Choe Rin (崔麟, January 25, 1878 – December 4, 1958) was a pro-Japanese collaborator during the Japanese colonial period. He took part in the March 1st Movement and worked as an independence activist as one of the Thirty-three signatories of the Korean Declaration of Independence, before defecting to become a pro-Japanese figure. His pen names were Gowoo (古友) and Yeoam (如庵), and his Japanese name was Kayama Rin (佳山 麟).
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He was born on January 25, 1878. In his childhood he studied Chinese classics, and later moved to Hanseong, where he associated with young Enlightenment-faction (Gaehwapa) reformers. In 1902 he served as a clerk at the Gilju Gamriseo, but during the case in which a group of young army officers, mainly graduates of the Japanese Military Academy, organized the Ilsimhoe, he fled temporarily to Japan.1 At that time Oh Se-chang, son of the Enlightenment-faction interpreter Oh Kyung-seok, was also implicated in the Ilsimhoe incident.
In October 1904 he was selected as an imperial student of the Korean Empire and entered Tokyo Prefectural First Middle School as a student. That year he protested against the middle school principal's statement that education was unnecessary for Koreans, staged a strike, and was expelled. In 1905 he organized the Japan Students' Association, became vice president, and was then elected president. In 1906 Choe entered Meiji University, and he was arrested for obstructing business after attacking a performance venue that had insulted the Korean imperial household. From September 1906 to February 1907 he served as vice president and then president of the Korean Students' Association. In 1907 he served as a delegate of the Gwangmu Academy and as president of the Taegeuk Academy, and in 1909 he served as a council member and vice president of the Korean Academic Association. In 1909 he graduated from Meiji University and returned to Korea. While studying in Japan he met and associated with Choe Nam-seon, who had also been an imperial student, and Son Byong-hi, the head of Cheondoism who used the alias Yi Sang-heon; under their influence he joined Cheondoism in October 1910 after returning home.
While serving as principal of Bosung School, which was run by Cheondoism, he joined the secret independence organization New People's Association and worked in the field of education.
3.1 운동 활동
From 1918 he discussed ways of independence activism with Cheondoism figures including Son Byong-hi, Oh Se-chang, and Kwon Dong-jin, and in 1919 he conceived the March 1st Movement and the funeral procession of Gojong. Through Han Yong-un of the Buddhist community and Yi Seung-hun of the Christian community, Choe brought representatives of both religions into the movement. He led the planning process, including recommending Choe Nam-seon as the drafter of the Korean Declaration of Independence, and he proposed three principles for the March 1st Movement: mass participation, unification, and nonviolence. Immediately after the gathering to read the Declaration of Independence, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, but he was released on parole on December 22, 1921.
사회활동과 변절
After his release, from January to March 1922 he was elected head of the General Affairs and Education divisions of the Cheondoism central organization and began activities within the church. However, in May of that year his comrade Son Byong-hi died, and from September of that year until 1924 he served as a Chongrisa, and from 1925 to 1928 as a Chongbopsa. In addition, in 1923 he was active as an executive committee member of the central office of the National University Founding Association, and he gradually expanded his field of activity to society and culture in general. In September of the same year he was appointed a founding member and standing committee member of the Tokyo Relief Association for Koreans Displaced by Disaster; in 1924 he became a member of the Korean Famine Relief Association; in 1925 a member of the Joseon Physical Education Association; and in 1926 a founding member of the Joseon Literature Association. From June 1927 to April 1928 he toured 21 countries, including those of Europe and the United States, and after returning in 1929 he rose to Doryeong, the highest post in the church. In October 1929 he took part as a founding member of the Joseon Language Dictionary Compilation Society, and in July 1930 he was appointed a member of the All-Joseon Flood Relief Association.
At the same time as this broad social activity, he showed a duality on the other hand. After Son Byong-hi died in the early 1920s, Cheondoism suffered a serious internal split. From this point, Choe drifted toward a "national reformist" tendency, and as the leader of the New Faction he advocated a "self-government" theory through Japanese approval. This self-government theory meant "self-government and strengthening of capacity as a stage before independence," and because it seemed to satisfy both the justification of pursuing independence and the practical benefit of building strength, it attracted the interest of nationalist propertied classes, including Choe. This self-government theory was in fact a political scheme by Japan to turn people toward pro-Japanese forces. Afterward, under the protection of the Government-General of Korea, he engaged in activities such as attempting to revive the Yeonjeonghoe, a self-government movement organization, and he opposed the Old Faction of Singanhoe. This conduct, closely aligned with the Government-General, became the starting point of his defection.
서양화가 나혜석과의 불륜
In 1928 he happened to meet Na Hye-seok in Paris. However, while he was stationed in Paris as a diplomat, an affair with Na Hye-seok became a topic of gossip in the Korean community in Paris, and this led to Na's divorce in 1930.2 Neither of them knew French, so the two hired interpreters and went to restaurants, theaters, boat outings, and sightseeing outside the city. On the evening of November 20, 1928, the two watched an opera together and returned to Na's lodging, the Select Hotel. That night Choe did not return to his own lodging. The relationship continued for dozens of occasions, and rumors spread in the Paris student community that Na had become Choe's mistress.3 Na, who fell for him at first sight when she met him at a welcome party hosted by Korean students, fell in love with him.4 However, Kim Woo-young, who heard rumors that Na was dating several men, secretly returned to Paris, followed Na, and witnessed her affair with Choe. After confirming this, Kim returned from Berlin to Paris and packed his belongings, which ended their romance, but it became the pretext for the divorce that dissolved the marriage between Na Hye-seok and Kim Woo-young.
