LOS ANGELES JAPANESE DAILY ^IcWS
PHONES:   629-2231   629-2283
LOS   ANGELES,   CALIF.  90012
242 SO. SAN PEDRO STREET
ESTABLISHED 1903
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1976
NO. 21,810
Soon Hyun honored as patriot
In 1884, a little known tiger
hunt was begun in Korea and in
a way it was also a remote beginning whereby Koreans would
live in Hawaii.
Dressed in the colorful, official
robes of the Magistrate of Gik
Sang Province and standing deep
in the pine forest holding an ancient flintlock gun, Ghei Chang
Hyun wondered about his sporting foolishness. True, all other
attempts to kill the marauding
tiger had failed. Nevertheless, it
was really more sport than duty-'
that caused him to announce an
official hunt even as the growing concerns for Korea's furure i
occupied his time. |
Chei Chang looked about and
waved back his retinue and observed proudly that his youngest son, Soon, age 6, stood firmly without fear.
At the precise moment that his
eye warned, Chei Chang automatically raised his rifle and the
Korean tiger leaped upon its
colorfully dressed adversary. Both
man and beast fell together with
the roar of the ancient flintlock
striking   silence   into   the   forest. ■ , ,   ,
The   little   master,   Soon,   was | opened seaport before jommg
first  to  act.  He  rushed  forward! Rl^he tous   Axm^   Soon
Soon Hyun became the first in
his family to seek the new way.
He attended Korea's Royal English School and listened to Dr. Jaisohn, whose words brought
strange concepts — democracy,
brotherhood, progress, Christianity . .. Soon was bewildered to hear
that Dr. Jaisohn was to be deported from Korean to his naturalized
country, the United States, with
the support of American intrigue.
By 1902, Soon's conversion to
Western concepts and values was
complete. He graduated from Jun
Den Kim Ko Sa College of Japan
where the graduation ceremonies
were watched by Yu Chan, Charge
D'Affairs from the Korean Legation, The year before, Soon was
baptized into Christianity by a
Rev. Fisher.
(Continued on Page 8),
PAGE 3-Wednesday,. March 17, 1976
Soon Hyun
"boss" from Soon to Pack Chun
Lee, relative to royalty who could
find new sources of money in
Seoul.
The young men decided upon a
detour ' to    Chemulpo,    a    newly
the
was
to save his father. From that day,
, amazed to see for the first time,
Soon  was  especially  favored  by W®  num*frs   of  Japanese   and
his   father  and   mother  and   the! Japanese shops   He discovered a
' Japanese Buddhist temple and as
he viewed the religious compound,
powerful matriarch, Grandmother Hyun. The young Soon was.
to become the future leader of
the Hyun clan, to grow in the
tradition   of   his   ancestor,   Dam
Yun   Hyun,   commander  in   chief e .,
of the Korea dynasty, and Till ™^ Jf <the Powf« of this mid-
Hyun, his grandfather, an advisor' J^KS1 n^Ste,L°J ?^dd^fJ* J^
to Prince Tai Wan, powerful re-
a monk beckoned him. Soon and
the monk communicated by writing in the common language of
Chinese  characters.  Soon  became
gent  to the Korean king,
Soon was trained in the Chinese
classics, the works of Mencius and
Confucious, the skills of calligraphy and poetic thought. He became ' a leader among his classmates.
At 17, Soon looked outside his
study window with dismay in his
heart. The Japanese, victorious
over the Chinese in the war of
1894, appeared supreme in Korea and their ability in western
techniques grew daily. Japanese
power had now passed from defeating China to striking the
heart of Korea's highest authority. The study of Chinese classics
appeared terribly boring.
Soon declared to his friends,.
"We are of young blood, full or
courage. Let us join the Righteous
Army and kill all the Wai Noms
(Japanese) and traitors." His
friends agreed. Fired with youthful visions, Soon crept into his
father's room later that night
with a note: "Please forgive me.
I leave to join the Righteous
Army and borrow 30 yen without
your permission."
(Editor's note—The late Soon
Hyun was the father of David
Hyun, architect whose offices have
been in Little Tokyo for over a
decade and. author of this story
taken from Soon Hyun's personal journal.)
Soon  and   three   of his  friends
walked out into a moonless night,
failing to see that the old country path had changed directions.
The following morning, they discovered   themselves  far  west   of
Seoul  while   the  Righeous  Army
was  gathering  in  the  east.
I    On the road, they met a gamb-
I ling gang. One boy played and won
: three yen. Then all played and lost.
Soon acceded to their requests to
recoup the losses. The boys play- j
ed until all 30 yen were gone. Now,
i the boys feared beggary and hur-
| riedly     transferred     the     role     of
realized he was far different
from his Korean counterparts. The
Japanese monk moved easily with
the teachings of Buddha while possessed with the powers of western
thoughts.
Finally, Soon resolved his choice
between East and West as he
! wrote this question: "Can I go to
Japan and learn the new civilization? Would you kindly help me
succeed in this objective?"
The Buddhist priest responded in
Chinese calligraphy: "Surely we
will help you if you are really Interested to study in Japan."  .
