Ahn Chang-ho

Ahn was a Protestant social activist who in 1907 established the later prominent Korean independence organization Shinminhoe when he returned to Korea from the US. He also established the Young Korean Academy in San Francisco in 1913, and was a key founding member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in 1919. He is also one of two men believed to have written the lyrics of the South Korean national anthem, "Aegukga".

• Honorific Prefix — The Right Honourable • Name — Ahn Chang Ho • Order — 6th President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea • Term Start — May 3, 1926 • Term End — May 16, 1926 • Predecessor — Yi Dongnyeong • Successor — Yi Dongnyeong • Born — 9 November 1878 • Birthplace — Kangso County, South Pyongan Province, Joseon • Died — 10 March 1938 • Place of death — Keijō Imperial University Hospital, Keijō, Korea, Empire of Japan • Spouse — Helen Lee (Yi Hye-ryon) • Children — 5; including Philip, Susan and Ralph • Blank1 — Religion • Data1 — Protestantism (Presbyterianism)

Ahn was born Ahn Chi-sam on 9 November 1878 in Kangso County, Pyeongan Province, Joseon (present-day South Pyongan, North Korea). He was the third son of father An Hŭng-kuk, and mother Hwang Mong-un. Ahn came from the Sunheung Ahn clan, and his ancestry can be traced back to the prominent Goryeo scholar Ahn Hyang. Ahn was born into an impoverished farming family during the unstable last few decades of the Joseon dynasty. He began studying at a seodang around age 8 in preparation for the gwageo, the demanding civil service examinations that determined placement in government intellectual jobs. After his father died when he was around age 11, he was raised by his grandfather. Ahn changed his name around age 10; his father also changed his name from Ahn Kyo-jin to Ahn Heung-guk. In 1895, 16-year-old Ahn was disturbed by the destruction of the First Sino-Japanese War, and became determined to improve Korea. He moved to Seoul to receive a Western-style education at a Presbyterian missionary-sponsored school in Seoul run by Horace Grant Underwood and Rev. F. S. Miller called Kusehaktang. He studied there for three years, converting to Christianity and working for Dr. Oliver R. Avison at Chejungwon, the first medical institution in Korea (now part of Yonsei University Medical Center). Around 1897, he joined the Independence Club and became a leader of its Pyongyang branch. Through this short-lived club, he gave speeches to crowds of hundreds and became associated with people who would become prominent in the independence movement, including Syngman Rhee and Yun Ch'iho. He also became engaged to his future wife Helen Ahn around this time. He then returned to his home province of Pyeongan, and around 1899 established the Chŏmjin school, the first coeducational school founded by a Korean, and the T'anp'ori Church. He then decided to further his education by going to the US. He married Helen on 3 September 1902, and shortly afterwards departed for the US.

• Illustration — Ahn's original passport, numbered 51, issued by the Korean Empire on 9 August 1902, is now located in the Independence Hall of Korea. On October 14, 1902, Ahn and his wife arrived in San Francisco. They were among the first Koreans to move to the US, and the first married Korean couple to do so, with passports numbered 51 and 52. In order to learn how to speak English, Ahn enrolled in an American primary school. He also sought work from Koreans who had already settled there. The couple had a difficult time finding work due to anti-Asian sentiment and their poor English skills. While work was available in the agricultural sector, Korean immigrants still had a difficult time getting employment there due to a Japanese monopoly on labor contracts and the lack of their own labor bureau.

• Illustration — Ahn Chang Ho picking oranges in Riverside (1912) In 1904, they moved to Riverside after encouragement from two Korean friends who worked on citrus farms there. There, Ahn acquired employment at Alta Cresta Groves and help establishing the Korean Employment Bureau (also "Korean Labor Bureau"), which contributed to the growth of the Korean population there. Ultimately, his efforts to bring Koreans there led to the establishment of Pachappa Camp, also sometimes called "Dosan's Republic". A number of academics and city of Riverside consider it to be the first Korean settlement in the US, and in 2017 the Camp was designated a "Point of Cultural Interest" by the Riverside City Council.

