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|
Ahn Chang Ho | |
|---|---|
 Ahn inLos Angeles, California | |
| 6thPresident of theProvisional Government of the Republic of Korea | |
| In office May 3, 1926 – May 16, 1926 | |
| Preceded by | Yi Dongnyeong |
| Succeeded by | Yi Dongnyeong |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1878-11-09)November 9, 1878 |
| Died | March 10, 1938(1938-03-10) (aged 59) |
| Spouse | Helen Lee (Yi Hye-ryon) |
| Children | 5; includingPhilip,Susan andRalph |
| Religion | Protestantism (Presbyterianism) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 안창호 |
| Hanja | 安昌浩 |
| RR | An Changho |
| MR | An Ch'angho |
| IPA | [ɐntɕʰɐŋɦo] |
| Former name | |
| Hangul | 안치삼 |
| Hanja | 安致三 |
| RR | An Chisam |
| MR | An Ch'isam |
Ahn Chang Ho (Korean: 안창호;Hanja: 安昌浩; November 9, 1878 – March 10, 1938), sometimesAn Chang-ho, was a prominent Korean politician,Korean independence activist, and an early leader of theKorean-American immigrant community in theUnited States. He is also commonly referred to by hisart nameDosan (도산;島山;[tosʰan]).
He and his wife were the first Koreans to legally immigrate to the US as a married couple.[1] Ahn was aProtestant social activist who in 1907 established the later prominent Korean independence organizationShinminhoe when he returned to Korea from the US. He also established the Young Korean Academy inSan Francisco in 1913,[a] and was a key founding member of theProvisional Government of the Republic of Korea inShanghai in 1919. He is also one of two men believed to have written the lyrics of the South Koreannational anthem, "Aegukga".
Ahn was born Ahn Chi-sam (안치삼;安致三) on 9 November 1878 inKangso County,Pyeongan Province,Joseon (present-daySouth Pyongan, North Korea).[2][3][4] He was the third son of father An Hŭng-kuk,[b] and mother Hwang Mong-un.[5][6][c] Ahn came from theSunheung Ahn clan, and his ancestry can be traced back to the prominentGoryeo scholarAhn Hyang.
Ahn was born into an impoverished farming family during the unstable last few decades of the Joseon dynasty. He began studying at aseodang around age 8 in preparation for thegwageo, the demanding civil service examinations that determined placement in government intellectual jobs. After his father died when he was around age 11, he was raised by his grandfather.[3]
Ahn changed his name around age 10; his father also changed his name from Ahn Kyo-jin to Ahn Heung-guk.[citation needed]
In 1895, 16-year-old Ahn was disturbed by the destruction of theFirst Sino-Japanese War, and became determined to improve Korea. He moved toSeoul to receive a Western-style education at a Presbyterian missionary-sponsored school in Seoul run byHorace Grant Underwood and Rev. F. S. Miller called Kusehaktang.[d] He studied there for three years, converting to Christianity and working forDr. Oliver R. Avison atChejungwon,[citation needed] the first medical institution in Korea (now part ofYonsei University Medical Center).[5][2]
Around 1897, he joined theIndependence Club and became a leader of itsPyongyang branch.[3][5] Through this short-lived club, he gave speeches to crowds of hundreds and became associated with people who would become prominent in the independence movement, includingSyngman Rhee andYun Ch'iho. He also became engaged to his future wife Helen Ahn around this time.[3][2]
He then returned to his home province of Pyeongan, and around 1899 established the Chŏmjin school,[e] the firstcoeducational school founded by a Korean, and the T'anp'ori Church.[3][2][f] He then decided to further his education by going to the US. He married Helen on 3 September 1902, and shortly afterwards departed for the US.[7]
On October 14, 1902, Ahn and his wife arrived inSan Francisco.[8] They were among the first Koreans to move to the US, and the first married Korean couple to do so, with passports numbered 51 and 52.[1][9] In order to learn how to speak English, Ahn enrolled in an Americanprimary school.[4] He also sought work from Koreans who had already settled there.
