A Teacher – Ham Sok Hon (1901-1989)
The ‘teacher and disciple’ relationship, largely outmoded in the west, is still a concept in modern day Korea.
My husband is one of the ‘disciples’ of Ham Sok Hon, and as such is influenced by Ham’s thought in all
he does, and promotes Ham’s thought through lectures and writings.
Ham Sok Hon was a maverick ‘thinker’ in many areas. His liberal views on religion, thinking beyond the
confines of the strict Korean protestant church to embrace aspects of all religions and to eventually become
a Quaker is just one reason he is famous. To me, Ham Sok Hon is a representative of the many people who
have suffered, been tortured, imprisoned or even killed in the fight for democracy in Korea.
Ham, born in North Korea in 1901, experienced all the various oppressive regimes outlined in the previous
section. Anyone who spoke out against such regimes was in for trouble, yet Ham spoke up on behalf of
the suppressed people through writings, lectures and participation in non-violent protests. In Ham’s case,
as an intellectual recognized outside Korea, he managed to avoid execution. Nevertheless, his outspoken
criticism landed him in prison a total of nine times.
A strong advocate for freedom from all types of repression, Ham always emphasized non-violent means and
his commitment to nonviolence earned him the names of the ‘Conscience of Korea’ and ‘Korean Gandhi’.
Ham was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace prize in 1979 and 1985.
Thanks to the efforts of Ham and many like him, the democratic constitution finally started to become a reality
in Korea in 1987. I am glad that Ham, who died in 1989, lived to see it.
Do you have this person in your life?
This is one of many poems written by Ham Sok Hon when he was in prison.
The translation is a joint effort by myself and my husband, Kim Sung-soo.
Before you leave for a long journey
Without any worry
Can you ask this person
To look after your family?
Even when you are cast out from the whole world
And are in deepest sorrow
Do you have someone
Who will welcome you warmly and freely?
In the dire moment when your vessel has sunk
Is there someone
Who will give you their life belt and say
“You must live before me"?
At the execution ground
Is there someone
Who will exclaim for you
"Let him live, even if you kill the rest of us"?
In the last moment of your life
When you think of this person
Can you leave this world smiling broadly
And feeling at peace?
Even if the entire world is against you
When you think of this person
Can you stand alone for what you believe?
Do you have this person in your life?
******
Ingle
Mary Ingle Wright (1923-1997) was quite a character. An English lady in her seventies, residing in Manchester
in England, Ingle became an ‘English mother’ to my Korean husband while he was studying in the UK. She
gave great support, both financial and moral, to a number of Korean students, and my husband spent every
other weekend, including Christmas and other family occasions, with Ingle and her family.
Ingle was a pathologist. With a BA from Cambridge and a PhD from Sheffield University, she taught at
Manchester Medical School. The reason Ingle felt she wanted to take care of Koreans she came across was
because of her bond with Korea formed when she worked as a volunteer in the Friends’ Medical Service Unit
in Korea from 1953 to 1955, immediately after the Korean War. The Korea Ingle knew then was one of
devastation and poverty one can barely imagine. Based in Kunsan in the southwest of Korea, the service
unit provided medical services and organized basic hygiene and sanitation for Korean refugees, mainly widows
and orphans.
Ingle was motivated by a sense of ‘debt’ to society, since she could not ‘contribute’ during World War II due
to her studies. When she returned to the UK from Korea, Ingle was criticized by her supervisor for ‘wasting
time’ that she could have spent on research, but Ingle had no regrets. This sort of action was somewhat
unusual for women at that time, and so one can form some idea of Ingle’s eccentricity and strength of
character.
Ingle believed in recycling, and although extremely well off, guests would be served very strong tea in empty
pot noodle containers. Ingle called a spade a spade, to put in mildly, and was very free in her use of
language, including swear words.
For example, if someone dared to not eat what she had prepared, she would yell “B… H…, I’ll never cook
for you again!”
Since Ingle was short-sighted and there were not infrequently maggots in the peas, it took courage both to
eat and to not eat. Of course, Ingle did not mean it, her bark was worse than her bite and her heart was of
gold. When Ingle died in March 1997, she left most of her property to charity.
