Chapter Two: THE POLITICAL MOTIVATION

The United States has been an ideal haven for the world"s political refugees for centuries. Whether they were from the East or the West, those chased out of their home countries were free to exercise their political beliefs protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They were protected by the Bill of Rights in the United States; thus we evidence great diversity of political activities continued among the immigrants who pursued the initial political activities which started in their native countries.

Early Korean immigrants, as an example, found refuge in the United States in their struggle against Japanese imperialism. The Irish Republicans, Croatians, Ukrainians, White Russians, and other minorities, too, found freedom for continuance of their political pursuits in the United States.

Japanese imperialism moved gradually into Korea beginning with the treaty of 1876 between Korea and Japan. Japan"s victory over China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 paved the way to annex Korea by convincing Western powers that Japan had become worthy of her assignation as a world power. After the Russo-Japanese War of
1904-1905, Japan"s position became stronger, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance as well as the secret agreement between Taft-Katsura officially recognized Japan"s particular interests in Korea. At the same time, Japan became recognized as a world power. To maintain his status and to fulfill her imperialistic ambitions, Japan was ready to annex Korea as her first colony.

Ito Hakubun, special envoy and chairman of the Japanese Privy Council, came to Korea in 1904 to assure the King of Korea that Japan had "every intention of respecting the integrity of the Korean Kingdom." However, the Japanese government had already begun negotiating take-over of the Korean foreign policy. Meantime, the situation in Korea became more critical as the Japanese officer, Hayashi, took stronger action and succeeded in pressuring the Korean government to accept the Japanese demands one after another.

The Protectorate treaty was forced upon the Korean government by the Japanese and Article I of the treaty stated "The government of Japan, through the Department of the Foreign Affairs at Tokyo, will hereafter have control and direction of the external relations and affairs of Korea..." and Article II read, "...the government of Korea agrees not to conclude hereafter any act or engagement having an international character except through the medium of the government of Japan." As if these restrictions were not sufficient, they also took control of the Imperial household. Article III said, "The government of Japan shall be represented at the court of His Majesty the Emperor of Korea by a Resident-General, who shall reside in Seoul, primarily for the purpose of taking charge of and directing matters relating to diplomatic affairs..." After the treaty, Marquis Ito arrived as the first Japanese Resident-General in Seoul.

The treaty of the protectorate was just the beginning of the Japanese invasion of Korea. Korean patriots began to resist the Japanese interference in Korea. The first military resistance took place in May, 1906 under the leadership of Min Jong-sik, a former cabinet member. At Hongju in South Tsung-tsung province, Min delivered the statement denouncing the protectorate treaty to each foreign embassy, legation in Seoul. Min"s force occupied the city of Hongju; other parts of the country also recruited their volunteers or "righteous force," modeled after Min"s initiative. Besides Min, there were several well-known military leaders at that time: Choi Ik-hyun, Lee Pyung-chan, Shin Il-suk.

Ito took much precaution over news going in and out of the palace after the protectorate treaty because he was well aware that communica-tions between the people and the king might bring troubles in Korea. Ito sought to control the palace and the public affairs, particularly the police. He discussed these matters with the Korean King and the conversation as described in the newspaper read as follows: "Among other things Marquis Ito pointed out the absolute necessity of clearing the court of all sorts of evil characters (anti-Japanese group)... who daily and nightly infest the palace and whose increasing machinations seriously imperil the friendship between Japan and Korea, and dangerously compromise, the dignity and safety of the Korean Imperial House. ...the Resident-General (Ito) suggested the advisability of replacing an efficient force of constables under the Japanese police advisor to which the Korean King readily consented."

Omiya Matsushido, a Japanese official, was posted as Vice-Minister of the Korean Imperial Household in order to check the activities in the palace. Omiya gave orders that all the palace employees from the rank of minister to maids carry identification cards to show to the Japanese watchman, or gendarme, whenever they passed the gate. Thus the Korean King and his ministers and his royal family became the prisoners of the Japanese.

