Oh Dong Jin

Japanese activities. Oh took up arms to fight the Japanese. Oh showed much respect for and devotion to

my father. His home at Yiju had so many visitors seeking his advice that he set up a visitors quarter with

its own kitchen staff. But my father was always welcome to the inner quarters and Oh's wife personally

prepared meals for my father. Oh and his wife visited us once and Grandma gave them a rice serving

bowl as a humble gift.

The reason why I write so much about Oh Dong Jin is not only because of his friendship with my father,

but also because of his influence on me during my youth. I had developed a strong kinship to Oh when I

was a young boy. Oh was arrested by the Japanese police when I was in school at Jirin (Kil-rim). Years

later in March 1932, while I was trying to organize a guerrilla unit, Oh was tried at the Sinyiju court.

They say Mahatma Gandhi's pre-trial records numbered 25,000 pages, but Oh Dong Jin's court

documents were well over 3,500 pages in 64 volumes. His trial was delayed because of the huge crowd

that came to see him. The trial was scheduled to start in the morning, but it had to be postponed till one

O'clock. Oh denied the accusations and then jumped on the trial judge's stand, shouting "Long Live

Korea!". He was escorted out and was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Oh died in prison. News

paper articles on his court trial and a photo of his travel to the Pyongyang prison were welcome

inspirations for me during a time when I was struggling to form a guerrilla unit.

Many of my father's school mates of Sungsil became renowned revolutionaries and became the corner

stone of the Korean People's Association. After my father quit Sungsil School, he taught at Sunhwa

school in Mangyong-dae and Myongsin School in Gangdong. He was devoted to educating the youth of

Korea and also recruiting new members for the Korean People's Association. He quit Sunsil so that he

could spend more time for revolutionary works. In 1916, Father went to Kan-do during the summer

break. I don't know how, but from there, he traveled to Shanghai and got connected with Sun Yatsen's

Nationalist Party of China. My father thought highly of Sun as the forerunner of the progressive

elements of China and said that the new laws of China that allowed one day of rest per week and cutting

off the pigtails worn by men were realized thanks to the Chinese bourgeoisie.

Father liked the "Three-Min" slogans of Sun's party: people, people's rights and people's livelihood. He

believed that Sun was a bright sincere progressive revolutionary. However, Sun's appointment of Wang

Seik, an old general of the old Dynasty, was a serious mistake. My father told me about the Korean

bourgeois movement when I was young. Father very much regretted that Kim Ok Gyun's reform

movement had failed in less than three years since its inception; he believed that Kim's charters for

human rights, equality, anti-illiteracy and equal opportunity were just right for Korea. Kim's covert

attempt at breaking the age-old yoke of client state relation with China was patriotic. I believed that

Kim Ok Gyun was a progressive patriot and I wondered if his reform movement had succeeded, Korea's

history might have been quite different.

Years later, Kim Ok Gyun's movement was viewed in light of self-reliance (juche). Many of our history

teachers branded Kim pro-Japanese and even after liberation, our historians tagged him pro-Japanese

because he sought Japanese assistance in readying his reform. I think it is not right to label him so, and I

have told the historians that although Kim's failure to mobilize the people behind his reform was a

mistake, his reliance on Japanese was not by itself a bad thing. He used the Japanese to further his

 objectives and not to Japanize his reform. In view of the situations prevailing at the time, he had no other

option and using the Japanese was the best tactic available to him(PAGE 20-21)