (身)' and Color (色)' may change whereas 'Law (法) and Bone(骨)' should not, he probably meant that the former refers to anarchist thought and movement, and the latter the spirit of independence and independence movement based on nationalism. In other words, he wanted to be 'a Kropotkin of Korea.'

Therefore, his embrace of anarchism and anarchist movement cannot not be restricted within the framework of nationalism without running the risk of narrowing the extensive range of his thought and national movement. Most importantly, criticizing and thinking badly of Danjae as an anarchist is wrong and must be stopped, although this is not to say that those who claim that he was a pure anarchist or that he pursued anarchism as the supreme value while regarding nationalism as a means to that end are not going too far. In short, Shin Chae-ho's embrace of anarchism and anarchist movement should be understood as his voluntary change for the better of the ideology and methodology of independence movement that he'd already experienced before.

After embracing anarchism, Danjae came up with the idea of "Solidarity of the East Asian Peoples" and tried to practice it as a way of achieving absolute independence directly through a popular revolution. This is closely related to his voluntary embrace of anarchism, and represents a great change in his thought and principles of independence movement. When Imperial Japan asserted Orientalism or 'Asian Solidarity,' Danjae saw though the imperialist ambition behind it. Asian Solidarity was propaganda based on the sense of Japan's ethnic superiority, and it pursued self-righteous, self-centered rule over Asia. From the mid 19th- to early 20th centuries, Imperial Japan put forth an initiative for regional cooperation or integration, known as Asianism, Asian Solidarity, or the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, in an attempt to justify and rationalize its colonial expansion overseas. On the other hand, the principles and rationale of Asianism or Asian Solidarity were at odds with Japan's real interests in East Asia.

'Solidarity of the Oppressed Peoples in East Asia': Its Details and Practice

Danjae asserted 'Solidarity of the East Asian Peoples,' which was fundamentally different from Orientalism asserted by Imperial Japan, as a logic for Korean independence and peace in the East. Starting from the 1920s, he argued for friendship and solitary between Korea and China, convinced that Korean independence would be significant and important to not only China's national interests but also peace in the East. As an extension, he asserted 'Solidarity of the East Asian Peoples.' Believing that there were two kinds of the people: 'the people of a power' and 'the people of a colony,' he insisted on solidarity between the people of a colony and the people of a semi-colony. While some insisted on solidarity with the proletarian people of Japan, he disagreed, regarding the proletarian people of Japan as no different from the imperialist rulers of Japan. In other words, under his principle of 'Solidarity of the East Asian Peoples,' Danjae proposed solidarity with the peoples of colonies in East Asia, of the proletarian peoples in the world. This is a principle of 'Solidarity of the Oppressed Peoples in East Asia,' including colonies and semi-colonies only, from which Japan was absolutely excluded.

To practice his principle of 'Solidarity of the Oppressed Peoples in East Asia,' Danjae joined an anarchist organization as an active member starting from the summer of 1926. When the 'East Asian Federation of Anarchists' was formed by representatives from seven countries, including Korea and China, who gathered in Beijing in September 1927, he participated as the representative of Korea. To practice the resolutions reached at the conference, he convened a 'Convention of Korean Anarchists' in Tianjin, China in April 1928. At this convention, his 'Declaration' was adopted, and it was resolved to establish an organ of propaganda under the Federation, and invite expert bomb makers from Russia and Germany to build a bomb factory in the outskirts of Beijing.

He set about raising money needed to make that a reality. In collaboration with the anarchist from Taiwan named Lim Byung-moon who was working for the Department of International Money Order at the Beijing Post Office, he counterfeited 200 international money orders worth up to 64,000 Won in face value and mailed them to thirty-two major post offices in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and the Kwantung Leased Territory. However, upon arriving at the Port of Keelung (基隆港) in Taipei on May 8, 1928, with high hopes of getting the money he needed, he ended up getting caught by the Japanese water police who had been following him. He was eventually taken to Dailian (大連) and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was serving his time in Lushun (旅順) Prison when he died in 1938. Even during trial, he made it clear that he was an indisputable anarchist. He left nothing but anarchist books in his possession, which shows that he remained as a firm believer in anarchism up until his death.

Danjae Shin Chae-ho. He was not only an activist, a 'Kropoptkin of Korea, who fought for Korean independence, but also a true East Asian revolutionary who was determined to get the oppressed East Asian peoples out of colonial or semi-colonial rule and establish peace in the East.