The couple had a difficult time finding work due to anti-Asian sentiment and their poor English skills. While work was available in the agricultural sector, Korean immigrants still had a difficult time getting employment there due to a Japanese monopoly on labor contracts and the lack of their ownlabor bureau.[10][11]
In 1904, they moved toRiverside after encouragement from two Korean friends who worked oncitrus farms there.[13] There, Ahn acquired employment at Alta Cresta Groves and help establishing the Korean Employment Bureau (also "Korean Labor Bureau"), which contributed to the growth of the Korean population there. Ultimately, his efforts to bring Koreans there led to the establishment of Pachappa Camp, also sometimes called "Dosan's Republic". A number of academics and city of Riverside consider it to be the first Korean settlement in the US, and in 2017 the Camp was designated a "Point of Cultural Interest" by the Riverside City Council.[14][10][15]
Kim was a founder and leader of a series of early Korean American organizations that eventually become the Korean National Association.
On September 22, 1903, Ahn and eight others founded the first ever Korean American organization, the Korean Friendship Society,[g] and he was elected its first president.[4][8][5] During that time, around 20 Koreans lived in San Francisco, including the Ahns.[8] In 1904, this group played a key role in settling and educating hundreds of Korean immigrants coming from Asia and Hawaii.[16][8] On 4 April 1905, the Society changed its name to the Mutual Assistance Society (or alternatively Mutual Assistance Association[17]).[h] Its headquarters was at 938 Pacific St. in San Francisco.[citation needed] Under the Society's umbrella, Ahn also co-founded a newspaper entitledThe United Korean[18] (also "Kong Lip Shinbo"[14] or "The Independent"[19]),[i] on 20 November 1905. It was the predecessor of the 1909 newspaperSinhan Minbo. During the1906 San Francisco Earthquake, their office burned down, leading them to publish fromOakland instead.[14] TheSinhan Minbo would continue to publish and be a significant source of news about the Korean peninsula until well after World War II.[20]
On March 23, 1908,Durham Stevens was assassinated, after publicly claiming that Korea was better off under Japanese occupation. This created massive anti-Korean sentiment.[21] In response, the Mutual Assistance Society merged with the Hawaii-based United Korean Society,[j] becoming the Korean National Association on 10 February 1909. This newly-formed group was widely regarded as representing Korean-Americans until the end ofWorld War II.[19]
In 1926, he departedSan Pedro, California by ship, heading for China. He would not return to the United States often from this point onwards, although he and his family remained registered as residents of 106 North Figueroa St, Los Angeles through April 24, 1930.[22] Over the course of Ahn's anti-Japanese activism in Korea, he was arrested and imprisoned by theJapanese Imperial government at least five times. He was first arrested in 1909 in connection withAhn Jung-geun's assassination ofItō Hirobumi, the Japanese Resident General of Korea. Ahn was tortured and punished many times over the course of his years of his activism. In 1932 he was arrested in Shanghai, China in connection with Yun Bong-gil's bombing atHongkew Park (April 29, 1932). He was a naturalized Chinese citizen by this time and was illegally extradited to Korea, where he was convicted of violating Japan's "Preservation of Peace Laws" and sentenced to five years in Daejeon prison.
In 1937, Japanese authorities arrested Ahn, but due to complications from severe internal illness, he was released on bail and transferred to theKeijō Imperial University (nowSeoul National University Hospital) where he died on March 10, 1938.[23] Judging that Ahn Changho's death might lead to rebellion, the Japanese military limited the number of mourners at his funeral, allowing only a small number of relatives to attend.[24]
Many consider Ahn Chang-ho to be one of the key moral and philosophical leaders of Korea during the 20th century. In the turmoil immediately before and during theJapanese occupation of Korea, he called for the moral and spiritual renewal of the Korean people through education as one of the key components of their struggle for independence toward building a democratic society. Ahn also included economic and military components in his independence movement strategies.
Dosan Park andMemorial Hall were built in Ahn's memory inGangnam District,Seoul.[25] Another memorial was built in downtownRiverside,California, to honor him. Ahn's family home on 36th Place inLos Angeles has been restored by theUniversity of Southern California (USC), on whose campus it sits (albeit in a different location). Ahn never lived in the house on the USC campus since the Ahn family moved there in 1935 many years after Ahn had gone back to Shanghai.[1]
At the request of CongresswomanDiane Watson, theUSPS Post Office in Koreatown at Harvard and 6th Street was named Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Station. This was the first USPS naming honoring an Asian.[26]
In 2011, the Ellis Island Foundation installed a plaque honoring Ahn[27] to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his entrance to the United States throughEllis Island fromLondon on September 3, 1911. He sailed fromGlasgow aboard the SSCaledonia.
