Acknowledgments

By scholarly training I am a specialist in modern Chinese history. So, my journey to complete this study has been a pleasant deviation from my academic expertize and plan. I wrote a paper on Korean anarchism for Professor Arif Dirlik in my first semester as a doctoral student at Duke University. It was a very rough one, and I buried it in my document folder for more than a decade. In September 2003, I was developing it to present at a conference he was organizing at the University of Oregon. Since then, I have greatly enjoyed thinking and writing about anarchism in Korea, because I realized, somewhat belatedly, the significance of the subject after the conference. Needless to say, I am deeply indebted to Arif Dirlik, my former adviser at Duke, for not only teaching me with patience and affection about modern Chinese intellectual history but for guiding me to go beyond my specialty to understand a much broader history. Without his passionate encouragement and intellectual stimulation, this study would have never been made possible.

A number of my Korean colleagues deserve my gratitude for their assistance and support. Dr. Yi Horyong kindly responded to my call for help and introduced many materials to me, when I had just begun my research on this subject a decade ago. Dr. Oh Jang-Whan also helped me with several rare materials and shared information about Korean anarchism with me. Dr. Lee Hyun-Joo at the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs provided me with the Ministry’s publications on Korean independence movement, and Professor Jo Sehyeon shared with me some Chinese and Japanese articles. Professor Baik Young-seo, former director of the Institute for Korean Studies at Yonsei University, offered me several opportunities to talk about my research on Korean anarchism at various occasions before many Korean specialists from whom I learned a lot and was encouraged with valuable comments, for which I thank him. Among others at Yonsei, Professors Yim Sung-Mo and Kim Sung-Bo showed their interest in my research and provided me with various supports whenever I visited Yonsei over past years. In particular, Professor Yim as a modern Japanese historian introduced me to some Japanese literature on Korean and/or Japanese anarchism. Professors Lee Sang-Euy, Jo Kyung Ran, and Sin Ju Back, all at Yonsei, offered me various comments. I particularly benefited from Professor Sin’s comments as a discussant at my talk in March 2014, which made me rethink the structure of this book and my approach. During my stay at Yonsei in 2008 and 2014, I met several graduate students, who were very willing to offer their unconditional assistance and support to their “senior.” I want to express my special thanks to Mr. Lee Han-Gyeol and the late Ms. Lee Hwa-jung for the materials and articles they introduced me to.

I would also like to thank Professors Ban Byung-yul at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Kim Kyeong-il at the Academy of Korean Studies, and Jeong Seon-te at Kookmin University for their comments and interest. My thanks also go to Professors Bang Kwang Suk, Chung Moon Sang, Jeon In Gap, Choi Won-shik, Yim Hyung-taek, Lee Seong-Paik, Kim Seung Wook, Park Jin-su, Kwon Hee-ju, Choi Sung-sil, Kim Jang Hwan, Ha Se Bong, and Lee Hun Sang for their support and interest in my study on various occasions. Professor Emeritus Chong Key Ray gave me special support and encouragement. Professors Chung Byung Ho, Kim Gye-ja, Kim Hyo-soon, Yokoji Keiko, and Hibi Yoshitaka, all of whom I met in October 2013 at Korea University, encouraged me to pursue my regional perspective. I am also grateful to Roxann Prazniak, Rob Wilson, Bruce Cumings, Bryna Goodman, Tomoko Aoyama, Jesse Cohn, and Park Sunyoung for their interest, help, encouragement, or comments on various occasions. I would also like to thank two anonymous readers for the SUNY Press for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions.

