뉴스레터

In 1910, the Japanese Empire, having begun invading East Asia in the name of 'modernity' and 'civilization,' was on the brink of annexing the Korean Empire by force, when Ahn Chang-ho and members of New People's Association fled the country. Korean migrants had built settlements in many parts of China and Russia, including Western Gando across the Abrok River, Northern Gando across the Duman River, present-day Northeast China, Vladivostok across the Ussuri River and the rest of Primorsky Krai, and even remote areas of Russia across the Amur River.

Those Koreans, who had gathered together in groups to ensure their own survival, played a key role in building overseas bases for independence movement. Primorsky Krai, known to Westerners as the 'Far East,' had been a base for independence movement, even before Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan. It is no coincidence that the office of Daedonggongbo (the newspaper published by the Korean Association in Russia) in Vladivostok is where independence activist Ahn Jung-geun discussed a plan to assassinate Ito Hirobumi in Harbin (哈爾濱) in October 1909. After the assassination, New People's Association called an emergency staff meeting, where they decided to stop the national sovereignty restoration movement and chose to fight a war for independence as the best strategy to save their country. The basic idea was to build overseas bases for the Korean Independence Army, establish a military school and foster officials to prepare for long-term resistance against the Japanese Empire.

The Mountain Fengmi (蜂蜜山) land development in Mishan (密山), Northern Manchuria, was the first project ever financed and undertaken by the Korean community in the U.S., the Koreans living in Manchuria, and the Korean community in Russia. The Mt. Fengmi base development resulted in three Korean villages of about 500 households, where farmland was developed and schools built. But the agricultural investment project experienced a number of difficulties and ended in failure.

The 'Master of Organization' Who Established Korean Associations, Companies, and Even Schools

The news of the treaty of forced annexation reached Dosan Ahn Chang-ho after his arrival in Vladivostok. Travelling different parts of Primorsky Krai, Dosan led the efforts to protect the rights of the Koreans and achieve national integration. After visiting the settlement in Mishan, Northern Manchuria, and then Ahn Jung-geun's family residence in Muleng sometime in February of 1911, he returned to the U.S. by way of Europe on September 2 that year.

Dosan built a network of Koreans in East Asia, i.e. Manchuria, mainland China, and Primorsky Krai, and started a systematic national movement, until World War I broke out. He was a master of organization who established and ran all kinds of companies and schools as well as associations. Since he believed that the Korean people would have no future or hope without securing material and human resources for independence movement, he spared no effort to lay a solid foundation for strengthening material and human resources. There were many secret societies that came and went in modern Korean history, but when Dosan was involved in the organization or operation of an organization, he made sure that it would be run democratically, and formulate and execute a master plan for the future of the Korean people. Therefore, those organizations tended to survive longer.

The Provisional Government and the Provisional Congress celebrating New Year (January 1, 1921)

Once World War I was over, Dosan, who was the Chairman of the Central Assembly of the Korean National Association at that time, tried to rapidly cope with the changes in the international situation. Meanwhile, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was formed shortly after the March 1st Movement. When he heard the news, Dosan decided to go to China and devote himself to independence movement. Once he moved to China, the center of independence movement moved with him, from America to Shanghai. Dosan took office as Director of Internal Affairs and acting Prime Minister of the Provisional Government. And he decided upon and carried out a number of government policies: 1) implementing fiscal measures such as taking a census, issuing national bonds, levying a poll tax, and organizing the Financial Corps for Saving the County; 2) increasing military and diplomatic efforts; 3) building a communication network by implementing a secret liaison system and establishing a transportation bureau, and building a national foundation; and 4) sending PR people and special correspondents to Northern Gando and Southern Gando areas to persuade the Independence Army organizations in Manchuria to integrate themselves under the Government. He also carried out additional tasks that would help the Provisional Government establish itself as the national government, such as researching and compiling the history of Korea-Japan relations, overhauling public schools, founding The Independent newspaper, and restoring Korean Red Cross.

From August onwards, he sought to establish a legitimate national regime with unified leadership over independence movement by campaigning for integrating the three provisional governments, established each in Seoul, Vladivostok, and Shanghai, into a unified Provisional Government. Although his political position was weakened as he took office as Minister of Labor at the Unified Provisional Government, Dosan made a speech on 'Six Absolutely Important Matters for the Korean People' at the Provisional Government's New Year's celebration in 1920, where he stressed the need for the Korean independence movement to be balanced on each of its six elements (military, diplomacy, education, justice, finance, and unification), with 'unification' being most important to the Korean people.

Promoting the Principle of the Greater Good as an Alternative to the Two Conflicting Ideologies

After the Korean National Convention broke up, Dosan left the Provisional Government. While devoting himself to the One Party Movement and the Ideal Village Movement, he did everything he could to save the Provisional Government from financial ruin. While seeking to build a unified front within the Korean people through the One Party Movement, he was busy laying a foundation for Korea-China joint struggle against Imperial Japan's invasion of China. That was also a way to save the Koreans in Manchuria who were misunderstood by the Chinese as an advanced guard for Japan's invasion and treated as such. But once the 6th Congress of the Comintern in July 1928 changed the policy of solidarity with the national bourgeois to forming a left-wing cooperation front and sought to gain hegemony, the left-wing solidarity in East Asia prevailed over the national cause. Consequently, the left- and right-wing camps of the Korean independence movement also found themselves caught up in fierce ideological dispute. To the Korean people hating and forcing each other to make a choice between communism and nationalism, Dosan proposed the Principle of the Greater Good (大公主義) as a third option.

When the Yeonhee Professional Soccer Club visited Shanghai for a away match on the 20th of December in 1928, Doson spoke to the students that "an individual completes his duty to himself and to his people by serving his people." This represents the gist of the Principle of the Greater Good in which the value of nation, of all other ideologies, comes first. Placing the highest value on the common good of society, the Principle of the Greater Good presented the vision of a social democratic country built on national equality, political equality, economic equality, and educational equality by putting into perspective the ideological conflict between capitalism (liberalism) and socialism that had caused a division among the Korean independence activists. In addition, while insisting on no-compromise struggle against Japan, it urged the Korean people to break free from ideology, put the people first, and work toward unification.

At a time of ideological conflict, Dosan was undaunted by attacks from both right-wing and left-wing camps as he took a middle stance, and he presented the vision of building a democratic national state and the Principle of the Greater Good in an effort to bring the Korean people together, away from the conflict and confrontation. There was no one who understood the East Asian World and the Korean communities in mainland China, Manchuria, and Primorsky Krai better than Dosan. He became the best group activist and leader that he was because he kept in touch with those Koreans and gathered a wealth of information from them, and it allowed him to see through the fantasy of ideology.