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Title: Anarchism in Korea Author: Dongyoun Hwang Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: Korea, anarchist history, history Source: *The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest*, Edited by Immanuel Ness. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0063
Anarchism, accepted by Korean radicals in the early 1920s as an idea for
independence from Japanese colonial rule since 1910, was one of the most
important currents in the Korean independence movement. While their
immediate goal was to “retake” independence through direct action,
motivated by national consciousness, the ultimate goal of Korean
anarchists was to achieve a social revolution bent on anarchist
principles. Anarchism offered them an alternative to Bolshevism and
social Darwinism with its promise of human progress through mutual aid,
and hope for a new society with its universal messages of freedom, no
compulsory power, and spontaneous alliance.
The circulations of anarchist ideas as well as anarchists themselves in
East Asia were of significance in the rise of Korean anarchism in the
1920s, in the sense that it was basically a product of interactions
among anarchists in the area, through which Korean anarchists were
imbued with national consciousness and shared transnational concerns
with other anarchists as a result of mutual influence and inspiration.
Transnationalism, like nationalism, was a main force in the rise of
Korean anarchism, which may explain why Korean anarchists preferred
political independence to social revolution, without which, they
believed, no significant political changes could even be made (Hwang
2007).
After 1920 anarchist groups and organizations appeared first among
Korean exiles and/or study-abroad students in China and Japan, and then
in Korea. In early 1920s China the Beijing Branch of the Black Youth
Alliance and the Korean Anarchist Federation in China were successively
established. The inaugural editorial of the latter’s organ, The Conquest
(talhwan), published in 1928, clearly expressed its advocacy of social
revolution for “the oppressed class,” while Shin Chaeho’s 1923
“Declaration of the Korean Revolution” justified mass violence against
Japanese colonial government (Graham 2005: 373–6, 381–3). Of importance
in the Korean reception of anarchism was support from Chinese anarchists
and the role of Vasilij Eroshenko, a blind Russian poet and anarchist,
who propagated in early 1920s China cosmopolitanism and anti-Bolshevism
(Bak 2005: 26; Hwang 2007). Many Korean anarchists participated in such
anarchist projects as the opening of the National Shanghai Labor
University (1928), the Movement for Self-Defensive Rural Communities
(1927–8) in Quanzhou, and educational experiments (1929–early 1930s)
also in Quanzhou. After 1931 many engaged in armed struggles against
Japan, in collaboration with some Chinese anarchists. Their goal,
however, was still social revolution rather than political independence,
as exemplified in the platform and declaration of the Alliance of Korean
Youths in South China (Bak 2005: 161–8).
In Japan the first anarchism-oriented Black Wave Society appeared in
1921, but a group of Korean anarchists withdrew from it to establish the
Black Friend Society and published Fat Korean (Hutoi senjin). Park Yeol
was a leading figure in the organizations and journal until 1923, when
he and his Japanese comrade Kaneko Fumiko were arrested for their
alleged conspiracy to assassinate the Japanese emperor. Fat Korean and
its successor, The Contemporary Society (Gen shakai), both published in
1923, made clear their national and transnational goals under the
shackles of capitalism and colonialism (Hwang 2007). Park’s arrest was a
setback to the Japan-based Korean anarchist movement which was revived
briefly with the organization in 1926 of the Black Movement Society,
which became a member of the Japanese Black Youth League. Obviously,
many Japan-based Korean anarchists partook in the various publications
and organizational activities of their Japanese counterparts, which was
conducive to their survival under Japanese surveillance. Their
activities used to be supported and even sponsored by Japanese
anarchists such as Ōsugi Sakae, Hatta Shūzō, and Iwasa Sakutarō.
The Korean anarchist groups in Japan manifested their criticism of
capitalism, colonialism, and the nationalist movement, and made poignant
attacks on Bolsheviks as a “new privileged class.” Their movement,
however, began to decline after 1930 due to tight control of “dangerous
thoughts” in Japan after its invasion of China. One exception to this
was the Black Newspaper (Heuksaek sinmun), published from 1930 until
1935 with funding from Korean anarchist unions and organizations in
Japan, which interspersed a wide range of local, national, and global
news of anarchist activities and propagated social revolution,
cosmopolitan ideas, and intense interactions among all anarchists and
the masses across boundaries, along with criticism of nationalism and
patriotism in the independence camps (Hwang 2007).
The ups and downs of the anarchist movement in Korea were closely tied
to the situation of Korean anarchists in Japan and China. Any attempts
to set up an anarchist organization in Korea, however, always met with
swift and brutal suppression from the Japanese colonial government.
Attempts to establish the Black Flag Federation (1924), the Real Friend
Federation (1925), and Choi Gabryong’s scheme to establish the Korean
Anarcho-Communist Federation (1929) were all immediately crushed.
Nevertheless, various anarchist groups and organizations continued to
appear until the mid-1930s, albeit all short-lived. In the 1930s and
1940s anarchists in Korea were either arrested or forced underground to
survive. Similar to their counterparts in China and Japan, their goal
was not so much Korea’s independence as the realization of an
anarchism-oriented society (Mujeongbu jueui undongsa pyeonchan wiweonhoi
1989: 189–274, 394–400).
In the 1930s the Korean anarchist movement began to be at the ebb both
at home and abroad, from which it never recovered. The notion and idea
of social revolution, however, was sustained at least until 1945,
coexisting with its national goal of independence (Yi 1974: 11). It is
in this sense that anarchism in Korea was accepted not just to be
“utilized” only for independence, but rather with reference to a society
free of the “social problems” prevalent under capitalism. Anarchism
still seems alive in South Korea as an idea for “freedom for the
twenty-first century” (Bak 1999).
Bak, H. (2005) Sikminji sidae hanin anakijeum undoongsa [A History of
Korean Anarchism During the Colonial Period]. Seoul: Seonin.
Bak, Y. (1999) 21segi jayu, anakijeum! [Anarchism! Freedom for the
Twenty-First Century]. Hankoreh21 279 (October 21). Available at
http://www.hani.co.kr/h21/data/L991011/1paqab02. html (downloaded
October 21, 1999).
Graham, R., (Ed.) (2005) Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian
Ideas. Vol. 1: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939). Montreal:
Black Rose Books.
Hwang, D. (2007) Beyond Independence: The Korean Anarchist Press in
China and Japan in the 1920s–1930s. Asian Studies Review 31, 1 (March):
3–23.
Mujeongbu jueui undongsa pyeonchan wiweonhoi (Ed.) (1989) Han’guk
anakijeum undongsa [A History of the Korean Anarchist Movement]. Seoul:
Hyeongseol Chulpansa.
Oh, J. (1998) Han’guk anakijeum undongsa [A History of the Korean
Anarchist Movement]. Seoul: Gukak jaryoweon.
Yi, C. (1974) Ugwan munjon [Collected Works of Li Chung-kyu]. Seoul:
Samhwa insoe.
Yi, H. (2001) Hanguk eui anakijeum – sasang pyeon [Anarchism in Korea:
Its Ideas]. Seoul: Jisik saneobsa.