In the years that were spent to write this book the most crucial help in terms of materials was provided by those at the Institute for the Study of National Culture (Gungmin munhwa yeon-guso). To name them: Mr. Lee Mun-Chang, the late Mr. Jo Gwanghae, Mr. Song Heonjo, Mr. Um Dong-il, and Mr. Nam Yi-haeng, as well as Professors Oh Jang-Whan and Kim Myeongseop. Mr. Lee particularly spared his precious time with me to answer my questions and tell me about his experiences after 1945. I am also deeply grateful to Mr. Kim Young-Chun, Ms. Park Jeong-Hee, and Mr. Sin Nage, all at the Society to Commemorate Yu Rim (Yu Rim gi-nyeom sa-eophoe). In particular, Mr. Kim not only provided his writings and materials on Yu Rim but spent long time with me on two different occasions to share his view on the history of Korean anarchism. He also traveled with me to the town of Anui where he arranged my meeting with Mr. Yi Dongwon and my visit to Anui Middle School and High School, respectively. I thank both of them for their enthusiastic support.

When I traveled to Tokyo in April 2014 to locate additional materials, I received warm welcome and help from Mr. Park Chan Jung and Mr. Cho Jung Bang, both of the Korea Sports Council in Japan, and President Oh Gong-Te and Vice President Park An Soon of the Korean Residents Union in Japan. Ms. Lee Mi-Ae at the History Museum of Koreans in Japan gave me a guide to the museum, which helped me think Korean anarchists in Japan within a much broader context of the history of Koreans in Japan. My special thanks should go to Professor Sakai Hirobumi at Hitotsubashi University. I have never met him in person, but he generously responded to my inquiry and even agreed to share with me rare Chinese materials that were utilized in this study and will be further used later in a different project. When I was on my short trip to Quanzhou in June 2015 to visit Liming Vocational University and locate some additional materials there, he also introduced me to Professor Liang Yanli of Fudan University, who in turn introduced me to people at Liming. There I received warm welcome and crucial materials that I used in this study and plan on analyzing further in a different project, for which I thank Professors Wang Qiang, Su Yanming, and Lin Zhanghong, as well as Mr. Zhang Jianliang and Mr. Lin Yali. I also would like to thank my friend from Duke, Zhou Yongming at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, for introducing me to Professor Chen Shaofeng at Beida and Mr. Chen Zong, who helped me with my brief visit to the Quanzhou Library.

I have also received supports from my colleagues at Soka University of America. My special thanks go to Michael Hays (now retired) and Edward Feasel. Ed, in particular, as the dean of faculty, has supported my research activities in various ways. I also thank Osamu Ishiyama for his help with Japanese translation. And it has been a great joy to work with a group of wonderful undergraduate students at Soka. When I taught the Radicalism in Eastern Asia course per request from several students, I benefited a lot from classroom discussion. I particularly want to thank Yuka Kishida (now at Bridgewater College) and Michael Bianco for their enthusiasm about the topic. The aid given by Momoca Nishimoto and Chitari Yamamoto as my research assistants in translating many articles in Japanese anarchist newspapers and journals must be noted here with gratitude. For the help with the Inter-Library Loan service at Soka, I would like to thank Lisa Polfer and Malgorzata (Gosha) Gomagala. For the years, I also visited several libraries in South Korea, Japan, and China, and I want to thank the librarians and staffs at the National Library of Korea in Seoul, the Yonsei University Library in Seoul, the National Diet Library in Tokyo, and the Quanzhou Library in Quanzhou.