Ingle was modest about her work in Korea. When praised later in a Korean newspaper for her contribution
in Korea, she said that actually establishing any facility in Korea had been easy, as there was simply nothing
there to start with. Korea has changed unrecognizably from the tragic poverty-stricken land Ingle knew to a
country which regularly ranks around eleventh or twelfth in the world economically. Nonetheless, Ingle’s
pithy summarization of the Korean temperament is as true today as it was then.
Koreans are “Crazy but charming.”
l Ingle met Ham Sok Hon in 1953 when she was in Korea and our children’s middle name is ‘Ingle’.
*******
The Religious Society of Friends
Hardshaw East Monthly Meeting News Letter, April 1997
Ingle Wright (Lawrence) (1923-1997) and Koreans
I met Ingle at London Yearly Meeting in May, 1990. Surprisingly she greeted me with a
rather unusual approach for someone British, An-nyong Ha-sa-yo? that means "How are
you?" in Korean. Ingle may have seen my name card which indicated my nationality.
After a brief conversation, we exchanged our addresses and telephone numbers,
at that time I was a resident at Woodbrooke.
Three months later, in August 1990, I met Ingle again at her house, kindly Clare Whitehead
took me there in her car, previously I had stayed with Clare for ten days. I stayed with Ingle
for three weeks before going to University of Essex to do my degree. When I arrived at Ingle's house, John (her husband) was Sunbathing in his garden. Later John told me that he was not
a Quaker but a Sun worshipper, more precisely Sunshine worshipper.
Presumably like most other people, my first impression of Ingle and her house was not
so positive. Her dining room was quite dark and very chaotic, and as I entered that room
I remembered Genesis verse one in The Old Testament: "The earth was at first a shapeless,
chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapours".
The following 24 hours I experienced an immense number of `shocks', and consequently
regretted my decision to come and stay with Ingle.
However, inscrutable are the ways of Heaven, as time went on I began to see a completely
different side of Ingle, like Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. During the three weeks, Ingle took
me to various weekend conferences and day seminars. She paid for everything, including
entrance fees, hotels etc. She told me, "It would be a worthwhile experience for you and a
learning process. You should hold these kinds of conferences in future for Korea."
Gradually but strongly I began to feel how much Ingle cared for me like her own son.
Since then, I felt very comfortable with Ingle and her house. I really felt as if Ingle was my
mother and Ingle's house was my home.
She gave me love, affection and overwhelmingly supported me.
When Alan and Janet Quilley went to Belfast for their Quaker Peace Mission in Northern
Ireland, Ingle took me to their house with a present for them. I waited in her car for
sometime while Ingle said `good bye' to them. A few minutes later, Ingle came back to her car.
But soon she began to weep and bursted out crying. I was a bit embarrassed but I could feel
her towering fondness towards the Quilley's and also how much Ingle was a lonely person.
On several occasions I saw Ingle's tears and crying, sometimes she said with sympathy,
"Poor May, poor old thing!". Some other times she cried with tears, "everybody
hates me! everybody hates me!"
I met Ingle, when I was just beginning my BA course in 1990.
Now I am in my final year for my PhD course.
Ingle whole-heartedly helped me during the last seven years,
not only with her motherly affection,
but also academically and financially.
It is crystal clear that without Ingle, I would not be here today.
My life in Britain is greatly indebted to Ingle and her love.
When some Quakers asked Ingle, "Who is under 70 years old at Westhoughton Meeting?"
Ingle answered them with a `proud' voice: "Sung-Soo is under 70 years old at
Westhoughton Meeting."
When I applied for Membership of the Friends, Ingle wept with delight.
Before her death, I wished to tell her that: "Dear Ingle, not everybody hates you!"
But due to my shyness, I was never able to say so to her when she was alive.
Indeed I regret that very much.
I feel Ingle was born in this world to help Korea and to help my dream: Re-unification of
Two Koreas.
I will close my writing on Ingle with a quotation of an article from a Korean Newspaper,
The Kunsan Press: May 24, 1955.
"English Woman-doctor Ingle Wright Departs, leaving meritorious achievements behind.
English Woman-doctor Ingle Wright goes back to her country.