The Japanese Resident-General, Ito, again compelled the Korean government to sign a new treaty on July 24, 1907, containing two important provisions; first, "the government of Korea shall act under the guidance of Resident-General...", and second, "the government of Korea engages not to enact any laws, ordinances or regulations, or take any important measures of administration without the previous assent of the Resident-General." With this treaty, Ito practically controlled the Korean government. In October of the same year, Ito dismissed the small groups of Korean armed forces replacing them with Japanese forces. The Korean troops, however, were unwilling to surrender to their enemy without a fight. They mobilized the volunteers and the movement spread throughout the country. This guerilla warfare attracted many Korean patriots in Korea and continued their struggles in China even after the annexation of Korea in 1910. Most of these patriots remained in China and some of them managed to come to America.

According to the Japanese official report, the insurrection became almost general throughout the country and 14,500 were killed between July 1907 and the end of 1908; the number of wounded is unknown.

Ito, who finished his mission as a preliminary architect of the Japanese annexation of Korea, resigned his post as a Resident-General and left for Tokyo where he met with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura, the Foreign Minister, Komura. The three leading political figures at that time agreed that Japan should annex Korea. July 6, 1909 the Japanese cabinet approved the three men"s decision to annex Korea and immediately obtained the Emperor"s sanction.

An American, D. W. Stevens, played an important role as advisor to the minister of Foreign Affairs of the Korean government during those years of the Japanese annexation of Korea. He was appointed to that capacity by the Japanese government since Stevens had been a former advisor of Japanese foreign affairs and was a trusted friend of Japan. Stevens took up his duty as other Japanese advisors took up theirs according to the treaty of August 22, 1904. Article II read: "The Korean government shall engage as diplomatic advisor to the Department of foreign Affairs a foreigner recommended by the Japanese government, and all important matters concerning foreign relations shall be dealt with after his counsel has been taken." Being pro-Japanese, Stevens followed Japanese orders which paved the road for Japan"s annexation of Korea.

Stevens" collaborative role in the Japanese invasion of Korea was a well-known fact among the Koreans in America. Stevens, much like Prince Ito who was assassinated by Korean patriot, Ahn Jung-kun in the Harbin railroad station, was a target of assassination by Korean patriots abroad.

Stevens was sent to the United States by the Japanese government for the purpose of making Japan"s annexation of Korea easier since there were some complaints among the American residents in Seoul at that time.

Stevens arrived in San Francisco on March 20, 1908. As soon as his ship, the S.S. Nippon Maru docked, he didn"t waste a moment in declaring that the Korean people are happy under the Japanese protectorate administration of which he was an important part. Korea was making much progress as a nation, and the people were benefited by a new arrangement with Japan. There were some who complained the situation among the Koreans, but the Japanese were actually doing a far better job than the Americans in the Philippine Islands for the Filipinos. Steven"s comment appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Koreans were enraged by Stevens" remarks.

These Korean immigrants were in America leaving their loved ones in Korea because they wanted to avoid the Japanese oppression there. They couldn"t believe that any sane American could make such remarks which Koreans believed untrue.

On March 22, 1908, a Korean mass meeting was held in San Francisco in order to discuss the matter of Stevens" comment. The meeting was sponsored jointly by two existing Korean organizations: Dai-dong and Kong-rip. Mr. Lee Ha-chun was one of few who understood English and read Stevens" comment in the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Lee made a report of what he had read. Much discussion took place about the strategy of replying to Stevens and the press.

According to our taped interview, Mr. Yang Choo-run who had attended the meeting told us that those at the meeting appointed four delegates: Lee Ha-chun, Moon Yang-mok, Chung Myong-won, and Choi
Chin-ha. They were told to go to the Fairmont Hotel and see Mr. Stevens. The four men went up to the Fairmont and demanded to see Stevens, and the hotel receptionist, assuming these men to be Japanese, called Mr. Stevens to the hotel lobby. Mr. Stevens was asked to retract his statements to the press, but he had reiterated his position and tried to justify his stance on Japanese policy in Korea. Mr. Stevens told the Korean delegates:

In Korea, the King is feebleminded, the public officials are abusing and exploiting the people, so the people have not been supporting the government. Furthermore, the Koreans are so illiterate and backward that they are not qualified to be responsible citizens of an independent nation. If it had not been for Japan"s protection, Korea would have been lost to Russia. Fortunately there were men like Lee Hwan-yong in Korea and Marquis Ito in Japan who were wise enough to reform the Korean government and bring a better life to the people of Korea. Since these facts are true, I cannot retract my statements.

