View source for Pak Yol

{{Short description|Korean independence activist (1902–1974)}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{family name hatnote|Park||lang=Korean}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Pak Yol
|image = Park Yeol.JPG
|birth_name = Pak Jun-sik
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|02|03|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Mungyeong]], [[North Gyeongsang Province]], [[Korean Empire]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|01|17|1902|02|03|df=y}}
|death_place = [[North Korea]]
|module = {{Infobox Korean name|child=yes
|hangul = 박열
|hanja  = {{linktext|朴|烈}}
|rr = Bak Yeol
|mr = Pak Yŏl
|hangulborn = 박준식
|hanjaborn  = {{linktext|朴|準|植}}
|rrborn = Bak Junsik
|mrborn = Pak Jun-sik}}
}}
'''Pak Yol''' ({{Korean|hangul=박열}}; 3 February 1902 – 17 January 1974) was a Korean [[Anarchism in Korea|anarchist]] and [[Korean independence movement|independence activist]] who was convicted of [[high treason]] in Japan for conspiring to attack the [[Imperial House of Japan]] and assassinate [[Emperor Hirohito]]. His name is also spelled '''Bak Yeol''', and he is also sometimes known by his birth name '''Pak Jun-sik'''. In Japanese his name was rendered '''Boku Retsu'''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Steinhoff|first=Patricia G.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2385344|title=The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman|journal=[[Monumenta Nipponica]]|year=1992|volume=47|issue=4|pages=551-553|jstor=2385344}} (Cited page 551)</ref> Park was sentenced to death in March 1926, albeit his sentence was commuted to life in prison the following month. He was released from prison by U.S. military occupation authorities in October 1945, following the end of [[World War II]].
==Biography==
Pak Yol was born in 1902.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=13, 67}} In October 1919, Pak enrolled in a [[Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement|work-study program]] and moved to Tokyo, where he delivered newspapers to support his studies. He joined a number of radical student societies, through which he met the Japanese communist [[Hitoshi Yamakawa]] and the anarchist [[Ōsugi Sakae]]. Ōsugi was particularly influential on Pak's personal and political development, convincing him to convert to [[anarchism]] and join the [[labour movement]].{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=68}} Pak diverged from his teacher in his adoption of [[Korean nationalism]], as he desired the liberation of [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]] from the rule of the [[Empire of Japan]]. Pak was also inspired by [[individualism]] and [[nihilism]], holding the state to be the principal factor in the [[exploitation of labour]] and calling for its [[anti-statism|abolition]]. Pak called for the masses to take [[direct action]] against the Japanese state in all its manifestations, including the police, army and even the Emperor himself.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=68}}
In November 1921, Pak Yol established the Black Wave Society ({{Korean|흑도회|rr=Heukdo hoe}}; {{langx|ja|黒濤会|translit=Kokutō kai}}), the first Korean anarchist organisation in Japan,{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=63, 67}} at a meeting in the house of the Japanese anarchist [[Iwasa Sakutarō]].{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=68}} Together with [[Cho Bong-am]], {{ill|Kim Yaksu|ko|김약수}} and {{ill|Kim Saguk|ko|김사국}},{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=63}} Pak became a leading figure within the organisation, editing its journal ''Black Wave'' ({{langx|ja|黒濤|translit=Kokutō}}), which he published from July 1922.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=67}} Pak wrote in the inaugural edition of ''Black Wave'' that its goal was to expose sympathetic Japanese people to the problems faced by Koreans within the Empire, with the ultimate aim of dissolving the [[Prejudice#Nationalism|nationalist prejudices]] that divided the two people and establishing a [[cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan society]].{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=69}} He considered the means by which to establish such a society to be [[social revolution]], self-cultivation through the practice of [[mutual aid (organization theory)|mutual aid]] and direct action against the state.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=69-70}} The organisation quickly drew the attention of the Japanese authorities, which ordered its dissolution only a month after its formation.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=68}}
In September 1922, Pak travelled to [[Keijō]] (today [[Seoul]]), in order to report on an anti-Korean massacre that had taken place in [[Niigata Prefecture]]. Shortly afterwards, local anarchists established a local branch of the Black Labor Society, although it was dissolved by the authorities in January 1923. During his trip, Pak attempted to obtain bombs for an action he had planned in Japan.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=97}}