As a 31-year-old unmarried doctor assigned to the Provincial Hospital in Kunsan
[southwest coast of South Korea] by British Friends Service Council,
she improved activities in pathology laboratory,
trained a great number of persons to be pathologists,
installing pathologists training centre and assisted a great deal in training nurses.
As a physician, surgeon and gynaecologist, she re-installed the old laboratory to a newest style
and paid a lot of efforts in keeping new foreign medical books in the library.
It is a great pity for Koreans to hear her leave in the beginning of June when
her service in this country ceases."
* Ingle planted the seed of Quakerism in Korea and helped 20,000 Korean refugees as a
member of Friends Service Unit (medical doctor) from July 1953 to June 1955 in Kunsan.
At that time Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, poorer than Somalia and
Ethiopia with filth and rats.
Thanks to sacrificial efforts like Ingle's, in 1997 the economy of South Korea is ranked 11th in
the world with booming prosperity.
I am reminded again of verse one of Genesis:
"The earth was at first a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the
dark vapours".
Thank you Ingle for your constant love.
Sung-Soo Kim is a Korean and a member of Hardshaw East Monthly Meeting.
Currently he is writing his PhD thesis on The Intersection of Western Christianity and
Oriental Philosophies through the Life and Thought of A Korean Quaker,
Ham Sokhon (1901-1989) at the University of Sheffield.
*******
The Korea Times, 2011.05.19
Legacy of Ham Sok-hon
 |
By Kim Sung-soo
Ham Sok-hon (1901-1989), born 110 years ago, became known as the
“Gandhi of Korea.” He sought to find the identity of Koreans at a time when Korea
had fallen prey to Japanese imperialism. Ham believed that discovering one’s
identity, especially as a colonized nation, was extremely important as it also
determined one’s destiny.
Without knowing who you are, it is very difficult to know what to do.
Ham was also a civil rights activist when his country was ruled by dictatorial regimes
(in both the North and South).
Yet, as a maverick thinker, he tried his best to merge diverse religions and
ideologies.
Although he passed away over two decades ago,
his legacy still inspires a considerable number of civil rights activists and liberal thinkers in Korea today.
Ham was born in North Korea and died in South Korea.
He grew up on a small island in the Yellow Sea at the beginning of the 20th century.
His father was a gentle and quiet herbal doctor, while his uncle was a man
of action with vigorous Christian faith and a strong sense of patriotism as Korea began to lose her
sovereignty to Japan.
From an early age, Ham was influenced a great deal by his uncle in terms of merging Christian faith and
a spirit of national independence under Japanese oppression.
The March 1 Independence Movement of 1919 was the turning point in Ham’s life,
which changed him from a shy boy to a courageous young man.
From that point on he became very aware of his identity,
as well as the identity of his country as a colonized nation.
Later, in the 1930s as a history teacher, he began to write what would be Korean history from the
oppressed people’s perspective.
Because of his view on Korean history,
he was imprisoned and suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese colonial regime.
However, his book was (and still is) recognized as one of the most notable books in Korea.
Although Korea regained its independence in 1945, sadly Ham encountered another oppressive regime,
the Soviet Union in North Korea. Since he was a Christian activist and took a non-cooperative stance against
the communization policy in the North, he was imprisoned by the Soviet military government.
So although Korea was “liberated,” still Ham was imprisoned and beaten, this time by the communists as a
Korean patriot. What irony!
Man of suffering and "Foolish Bird"
The Soviet military government in the North tried to force Ham to be a spy for them, and he escaped to the
South in March 1947. But as he also criticized the corrupt and dictatorial regimes of Syngman Rhee,
Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan successively,
Ham was again repeatedly persecuted, tortured and imprisoned by the South Korean regimes.
His life was full of suffering.
Yet despite his constant suffering, Ham never lost his optimism and sense of hope for humanity, and even
provided a vision for his downhearted fellow countrymen.
Although Ham lived under oppressive regimes throughout his entire life, he always stressed the importance
of nonviolence and pacifism.
At the same time, he eagerly promoted democracy and the freedom of the press, while he heavily criticized
the obedient, passive and fatalistic attitude of the people.
Perhaps his fundamental thinking can be summarized as “malice toward none” with a strong sense of justice.