Mr. Yang recalled the incident;

Mr. Chun, the quick-tempered one, picked up a chair and started to beat him up. This was very scandalous at this time when racial prejudices were high against Orientals.

The hotel manager immediately called the police to the scene. There was obviously much confusion in the hotel lobby, but all the hotel guests could make out of the situation was that several despicable orientals were after a white man. What"s happened? No one could clearly understand the problem. Mr. Lee with his limited English tried to explain to the police and those calling for order, that Mr. Chun had no intent for violence but he could not restrain his anger at Stevens" comments. Some of the hotel guests understood the problem and even sympathized with the Koreans but it was no use. A commotion not clear ended there temporarily at the lobby.

These four Korean delegates rented a hotel room nearby and late into the night discussed what should be done. One of them asked: Is there anyone who speaks Japanese? There was one. The group suggested that he call the Japanese Consulate in town and get Stevens" itinerary. Next morning the group found out that Mr. Stevens was to leave San Francisco for Washington from the ferry building on the 9:30 train March 23. Stevens arrived at the ferry building accompanied by the Japanese Consul, Chozo Koike, and a crowd of Japanese people to bid farewell to Mr. Stevens.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chang In-whan volunteered to shoot Stevens. He was given a gun. In those days, it was unlawful for Koreans to carry arms. Nevertheless, Chang had a gun and was ready to use it to shoot Stevens although he did not know how to use such a weapon. Mr. Chun, meanwhile, acquired a weapon--a toy pistol and a live bullet. Of course, the two couldn"t be used together. It is not clear whether Chun knew about this. The situation indicates that they were not really prepared to shoot someone. In any event, these Koreans went out to the ferry building to meet Stevens in the early morning. Mr. Yang recalled the scene of the historical moment in the following manner:

Mr. Chun stepped out first and poked the toy pistol into Stevens"
jaw and attacked him; remember Chun is very quick tempered. Meantime, Mr. Chang couldn"t just stand by and watch, after all he volunteered for the job, but Chang "can"t even shoot a bird"... nevertheless, Chang took a shot at Stevens, and grazed Mr. Chun"s left shoulder and Mr. Stevens" right side. He took another shot and hit him on the other side. Stevens fell and was taken to the hospital. There was a large crowd of Japanese to bid Stevens farewell.

Mr. Chang told the police investigator why he shot Stevens:

I was born on March 30, 1975 in Pyongyang, Korea, and became a baptized Christian in my early days. When I saw my country fall into the hands of the Japanese aggressors, I was filled with sorrow, but unable to do much to help. I applied for the status of an immigrant and came to Hawaii hoping to learn something in order to help my country.

Though it has been two years since I came to this country, I know the situation in my country very well, because it regularly received newspapers and communications sent from Korea. While hundreds of thousands of Koreans are dying at the hands of the Japanese invaders, Stevens was the effrontery to invent the lie that the Koreans are welcoming the Japanese aggressors.

Since the imposition of the Japanese treaty of protectorate, my country is completely wrecked by the invaders. Nominally the advisor to the Korean government, Stevens chose, instead, to aid Japan in its scheme to destroy Korea.

Then, Mr. Chang continued, that if and when Stevens gets back to Korea, he would do more to advance the interest of the Japanese, not Koreans. As a traitor to Korea, Mr. Chang insisted that Stevens should die for his betrayal. Chang said, "through his deception, he made the Japanese occupation of Korea possible." On March 25, 1908, Stevens died at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco.

Both Chang and Chun were formally arraigned on April 3, 1908, and the trial continued until January 2, 1909. The entire Korean community in the mainland and Hawaii mobilized all their efforts to support the two Korean patriots in their defense. A Defense Committee had been organized to hire lawyers, recruiting interpreters, collecting evidences, raising funds, etc.

Three lawyers: Nathan C. Coghlan, Robert Perral, and Mr. Beret were hired by the Defense Committee. In addition there was a Mr. Clark who volunteered to help the defendants for humanitarian reason and for no fee. On December 22, 1908, the jury reached a compromise on the ninth ballot and declared in its verdict that Chang was guilty of murder in the second degree but acquitted Chun on the grounds of insufficient evidence. On January 2, 1909, Judge Cook sentenced Chang to serve 25 years in San Quentin. Chang stood impassively when the judge sentenced him and declared that he preferred martyrdom by death rather than by imprisonment.