By December 1922, the Black Wave Society had experienced a split, with its communist faction establishing the North Star Society ({{Korean|북성회|rr=Bukseong hoe}}), while its anarchist faction established the Black Labor Society ({{Korean|흥로회|rr=Heungno hoe}}).{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=68-69}} In February 1923, the anarchists reorganised into the Black Friends' Society ({{Korean|흑우회|rr=Heuk-u hoe}}) and began publishing a journal called ''Recalcitrant Koreans'' ({{Korean|후토이 센진|rr=Hutoi senjin}}).{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=68-69, 71}} In its inaugural issue, the journal reaffirmed its goal of exposing the conditions of Koreans to sympathetic Japanese workers, while its second stated goal (possibly calling for Korean independence) was censored by the Japanese authorities. In the second issue, Pak published an article in which he criticised [[Pan-Asianism#Japanese Pan-Asianism|Japanese Pan-Asianism]], due to the coercive invasion and colonisation of Korea by the Empire of Japan, and disputed the idea of an "[[Asian people|Asian race]]". Following the publication of its second issue, the Japanese authorities ordered the journal to change its name, fearing it too provocative.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=71}} In July 1923, the journal was renamed to ''The Contemporary Society''.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=68-69, 72}} Bak wrote an article for the journal's fourth issue, in which he distinguished between the concepts of [[politics]] and [[social and political power|power]], using the rise of the [[Bolsheviks]] to a "[[new class|new privileged class]]" as an example. In order to avoid creating such a new class, Pak advocated for direct action against [[capitalism]], although he disregarded [[trade union]]ism and the [[general strike]] from his conception of anti-capitalist action.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=72-73}} This article represented a continuation of the Korean anarchists' break with the communists and the beginning of Pak's turn towards nihilism.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=73}}<!-- Pak and Kim Taeyop {{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=79}}-->
Together with other Korean and Japanese anarchists, Pak established the Rebellious Society ({{Korean|후테이샤|rr=Huteisha}}) as a sister organisation to the Black Friends' Society. The Rebellious Society studied and propagated anarchism without taking any visible direct action.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=72}} Following the [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake]], Pak and his lover [[Kaneko Fumiko]] were arrested and charged with allegedly plotting to assassinate the Emperor of Japan.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=67-68}} Although Pak and Kaneko were sentenced for the alleged plot, other members of the Rebellious Society managed to remain unmolested by the authorities, as they took no visible direct action.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=72}} Former members of the Society returned to Korea, where they established the short-lived Black Flag League ({{Korean|흑기연맹|rr=Heukgi yeonmaeng}}) in 1925.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=97-98}} One of the League's founding members visited Pak and Kaneko in their [[Ichigaya]] prison.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=98}} Kaneko's death in her [[Utsunomiya]] prison, on 23 July 1926, spurred many Korean anarchists to leave Japan and return to the Korean peninsular. There Korean anarchism experienced a revival in activity, particularly in the North, where Korean anarchists sought revenge for her death.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=104}}
After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Pak returned to the Korean peninsula, settling in the south. During the [[Korean War]], he was kidnapped and taken to [[North Korea]].{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|p=157}} Pak Yol died in 1974.{{Sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=13, 67}}
==In popular culture==
* Portrayed by [[Lee Je-hoon]] in the 2017 film ''[[Anarchist from Colony]]''.
==See also==
*[[Amakasu Incident]]
*[[Toranomon Incident]]
*[[Assassination attempts on Hirohito]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|2}}
*{{cite book |last1=Hwang |first1=Dongyoun |title=Anarchism in Korea: Independence, Transnationalism, and the Question of National Development, 1919-1984 |url=https://libcom.org/files/Anarchism%20in%20Korea_%20Independenc%20-%20Dongyoun%20Hwang.pdf |date=2016 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |location=[[Albany, New York]] |isbn=978-1-4384-6167-0 |oclc=1039293708 }}
*{{cite book |last=Raddeker |first=Hélène Bowen |year=1997 |title=Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415171120 }}
{{refend}}
==External links==
*{{cite web
| url = http://populargusts.blogspot.com/2007/02/park-yeol-kaneko-fumiko-and-korean.html
| title = Park Yeol, Kaneko Fumiko, and Korean Anarchism
| access-date = 2009-01-03
| date = 2007-02-01
}}
{{Commons category}}
{{Anarchism}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Yol}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:Korean resistance members]]
[[Category:Korean anarchists]]
[[Category:Korean prisoners sentenced to death]]
[[Category:Failed regicides]]
[[Category:People from Mungyeong]]
[[Category:People convicted of treason against Japan]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Japan]]
[[Category:Zainichi Korean history]]
[[Category:Korean expatriates in Japan]]