Kim was a founder and leader of a series of early Korean American organizations that eventually become the Korean National Association. On September 22, 1903, Ahn and eight others founded the first ever Korean American organization, the Korean Friendship Society, and he was elected its first president. During that time, around 20 Koreans lived in San Francisco, including the Ahns. In 1904, this group played a key role in settling and educating hundreds of Korean immigrants coming from Asia and Hawaii. On 4 April 1905, the Society changed its name to the Mutual Assistance Society (or alternatively Mutual Assistance Association). Its headquarters was at 938 Pacific St. in San Francisco. Under the Society's umbrella, Ahn also co-founded a newspaper entitled The United Korean (also "Kong Lip Shinbo" or "The Independent"), on 20 November 1905. It was the predecessor of the 1909 newspaper Sinhan Minbo. During the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, their office burned down, leading them to publish from Oakland instead. The Sinhan Minbo would continue to publish and be a significant source of news about the Korean peninsula until well after World War II. On March 23, 1908, Durham Stevens was assassinated, after publicly claiming that Korea was better off under Japanese occupation. This created massive anti-Korean sentiment. In response, the Mutual Assistance Society merged with the Hawaii-based United Korean Society, becoming the Korean National Association on 10 February 1909. This newly-formed group was widely regarded as representing Korean-Americans until the end of World War II.

In 1926, he departed San Pedro, California by ship, heading for China. He would not return to the United States often from this point onwards, although he and his family remained registered as residents of 106 North Figueroa St, Los Angeles through April 24, 1930. Over the course of Ahn's anti-Japanese activism in Korea, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese Imperial government at least five times. He was first arrested in 1909 in connection with Ahn Jung-geun's assassination of Itō Hirobumi, the Japanese Resident General of Korea. Ahn was tortured and punished many times over the course of his years of his activism. In 1932 he was arrested in Shanghai, China in connection with Yun Bong-gil's bombing at Hongkew Park (April 29, 1932). He was a naturalized Chinese citizen by this time and was illegally extradited to Korea, where he was convicted of violating Japan's "Preservation of Peace Laws" and sentenced to five years in Daejeon prison.

• Illustration — Ahn Chang-ho (1937.11.10) In 1937, Japanese authorities arrested Ahn, but due to complications from severe internal illness, he was released on bail and transferred to the Keijō Imperial University (now Seoul National University Hospital) where he died on March 10, 1938. Judging that Ahn Changho's death might lead to rebellion, the Japanese military limited the number of mourners at his funeral, allowing only a small number of relatives to attend.

• Illustration — Ahn's children, Ralph, Philip, and Susan during World War II • Illustration — The Ahn Family in Los Angeles. From left, Philson, Changho, Soorah (lap), Philip, Susan and Helen (1917) Ahn married Helen Ahn (née Lee) (21 April 1884 – 21 April 1969) on 3 September 1902, shortly before their immigration to the US, and they remained married until his death in 1938. She was a housewife and raised the couple's children on her own for many years. She also actively supported the independence movement through local fundraising and community organizing. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 2008 by the South Korean government and is buried in Dosan Park, along with her husband. The couple had three sons and two daughters. Sons Philip Ahn and Ralph Ahn were actors. Philip is considered the first Korean-American actor in Hollywood and one of the most prolific Asian-American actors of his time, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Susan Ahn Cuddy was a US Navy lieutenant who worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Library of Congress, and the US Department of Defense. She was the first woman to serve as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy. Soorah Ahn Buffum (27 May 1917 – 18 June 2016) was a restaurateur and 1948 graduate of USC. She died at age 99. Philson Ahn (5 July 1912 – 23 May 2001) was an engineer and aerospace executive. He acted in minor roles in several films and attained his Bachelor in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He never learned to speak Korean very well. Despite the mistrust of Asians during World War II, he worked at the Hughes Aircraft Company first as a chemist and later as a manager, and contributed to the development of the infamous Hughes H-4 Hercules. In the later parts of the war, he was later scouted by the US Office of Strategic Services, which worked on missions such as the Eagle Project to destabilize Japan, but was prevented from doing so by his company. He visited Korea for the first time in 1992 at age 79.

Ahn Chang-ho is recorded as politician, writer, pedagogue, patriot and philosopher.