Chang was paroled for good behavior after serving only ten years. As he had been ill in prison, and also unfortunate family affair later brought to end his life at the age of 55 on May 22, 1930. After he became a free man, a friend introduced him to a young woman in Korea and he married her. Her anticipation of her husband now known as a Korean patriot was beyond his means to supply. Chang was running a cleaning parlor and struggling to support her but he was unable to meet her demands. As Mr. Yang commented, "Mr. Chang died of a broken heart." His remains have been sent to Korea where he is honored as a heroic patriot.

The Stevens case indicates that those early Korean immigrants in America were politically conscious and patriotic. Such tradition has been carefully maintained among the Koreans in America.
According to our taped findings, all of those interviewed, without exception, left Korea when they did because of the Japanese oppression. Even those among who claimed that they sought personal liberation from feudalistic environment or economic betterment reminded us that leaving Korea was to escape the Japanese presence in Korea. Many of them had surely participated in 1919 National Independence Movement which was, indeed, a historical event.

The people in and out of Korea organized various means of fighting Japanese imperialism. The Koreans in China and Siberia were physically most active and participated constantly in fighting the Japanese at every opportunity. The 1919 patriotic movement, however, was the very first nationwide movement inside Korea.

In this national movement, 211 cities and more than 2 million people participated in the demonstration, and more than 1500 meetings were held from March first to the end of May. During this patriotic movement, Japanese soldiers killed 7,000 or more Koreans, while several hundred churches, schools, and homes were destroyed.

The civil leaders, with the cooperation of the religious leaders in Korea, planned for a national movement. Their main motto was "non-violence." No one was to harm a single Japanese or their property. It was clear that the motives of this peaceful, non-violent plan was an appeal to the democratic peoples of the world, particularly to the United States, since President Wilson was known as the champion of "self-determination." Wilson made his famous speech to the U.S. Senate in 1917 that "...henceforth inviolable security of life, of worship, and of industrial and social development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to their own..."

On March 1, 1919, the Declaration of Korean Independence was read to the expectant crowds which assembled in every large and small city in Korea, and mass demonstrations followed. This unified, national demonstration completely surprised the Japanese authorities and the Japanese police did not know what to do with the demonstrators they arrested. In Seoul and other cities too, hundreds of Japanese gendarms armed with swords and rifles, mobilized and tried to scatter the demonstrators. The jails were filled to over-flowing, compelling them to set up temporary jails.

In Suwon City Japanese soldiers called all Christians to assemble in a church and then burned the church to the ground while the soldiers on guard locked the church. Many atrocities and massacres like that occurred all over the country. The story of Osan High School in Jungju City in Northern Korea is another cruel one. Thirty-five girls and boys from school were thrown into jail. The girls were not only mistreated, beaten, and attacked, but left outside on a cold evening naked. The following morning, the girls were placed on the cross and told, "You are Christians, so you may be punished on the cross." After such punishment, the police asked them whether they would confess to the misdeed, but the girls had nothing to confess. The police then removed the girls from the wooden cross, and branded the young girls" breasts with wires heated in a charcoal flame. The girls refused to cooperate with the police and they became unconscious. The Japanese police then poured cold water over their naked bodies to wake them up in order to repeat their interrogations.

One woman participant of the 1919 patriotic movement, Mrs. Park Kyung-sin at her Los Angeles home, told us her experiences of those days. She said: "Maria Kim was captured and beaten very badly about her face. Her face was full of pus and she died later. She suffered so much." Then Mrs. Park continues: "During that bitter cold winter in the northern part of Korea, I went barefoot in the snow and ice water. I was young then and didn"t think of future consequences. My feet and leg trouble stems from those early years. I have no regrets. I did what I could for the country I love."

Mrs. Park was a young student at Yokohama Bible School in Japan before she participated in the movement.

Mrs. Park was assigned to deliver a prescription book from Dr. Kim Hak-yun at Sunchun Hospital in Sunchun when she returned to Pyungyang from Yokohama to China. She suspected that there might have been a secret message in the book for the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, but that was not her concern at that time. She was asked: "Were you not able to just take this book out since it is not a political book?"

"No. The Japanese police would question why I was taking any book out. The Korean Provisional Government had given me orders to bring in that particular book and I was only carrying out orders."