While Ham had an open view toward any religion and was happy to stay a maverick thinker rather than
promoting a particular religious institution, he was formally a Quaker,
a nonsectarian Christian denomination.
He regarded the least form of religious institutionalization as the best religion.
Ham was especially impressed by the Quakers’ pacifism, egalitarianism, community spirit
(group mysticism), and active participation in here-and-now social affairs
rather than longing for a “heaven or Kingdom of God” after life.
At the same time, Western Quakers firmly and steadily backed Ham’s civil rights movement when Korea was
ruled by authoritarian regimes.
As Quakers tried to merge and keep a balance between science and religion,
between rationalism and mysticism, Ham also had such a tendency.
Thanks to Ham’s tireless activities for the democratization movement of Korea with a principle of
nonviolence, American Quakers nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and 1985,
making him the first Korean to be nominated. Ham himself felt that he was unworthy.
Nonetheless, his life as a Christian, particularly as a Quaker,
was an attempt to find the truth within his specific historical era,
an era of political oppression and religious narrow-mindedness.
Ham went by the pen name of "Foolish Bird" or "Albatross."
Perhaps his life-style was the same as the albatross.
Though his heart beheld and stayed with the blue sky or idealism,
he was not able to earn even a piece of bread to eat.
His daily bread was given by his friends and fellow people.
In sociological terms, Ham was a marginalized individual.
However Lao-tzu, Jesus, Socrates and John the Baptist were also marginalized individuals in their time.
Perhaps it was this social marginality that helped to form his unique character.
Despite a life of suffering, poverty and persecution,
Ham was free from anger or resentment, thanks to the cultivation and nourishment of his “Inner Light”
(strength), as Quakers called it.
Ham's wife may have respected him as a “righteous man,”
but living hand to mouth below the poverty line possibly showed him as a man unfit to be the head of a family.
Although his son admired him as a great leader of the nation,
he also regarded Ham as a “tiger father” rather than a “friendly dad.”
Perhaps this was Ham’s limitation as a fragile human being.
Moral man and eternal visionary
Ham left the following legacies for today’s Korea.
Firstly, democracy.
Ham's activities were the voice of deprived Korean people when the masses had lost their rights, dignity,
and a voice for themselves.
When, in the minds of countless Koreans, democracy was but a dream, not a reality,
Ham was the symbol of the free man and the personification of democratic ideals.
It seemed to Ham that democracy was a kind of religion,
and that he wanted it to be in a real sense the religion of his fellow Koreans.
Ham also left as a philosophical legacy his idea of the intersection of Western Christianity and
Asian philosophies stemming from his view on religious pluralism.
He combined the essence of Christianity, such as an awareness of social justice,
human rights and protestant spirit, with the essence of Asian philosophies,
such as transcendentalism, comprehensiveness and magnanimity.
As an alloy of copper and zinc makes a new product, brass,
so Ham fused the Asian philosophies and Western Christianity to attain a yet higher stage of humanity.
Due to such legacies, in 2000 Korea selected Ham posthumously as a national cultural figure.
His idealistic view can be compared to the position of the Pole Star,
which at vast distances can prove to be a more definite mark than a nearby hill.
No matter how far one walks in the direction of the Pole Star,
one may never reach it.
But that is no reason to suggest that the Pole Star is not there or that it is a vain goal.
Rather, if one can reach the goal, like the nearby hill,
it cannot be used any more as a definite mark.
While Park Chung-hee or Kim Il-sung were considered by some to be heroes on account of their
successful economic policy and political indoctrination of the people,
respectively, Ham can be considered a moral hero.
He was not a dexterous politician, but was a moral man and eternal visionary.
It seems that everyone is born an idealist,
but as they grow most of them lose their “natural piety” when faced with the real world,
the world of "war against all."
Only a few good people maintain their ideals and dreams,
regardless of the harsh conditions of the outside world.
Certainly Ham was one of them.
Ham was born in this country 110 years ago and lived with us,
and he is still with us, a man of conscience, a Korean Gandhi.
Dr. Kim Sung-soo is the author of “Biography of a Korean Quaker, Ham Sok-hon.”
He can be reached at wadans@empas.com.
Legacy of Ham Sok-hon - The Korea Times