In a year, Soon had persuaded
his father to accept the topknot-
cutting law and together they relived themselves of this traditional
hairdo in 1896. Now the Righteous
Army advancing upon the outskirts of Seoul was a danger instead of a friend. Chei Chang
and his son, Soon, fled into Seoul.
Chei Chang Hyun, former sportsman and poet of the family, was
drawn into an unpleasant political
life and into the vanguard for the
westernization of Korea. The cutting of the topknot cut off retreat,
for the small, "rare" family of
Hyuns.
Chei Chang had faced the Ko- l
rean tiger and now he faced the
dangers of westernization with the
same resoluteness. He placed his
confidence and gambled the family fortunes on the first Korean
American, Dr. Phillip Jaisohn,
founder of the Independence Club
and organizer of the Independence
News. These were to become the
tools of Korean American inspirations. Chei Chang eventually lost
his family wealth and was forced
to seek asylum in Japan. He was
finally imprisoned in Korea as a
dangerous radical.
Soon Hyun honored
(Continued from Page 1)
Soon returned home from Japan
with appreciation for his education
but with great misgivings. His
father was still in jail and his family impoverished.
Korea appeared weaker than ever
and the influence of Japan was
growing. A conflict never to end
in his heart and mind had begun.
Soon thanked the generous spirit
of the Japanese but remained sick
of their madness for military pow-^
er.
The Hyun family's newfound
poverty compelled Soon to look
for work'. The historical role of
his family in diplomacy and linguistics no longer helped the family livelihood. Soon walked as a
commoner into the streets of
Chemulpo, hoping for employment
of his western teachings. He saw,
near the Bank of Deshler a
strange sign in English, "East-
W e s t Development Company."
That game day, Soon was engaged
as a Korean-English interpreter
and together with a fellow Korean
Aim Chung Soo, learned of their
new employer.
East-W est Development Company, the creation of the Hawaiian
Sugar Plantation Association, was
in Korea in search of a new labor
market. East-West had found disadvantages in using Chinese and
Japanese labor and sought to
experiment with Koreans. With
Korea in turmoil at the time, there
were many Koreans who wanted
to emigrate eastward.
-Soon wanted to join this eastward movement. To the east was
the United States, growing giant
of the West. Unlike his Japanese
teachers, Soon saw America's
strength not in her political order, nor its economic structure,
nor its military and naval pdwer,
but in Christianity.
In 1902, the first contingent of
Koreans left for Hawaii, led by
Soon's friend, Ann Chung Soo,
and Chung In Soo. These first
emigrants were a mixed group
of adventurers rather than laborers and many were ill-suited to
plantation life.
By February of 1903, the second contingent of Koreans left for
Hawaii, led by Soon Hyun himself, who was accompanied by his
wife, Maria.
In the ensuing years, Soon returned to Korea but was forced
to flee for his life in 1919, leaving
Seoul entrusted with the newly
written Declaration of Independence  which had  been  fashioned
after the American Declaration of
Independence. Less fortunate sig-
nators who remained in Korea
were imprisoned and tortured after Soon began his difficult journey to free his country. The message he carried to the outside
world told of the independence
struggle waged by the now-famous March First Movement.
First, he went to Shanghai
where, with others, he helped organize the Korean Provisional
Government. A cabinet minister
in that exile regime, he was appointed ambassador plenipotentiary to. the United States in 1921.
Certain that the United StaJtes
would help his people, Soon presented a formal petition to then
Secretary of State Charles Evans
Hughes, requesting recognition
and aid for the government in
exile, and for help in freeing his
land from Japanese rule. Unhappily, the U.S. turned him down.
Through the long and difficult
years that followed, Soon kept
speaking out publicly for the
freedom of Korea. Late in life,
he became a Methodist minister
and moved to Los Angeles with
his wife.
He died here in 1968, believing
that he was forgotten by his
country and his people. He was
in his 90s and so was his wife,
w'io died soon after. Their last
years were full of lonely longing
to return to their native land.
How sad that Soon never knew
he had been honored as a national hero. The public designation
was made in 1963 by the shortlived democratic government that
came between the regimes of
Presidents Syngman R h e e and
Park Chung Hee.
Unable to locate his whereabouts, the interim government
assumed Soon Hyun to be deceased. All the same, fine gold
medals were struck in his honor,
lauding him as a patriot and freedom fighter. The medals were
placed in the National Archives
and remained there until this
past summer.
Last Spring, an invitation came
to the Hyun family from the present South Korean government,
asking that the ashes of Soon
Hyun and his wife be brought
back to Korea for an honorary
ceremony and interment in the
National Cemetery outside Seoul.
The family agreed, and a ceremony was held at the Hall of
Patriotism and Loyalty with
Peter Hyun and Elizabeth Kim, a
son and daughter of the late
Soon, present. Along with eight
other designated patriots from
various parts of the world, he
was honored and eulogized.
For this particular Korean
patriot, it was the end of a long,
distinguished and sometimes des-
paring fight to free his country.
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