Mrs. Park went to her friend in the country and asked her to make her a Korean rice cake and instructed her to put a layer of the cake on top of the steamer, then the book, then another layer on top. She went to Sinuiju City, the border city of Korea, and had to cross the border over the Andong bridge. This worried her a great deal as it was under heavy Japanese guard. She was stopped as she was about to cross and taken in to be questioned. As she was questioned by Japanese police, she threw down her rice cake on the counter and said, "This is food! What is the matter? I live in Andong and my sick child requests this cake. Look at it!" These policemen didn"t know what to say and told her to be off.

"Didn"t the cake all fall apart?"
"Well, this peasant style cake is made with boiled clumps of plain rice and rolled in bean flakes. It is called "daegal bumble" where I came from. I don"t know what it may be called elsewhere."

Thus she went safely and delivered the book to the Korean Provisional Government. She suffered so much from the cold, her toe nails froze at that time, and she had suffered to the date she died. She always wore a double layer of thick knitted wool stockings the year around. She recalled one incident while she was staying at Kwandae-hyun about 60 miles from Andong-hyun.

"Once a whole bunch of the Japanese policemen came--about 50 charged into town and began shooting as they came from the other side of the mountain. We ran into the mountains and since it was July there were corn fields in which we fled; we couldn"t stay there forever. Towards night, we tried to return. I saw some being shot in the cheeks as they peered over their hiding places and many were wounded as they attempted to return to their homes. Many were shot and wounded, some were picked up by the Japanese police and taken to the city jails, and others hid out in Chinese homes."

Because of her involvement in the movement, not only Mrs. Park suffered, but other members of her family, particularly her mother. Her mother was arrested and questioned by the police. The police dragged her mother and undressed her, shoved her from one side of a burning pile to the other in an effort to make her talk and she was seriously burned.

In spite of such inhumane actions during the independence movement, the Japanese government expressed no regret about their officers" behavior.

The Declaration of Independence said: "... We tell it to the world in witness of the equality of all nations, and we pass it on to our posterity as their inherent right ... assuredly, if the defects of the past are to be rectified, if the wrongs of the present are to be righted, if future oppression is to be avoided, if thought is to be set free, if right of action is to be given a place, if we are to attain to any way of progress, if we are to deliver our children from the painful heritage of shame, if we are to leave blessing and happiness intact for those who succeed as the first of all necessary things is the complete independence of our people..." The document explains well the condition and the reasons of any subjugated people"s motive for their self-determination further in regard to the Japanese government it said:

Our part is to influence the Japanese government, dominated as it is by the old idea of brute force which thinks to run counter to reason and universal law, so that it will change and act honestly and in accord with the principals of right and truth.

The statement indicates the disposition of the nonviolent character of the Korean movement. Because the movement was not of a revolutionary nature, the leaders who led the 1919 movement lost their influence in later days.

We also interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Kim Chon-ha who were involved in the 1919 patriotic movement before Mr. Kim escaped to China, then to the United States. Mrs. Kim recalled of the incident.
My husband taught elementary school, and led his students to participate in the independence movement. After that, the police were after him and he was forever in hiding and escaping. He suffered an awful lot.

...The Japanese police kept coming to our home and asked where is he, what is he up to, etc. In the end, police were sent up from Pyongyang and one night the military surrounded us and demanded to know of my husband"s whereabouts. I just barely escaped being beaten up. ...My father-in-law was locked up for a few days.

Mrs. Kim said that she had suffered so much that she didn"t like to recall the past. She had been so nervous since those days and she had never recovered. She said: "even the slightest thing makes my heart beat wildly." She has recovered somewhat since she came to America, but "when I recall the atrocities and harassments, I awake and am unable to sleep." Mrs. Kim said. She remembers of times when armed policemen would surround her home and point their bayonets at her and her family. She said, "...no, at that moment, my heart didn"t beat wildly... I didn"t know whether I was dead or alive... I felt so strong--words come out so strongly but after they left, I"d tremble, cry, and have no control over myself." She said that every one of the hairs on her head fell out-- "I was as bald as my knee." Even her nails fell off. She ordered a wig in Japan before her arrival in America. Now her hair has grown back. "I lost all sensitivity on my head--felt absolutely nothing." She recalled. She couldn"t even recognize her own husband at her first sight of him in Los Angeles. She thought that something had happened to her brains. "As I think back, sometimes when someone has talked to me, I"d get angry for no reason, and then my heart would pound. This continued for several years. ...I had to use my head so much and I couldn"t talk. In those days I couldn"t talk to my own friends for fear of friends" talking to wrong persons. In those days, there were cases where a child unwittingly said something, and the father would be taken away ... now I talk a lot." Her father-in-law faced much physical atrocities because of his son"s political activities. He was beaten with a rubber hose and threatened by the police many, many times. He was over 70 years old at the time.