However, after Na Hye-seok divorced, Choe, who found her ideas of free love and feminism tiresome, notified Na that the relationship was over. Since the affair with Choe had been the cause of the divorce, Na did not sit idly by and sued him in court on the charge of violation of chastity.
Later Na filed a lawsuit against him demanding 12,000 won in alimony. She also bought off the Dong-A Ilbo reporters who had reported the matter, and he delivered 2,000 won to Na to silence her. However, along with public ridicule for seducing another man's wife and wrecking a family, he also lost the trust of the Government-General of Korea.
친일 행적
In April 1934 he was appointed a councilor of the Chūsūin of the Government-General, and in August of that year he organized Sijunghoe, a joint Korean-Japanese pro-Japanese organization that advocated Naisen ittai (unity of Japan and Korea) and the Great Eastern Principle (大東方主義), thereby crossing a bridge from which there was no return. In 1937 he took office as president of the Maeil Sinbo, the Government-General's official newspaper, and preached Naisen ittai.
In July 1937 he was selected as a lecturer for the wartime lecture meetings organized by the Chūsūin, and he toured the Jeolla region, including Jeonju, Gunsan, Namwon, Gwangju, Mokpo, Suncheon, and Iksan (Iri), delivering lectures that "urged the awakening of the people." When the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War broke out, he took leading positions in various pro-Japanese organizations: in 1940 as a director of the Korean Federation for National Mobilization, in 1941 as head of the Joseon Imperial Service Corps, and in 1945 as president of the Korean Press Patriotic Association. Through lecture activities, campaigns encouraging students to join the military, active support for Naisen ittai, and support for the war, he left countless pro-Japanese deeds and became an extreme pro-Japanese figure.
On December 18, 1939, at the auditorium of Ewha Women's Professional School in Jeong-dong, a founding general meeting of the support association was held with more than 80 people in attendance. There, the association adopted its regulations of twelve articles and elected 25 members.5 Choe Rin was also elected as one of the members of the Ewha Women's Professional School support association.5
광복 이후
After liberation, in accordance with "Transfer Order No. 29" issued by the US Army Military Government in Korea on November 3, 1945, he was dismissed from his post as a councilor of the Chūsūin of the Government-General on the same date. Cheondoism demanded that he be held accountable and urged him to retire, but he refused, and was eventually expelled from the church, which is said to have been a humiliation.
In January 1949, when the Special Committee for the Investigation of Pro-Japanese Collaborators began its work, he was arrested and tried in three court sessions. During the trial, Choe admitted his pro-Japanese conduct and showed sincere repentance before the judges and the spectators. At a press conference he responded calmly that he did not hope to be pardoned. In the courtroom, as his final statement, he left the following words.
납북과 최후
He applied for medical bail several times, but was refused. After three court sessions of the Special Committee trial, he was released on medical bail on April 20, 1949.
During the Korean War in 1950, he was abducted to the North. Afterward, together with figures such as Jo So-ang, Kim Won-bong, Eom Hang-seop, and An Jae-hong, he was asked to take part in North Korea's unification propaganda organizations aimed at the South, but he refused. After that, it was only reported that he died in December 1958 at the age of 81, and nothing else is known about his whereabouts.
사후
- Although he had been an independence activist, he later defected and served as a senior official of the Government-General of Korea, so he was placed on the list of candidates for the award of honors to independence contributors in March 1962, but was soon removed.
- He was included in the List of 708 pro-Japanese collaborators announced in 2002, and he is listed in the Chūsūin and Cheondoism categories of the list of persons scheduled for inclusion in the Encyclopedia of Pro-Japanese Collaborators compiled and announced by the Institute in 2008 for inclusion in the Encyclopedia of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. He was also included in the list of 705 pro-Japanese collaborators announced in 2009 by the Committee for the Investigation of Pro-Japanese Collaboration.
- Because Choe openly collaborated with Japan, and as a Cheondoism believer he stood in opposition to Park In-jin, Choe Dong-o, and Kim Dal-hyeon, who had direct contact with Kim Il Sung, he is evaluated poorly in North Korea. For example, he is mentioned as a representative national traitor in Kim Il Sung's memoir ''With the Century''.6 Although North Korea has also built a grave for Yi Kwang-su, who is likewise widely known as a pro-Japanese collaborator,7 there is no mention of Choe's final years or his grave.
가족 관계
- Father: Choe Deok-eon (崔德彦)
- Mother: Madam Kim (金氏)
- Self: Choe Rin (崔麟, 1878 – 1958)
- Spouse: Madam Park (朴氏)
- Eldest son: Choe Myeong-cheol (崔明喆)
- Daughter-in-law: Madam Han (韓氏)
- Second son: Choe Yang-cheol (崔陽哲)
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