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Song Jin-u

As President of Dong-A Ilbo, Song played an important role as a nationalist leader during the Japanese colonial period.

Biography

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SONG JIN-U (1889-1945). Born to a well-to-do family in Damyang, South Jeolla Province, he received both traditional and modern education in Korea as a child, followed by secondary education in Japan. While studying at Meiji University from 1911, be became a student activist in the Korean students' nationalist movement. Graduating from Meiji University in 1915, he returned to Korea and became the principal of the private Chung-ang School that his friend, Kim Seong-su, had established in Seoul. There he promoted ethnic consciousness and patriotism among students. Arrested for his nationalistic activity in connection with the March
First Movement of 1919, he was imprisoned for 18 months. In 1920, when the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper was established, he was made its president, playing an important role as a nationalist leader during the Japanese colonial period.

At the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, Song, An Jae-hong, and Yeo Un-hyeong were asked by the Japanese Governor General Abe Nobuyaki to superintend the transition period before the arrival of United States forces. Together they formed the Committee for the Preparation of National Reconstruction. Later, with his childhood friends, such as Kim Seong-su, he formed the Korean (Hanguk) Democratic Party, which represented a conservative, nationalist, propertied class, and became one of its key leaders. Although he opposed left-wing groups, his views regarding the Allied plan to impose a trusteeship in Korea as set out in the Moscow Agreement of 1945 alienated him from other right-wing leaders, for he was in support of such steps for Korean independence for practical reasons. Two days after his statement regarding his support for the trusteeship plan on 28 December 1945 was made public, he was assassinated by an ultra right-wing youth.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. (Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea, by Andrew C. Nahm and James E. Hoare, published by RLPG Books, appears by permission of the author and publisher).

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