Thomas An Chunggŭn, Korea's Visionary Nationalist and Pan-Asianist

A fascinating man about whom you've read before on these pages — Catholic, Doctor, Nationalist, Assassin, Calligrapher and Korea's Catholic Freedom Fighter and Assassin — is in the news again as we approach "the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his assassination of the first Japanese Resident General of Korea, Hirobumi Ito, on Oct. 26, 1909, in China" — An Jung-geun Proposed E. Asian Union and Essay Contest in Honor of Patriot An Jung-geun. (An essay on the Catholic reconciliation of particularism with universalism could be submitted.)

"After firing upon Ito, An is said to have yelled for Korean independence in Russian," reports the first article, continuing:

As he was being interrogated, he shouted, "Ura Korea!" When asked what language he had just spoken, he replied that the phrase could be understood in English, Russian and French. He also shouted "Long Live Korea."

As an English speaker, I have no idea what "Ura Korea!" means, but I fully understand it. Don't you? An excerpt from the same article on an early influence:

According to his autobiography, An left Korea because he was afraid that the Japanese colonial state would seek to kill those like him who wanted to restore the country's independence.

His intention was to work in China with other Koreans there to restore independence. However, he met a French Priest, Father Le Gac, who compared the Korean situation to the French loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire.

He told An that if he left Korea that it would be very difficult for Koreans to build up their national strength and restore independence.

Many of the people in Alsace-Lorraine who wanted to remain under French control, rather than that of Germany, had left, weakening French influence there. Therefore, Father Le Gac advised An to return to Korea and work to build up the nation so it could one day regain independence. An returned, and began participating in the debt repayment movement and in educational work.

Some quotes from Thomas (he "insisted that [his] captors call him by his baptismal name") An:

I killed Ito because he was a hindrance to Asia's peace and hampered relations between Korea and Japan. It was in my capacity as a lieutenant general of a Korean resistance army that I masterminded the assassination... The undertaking was not based on a personal agenda ― it was for Korea's independence and peace in the East. It is a part of Korea's war of liberation....

It is obvious that Asians must unite to withstand the West's increasing attacks of the East. Why is Japan severing ties with a country of the same race at such a time?

I wonder how that last "same race" comment is taken by Koreans, whose "one-race" ideology (Korean-Japanese children are considered as "mixed race" as are my kids) was formed largely in reaction to and imitation of Japanese imperilialism. About this man who "maintained his belief in Catholicism until his death, even asking that his son become a priest in his last letter to his wife," I wrote before, "It shows the breadth of the Faith that a devout Catholic like Ahn 'strongly believed in a union of the three great countries in East Asia, China, Korea, and Japan in order to counter and fight off the '''White Peril,''' being the European countries engaged in colonialism.'"