The City of Los Angeles, in the early 1990s, named the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Van Buren Place - across from the Korean National Association and Korean Presbyterian church - "Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Square" in his honor.[28] In 2002, the main freeway interchange in downtown Los Angeles where the10 Freeway and110 Freeway meet was also renamed theDosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange.
The third pattern ofITF-style Taekwondo, which is made up of 24 movements, is calledDo-San or Dosan in his honor. This is the pattern that is required to advance from 7th Kup Yellow Belt with a Green Tag to 6th Kup Green Belt.
In 2012, Ahn was posthumously inducted into theInternational Civil Rights Walk of Fame at theMartin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site inAtlanta, Georgia. His grandson Philip Cuddy accepted the honor at the ceremony in Atlanta on his behalf.
On November 8, 2013, Ahn was given an Honorary Diploma by hisalma mater, Yonsei University, in recognition of his service as a teaching assistant at Gusae Hakdang and for his work at Jejungwon and Severance Hospital. Ahn was also a positive influence on many Yonsei and Severance Medical School alumni. Susan Cuddy's son, Philip Cuddy pressed for the awarding of the honorary diploma and provided the historical records. Yonsei President accepted the diploma in a ceremony in Seoul on Ahn's behalf.
TheRepublic of Korea NavyDosan Ahn Changho-class submarine was named for him and the lead ship entered service on 13 August 2021.[29]
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Ahn married Helen Ahn (née Lee) (이혜련;李惠鍊;I Hyeryeon; 21 April 1884 – 21 April 1969) on 3 September 1902, shortly before their immigration to the US, and they remained married until his death in 1938. She was a housewife and raised the couple's children on her own for many years. She also actively supported the independence movement through local fundraising and community organizing. She was posthumously awarded theOrder of Merit for National Foundation in 2008 by the South Korean government and is buried in Dosan Park, along with her husband.[7]
The couple had three sons and two daughters. SonsPhilip Ahn andRalph Ahn were actors. Philip is considered the first Korean-American actor in Hollywood and one of the most prolific Asian-American actors of his time, and has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.
Susan Ahn Cuddy was aUS Navylieutenant who worked for theOffice of Naval Intelligence, theNational Security Agency, theLibrary of Congress, and theUS Department of Defense. She was the first woman to serve as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy.[23]
Soorah Ahn Buffum (안수라;安秀羅; 27 May 1917 – 18 June 2016) was arestaurateur and 1948 graduate of USC. She died at age 99.[30][31][32]
Philson Ahn (안필선;安必善; 5 July 1912 – 23 May 2001) was an engineer and aerospace executive. He acted in minor roles in several films and attained hisBachelor inChemistry from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[33][34] He never learned to speak Korean very well.[35] Despite the mistrust of Asians during World War II, he worked at theHughes Aircraft Company first as a chemist and later as a manager, and contributed to the development of the infamousHughes H-4 Hercules. In the later parts of the war, he was later scouted by the USOffice of Strategic Services, which worked on missions such as theEagle Project to destabilize Japan, but was prevented from doing so by his company.[36] He visited Korea for the first time in 1992 at age 79.[35]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Presidents of Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea 1926 | Succeeded by |
| Provisional Governments (Pre-Union)(1919) | Syngman Rhee (Seoul) • Syngman Rhee (Shanghai) •Yi Tongnyŏng (Shanghai) •Ahn Chang Ho (Shanghai) •Yi Tonghwi (Shanghai) •Mun Ch'angpŏm [ko] (Vladivostok) |
|---|---|
| Provisional Government(1919–1948) | Syngman Rhee‡ •Yi Tongnyŏng •Pak Ŭnsik •Yi Yup'il [ko] •Yi Sangnyong •Yang Kit'ak •Yi Tongnyŏng • Ahn Chang Ho • Yi Tongnyŏng •Hong Chin •Kim Ku • Yi Tongnyŏng •Song Pyŏngjo [ko] • Yi Tongnyŏng • Kim Ku • Syngman Rhee |
| First Republic(1948–1960) | Syngman Rhee •Ho Chong |
| Second Republic(1960–1961) | |
| Military Junta(1961–1963) | |
| Third Republic(1963–1972) | Park Chung Hee |
| Fourth Republic(1972–1981) | |
| Fifth Republic(1981–1988) | Chun Doo-hwan |
| Sixth Republic(1988–present) | |
