💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › cira-nippon-shin-chae-ho.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 08:42:45. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Shin Chae-Ho Author: CIRA-Nippon Date: 1975 Language: en Topics: Korea, biography Source: https://libcom.org/library/shin-chae-ho-koreas-k%C3%B5toku
Shin Chae-ho, a veteran of the Korean anarchist movement and regarded as
one of its "fathers", was born in 1880 in Chongju, Chungchong province.
In many respects, his life bore a striking resemblance to that of Kõtoku
Shüsui, the first Japanese anarchist. By the age of 20, like Kõtoku, he
was the foremost Korean journalist of his time, having worked on the
prominent Hansong News and Dae Han Daily. His main reputation was as a
writer of elegant prose, and his talent was put to good revolutionary
use when, in 1923, he was asked to compose the draft of the Korean
Revolutionary Manifesto. It was issued by the 'Band of Heroes',[1] a
revolutionary terrorist group responsible for a campaign of
anti-Japanese violence in the 1920's. Similarly, Kõtoku's journalistic
gift was put at the service of the Ashio copper miners in 1907 when, at
the request of their representative, he wrote a petition to the Emperor
on their behalf. The protest was against copper poisoning caused by the
mining company's failure to take safety measures; this incident marked
the beginning of Japan's continuing history of fatal pollution problems.
Shin Chae-ho was a Bakuninist anarchist. In the manifesto he wrote of
the "mutuality of destruction and construction": "The revolutionary path
begins at destruction, thus opening up new ways for progress. However,
revolution does not stop at destruction. There can be no destruction
without construction; no construction without destruction... In the mind
of the revolutionist, these two are indivisibly linked: destruction,
ergo construction'.'
Where Shin Chae-ho differed from Kõtoku was in his elaboration of a
personal historical vision. His Japanese biographer points out: "What
was essential for Shin Chae-ho was to take this image of history and
spread it as widely as possible among Korean youth - who in the last
analysis would be the bearers of any ideological banners to be
unfurled."
In a word, Shin's view of history might be described as 'Pan-Koreanism'.
It traced the lines of Korean history and culture back as far as the
days of the Hun and Mongol empires, and even included Japan as having
once been under Korean cultural influence. In his view, therefore, in
all of East Asia only Korea could match, in both civil and military
achievements, the record of the Hans the Chinese. This was the starting
point for Shin's historical vision. If it seems less than anarchistic to
us, one has only to remember the total racial and cultural obliteration
which Japanese rule aimed at for the Korean people. Needless to say, it
provided a solid spiritual basis for the national independence movement.
Shin Chae-ho is today one of that rare breed of scholars who receive
positive appraisal both north and south of the 38th parallel. It goes
without saying that the anarchist side of his character has been
obliterated; it is as a pure nationalist that his memory is being
preserved, and within the ranks of past Korean scholars that his
reputation has been imprisoned. Hence it is all the more important for
us to throw light on his anarchist belief.
So, what kind of man was Shin Chae-ho? Well, in the first place, it
seems that he was generally a bit dirty! Totally heedless of his clothes
and overall personal appearance, he would wear things for days even
after they turned stiff with sweat and dirt. Nevertheless, this same man
was a teacher at the Osan High School, especially set up to teach the
offspring of the Korean middle class and using the finest methods of
Western bourgeois education.
One day, Shin happened to go to the public bath-house with a colleague
from school. While they were taking off their clothes, this man noticed
that Shin seemed to be wearing a pair of bright red women's bloomers.
Queried about them, Shin replied nonchalantly: "Oh, as I was walking
along the street yesterday I passed a shop selling these beautiful
coloured knickers, so I popped in and bought a pair!" This colleague,
Lee Kwang-sop, later recalled in his memoirs the absurd image of Shin
Chae-ho the eminent historian, with his bald, pointed head and several
days' growth of whiskers because he couldn't be bothered to shave,
standing there in a pair of bright red knickers looking totally
unconcerned.
Another of Shin's idiosyncrasies was as follows: whenever he washed his
face, he would do so standing erect, with the result that he always
drenched himself with water. When someone asked him what the problem
was, he replied: "Because I refuse to lower my head for anyone till the
day I die!"
Anyway: Shin Chae-ho first entered the anarchist movement in 1928 when
he joined the League of Eastern Anarchists, organized in Nanking by the
brothers Lee Jung-kyu and Lee Eul-kyu [see 'Chronology' in LI-1].
Members were from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, India,
Vietnam an Asian Anarchist International, in fact. On the other hand,
while it called itself an anarchist organization, it acted more as an
international contact point for all those fighting in exile for
independence from the Japanese yoke.
However, Shin's espousal of anarchism dated from much earlier - at least
from the period 1920-23, we would guess. For by the time he came to
draft the Korean Revolutionary Manifesto in 1923, he was already clearly
an anarchist.
It seems that Shin first turned to anarchism after reading Kõtoku's book
Rubbing Out Christ - yet another link. There was more to it than that,
however. Forced to leave Korea and go into exile early in his life, he
saw first the militarism and political repression of the Bolsheviks,
then the state of affairs in China, dominated by the Chinese CP. "So
this is where the communists lead us; then it has to be anarchism..." he
must have felt.
In 1929, Shin was involved in plans to set up an Oriental Anarchists'
League (Tung-pang Wu-cheng-fu Chu-i-che Lien-meng) in Peking. In order
to raise funds for a new magazine, he concocted a plan with a Chinese
comrade working in the Peking Post Office. It was arranged that Shin
would go to Dairen, Manchuria (then controlled by the Japanese) with a
forged international money order provided by the Chinese comrade. By
presenting this, he could pretend to have money deposited in Peking, and
demand payment in Dairen. Suspicions were aroused, however, when he
presented the receipt, and both he and his partner were arrested by the
Japanese police. Shin was given 10 years' hard labour on a charge of
belonging to a secret organization, but before he could complete his
sentence, he died in prison in Dairen on February 21 1936.
In conclusion, two points stand out about Shin Chae-ho. The first is
that he, a privileged intellectual and established historian, in the
course of the independence struggle, turned not as so many did to
communism, but to anarchism - inevitable given his experiences. The
second was the clear expression in his thinking of that peculiarity of
Korean anarchism: the mixture of anarchism and nationalism.
In 1945 following the Japanese defeat, some former comrades of Shin
Chae-ho including Chong Hwa-am and Lee Ha-yu established in Shanghai a
publishing house which they named in his memory the 'Shin Chae-ho Study
School'. Here, up till 1949, they printed and published anarchist
materials and historical works, until they were closed down by the
communists.
[1] While some anarchists did take part in the Band of Heroes'
activities, it is best known as an organization of nationalist
terrorists. It provided Park Yul (see Chronology, part I) with
explosives for his activities in Japan.