During the decade I worked on this book, I had many opportunities to present portions of this book at a number of seminars and conferences: the conference on “From the Book to the Internet: Communication Technologies, Human Motions, and Cultural Formations in Eastern Asia,” held at the University of Oregon (October 16–18, 2003); an annual seminar at the Institute of the Humanities, Yonsei University, South Korea (June 28, 2004); the International Conference on “Modern East Asian Intellectuals and Their Idea of ‘Asia,’” held at Daedong Institute for Korean Studies of Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea (January 20, 2005); the Conference on “Poetry, Pedagogy, and Alternative Internationalisms: From the Early Twentieth Century to the Present,” held by Comparative and Interdisciplinary Research on Asia (CIRA), University of California at Los Angeles (June 10, 2005); the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), held from March 22 to 25, 2006, in Amsterdam; a monthly seminar held at the Institute of Modern Korea, the Academy of Korean Studies, Seongnam, South Korea (June 13, 2008); the conference on “Border-Crossers and the City: Mass Media, Migration and Globalization,” organized by the Institute of Urban Humanities at the City University of Seoul, South Korea (June 21, 2010); the conference on “Japanese Magazines and Colonial Literature in East Asia,” held by East Asia and Contemporary Japanese Literature Forum at the Center for Japanese Studies, Korea University (October 18–19, 2013); a seminar at the Institute of Korean Studies, Yonsei University (March 25, 2014); and the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC) in Vienna (April 23–26, 2014). I thank the participants in these seminars and conferences for their comments and encouragement. At the latest ESSHC in 2014, I presented part of chapter 4 for a panel session on “Anarchists, Marxists, and Nationalists in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870s–1940s: Antagonisms, Solidarities, and Syntheses,” organized by Lucien van der Walt and Steve Hirsch. I would like to thank the two organizers, particularly Lucien, for his helpful comments. I also would like to thank Walter K. Lew for his invitation to participate in the conference at UCLA in 2005 and his enthusiastic support.

As a result of my participation in these seminars and conferences, parts of this book have been published earlier in “Beyond Independence: The Korean Anarchist Press in China and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s,” Asian Studies Review 31 (March 2007): 3–23, and “Korean Anarchism before 1945: A Regional and Transnational Approach,” in Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870–1940: The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution, edited by Steven Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt, 95–129 (Leiden: Brill, 2010). I am grateful to the publishers, Taylor and Francis (www.tandfonline.com), and Brill, for giving me permission to reproduce them in this book.

I received a Short-Term Research Travel Grant in Korean Studies from the Northeast Asia Council (NEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in March 2004, which funded my first short trip to South Korea for collection of important materials and for my first publication on Korean anarchism in 2007. A Summer Research Grant in 2006 from the Pacific Basin Research Center at Soka University of America also helped me to take another short trip to South Korea in 2006 for this study. And the Faculty Research Fund from my home institution, Soka University of America, funded in part my short trips to Tokyo in April 2014, and to Quanzhou, Fujian in June 2015. Important parts of this study were funded and done from March to May in 2008, and in March 2014, when I received a Field Research Fellowship, respectively, from the Korea Foundation.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family. I hope this book can reward my parents for their life dedicated to their children’s education. I miss my deceased mother-in-law who always enjoyed supporting my research. My sisters have always provided me with timely emotional supports when I needed it. And I want to acknowledge the presence of my dear wife, Mihyun, in this book. It is not that she read the manuscript but that her love and dedication have been the main sources of support and inspiration to complete this project, for which I dedicate this book to her with love.

A Note on Romanization

In Romanizing Korean I follow the new Romanization of Korean adopted by the National Academy of Korean Language and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of then South Korean Government in 2000, with some exceptions in the already known names and places such as Syngman Rhee and Pyongyang. I also respect and follow individually chosen Romanized names, if they are known to me through personal contact and public record, and so on, such as Oh Jang-Whan (not Oh Janghwan) and Lee Mun Chang (not Yi Munchang). If the Korean names and places such as Kim Koo (not Kim Gu) and Chosŏn Dynasty (not Joseon Dynasty) are more familiar in the West, I also add them in brackets on their first appearance. Korean names as well as Chinese and Japanese names are rendered in the text and notes in their own order, with the family name first and the personal name next. In the case of Korean names the personal names appear as one word or two words with or without a hyphen.

In Romanizing Japanese, I follow the Hepburn system for Japanese with the exceptions of Tokyo (not Tōkyō) and Osaka (not Ōsaka) in the text. In Romanizing Chinese, I follow the Pinyin system. However, where the Wade-Giles Romanization for Chinese names is known more commonly in the West, I follow it, as in the cases of Chiang Kai-shek (not Jiang Jieshi) and Sun Yat-sen (not Sun Zhongshan). If a Korean anarchist journal was published in Japanese or Chinese, I transliterate its title and articles into either Romanized Japanese or Chinese, with a few exceptions.