There was such diversity in the leaders" individual backgrounds that an amount of internecine violence was highly possible among them. Some of them approximated what Professor Karl W. Deutsch has called "pluralistic security communities," since they preserved interunit harmony in the absence of political amalgamation.
In spite of the failure of their immediate goal--national independence from Japan--the patriotic movement attracted worldwide attention and laid the spiritual groundwork for the future nationalist movement in Korea. Many Korean immigrants in America have certainly contributed toward that goal. For instance, Mrs. Park Kyung-sin commented that she was actively engaged in politics as the president of the Korean Women"s Patriotic Association in America. Mrs. Park said: "In 1933 and for seven years, I took over leadership of the organization... In 1936 my legs started to bother me. So, after seven years, I couldn"t serve any more and finally I resigned tearfully with all the members sitting around me." Nevertheless, when the World War II began, she was back again to the political world. Mrs. Park said: "During the war, I represented the Korean National Association of North America and sold bonds. I was told that half a million dollars worth was sold by Koreans. It doesn"t mean that only Koreans bought that amount--bonds were sold at various public places like Pershing Square, Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Park, etc. and anyone bought them."

The spirit of the Declaration of Korean Independence has remained among the Koreans ever since, and the Koreans in America were no exception. In regard to this declaration, an editorial "The Dignity of Life" appeared in the American press:

In our opinion this proclamation will stand on a plane of exaltation with our own Declaration of Independence.

American missionaries who attempted to help those unfortunate Koreans were put in prison; for example, Dr. Eli Mawry of Mansfield, Ohio, spent six months in prison because of this kind treatment to five Koreans at his home for two days. One American reporter, Nathaniel Peffer said:

The first line was cut down and ridden down by mounted men, the second came on shouting, "Mansei". Every man and woman in that line knew what was before him, every man and woman had seen the penalty paid; it means brutal beatings, arrests, tortures, and even death. They did not quiver. When one procession was broken up, another formed and marched straight at the waiting troops only cheering, waving their flags and cheering. (Korean Independence)

This demonstrated spirit of 1919 patriotic movement became one of the dominating traditions in Korean national culture, and the Korean immigrants in America have contributed a significant portion of it. The spiritual and inner movement has continued, even the physical part of the movement was ceased when more severe pressures added on the people by the Japanese. The movement ceased temporarily in Korea proper but it had been kept up abroad in such places as China, especially southeast Manchuria, north China, and in the United States.

The stories by the eyewitnesses have revealed again and again the physical pains that the people were subjected to and endured. Both Koreans and American missionaries reported similar stories to us. The significant part of the 1919 national movement, however, lies not in this physical phenomena as brutal and painful as it was, but in the spiritual aspect. The entire movement reveals a politico-religious movement. Not only because the leaders of three religious groups--Buddhism, Christianity, and The Teachings of Heavenly Way of native religion led the movement, but because of the context in which the people endured the mass physical suffering which left the immortal spirit of pride and honor to the Korean people. They were more inclined to the free spiritual and inner liberty than to political freedom. "We wish to inspire the government of Japan" was their attitude. The essential nature of their whole action was primarily dominated by spiritual motivation. From the standpoint of the political liberation, it was a failure and negative, but from the standpoint of spiritual movement, it was a success and positive. That is why we are still witnessing an independent spirit among the Koreans in America after living abroad more than a half century.

As long as this moral consciousness proves its strength, individual loyalties are for the good of the nation, nationalism should have a right to exist, provided that it will not become an obstacle to peace as Aldous Huxley feared three decades ago. The nationalism has become a dynamic concept of the self-determination, and found the great source of its vitality in Korea. It has a place there, if it helps them to bring about a better world by helping one"s awareness of others and by helping them to live peacefully as we can in this age of deterrence of terror.