Introduction
1. An Historian's Perspective
Ham Sokhon was one of the most provocative Christian thinkers and civil rights leaders in Korea in the twentieth century. Symbolically, Ham began his life at the start of this century (1901-1989), which has seen the most rapid social and political transformation in Korea both in society and in its people. The twentieth century in Korea can best be described as an era of anxiety and tension, politically as well as historically. Hence, Korea has seen a variety of challenges in each decade of this century and Ham responded to each challenge.
Ham was regarded as a religious and philosophical Bohemian within the Korean Christian realm. Nonetheless, Ham was an important figure in terms of modern Korean intellectual history, the civil rights movement and the movement for democracy. Ham does not fit well into any one of the typical classifications which we use to summarise people involved in any of these movements. His ideas and activities were so boundless that most Koreans were not able to put a title to his nature. Ham, nevertheless has had a crucial effect on several of the more distinguished figures who feature commonly in the mass media and in the controversies connected with human rights and democracy. While Ham's religious and political ideas were rarely ever put into practice during his life time, they profoundly influenced the thinking and actions of more practical social reformers and politicians, such as Kim Donggill (Kim Tonggil: 1928- ), Ahn Byungmu (An Pyongmu: 1922-1996), Kim Daejung (Kim Taejung: 1923- ), Kim Youngsam (Kim Yongsam: 1928- ) and others.
Who was Ham? For the public, he was a writer who knew the East Asian classics as well as the Bible and who was a uniquely inspiring interpreter of both of them. Ham's life could be summed up as a pacifist resister against unjust political regimes. His thoughts could be described as those of a religious nonconformist and a spiritual maverick.
When I came to examine the life and work of Ham, I felt an enormous responsibility, because I realised I had to examine his inner beliefs. Perhaps Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was right when he spoke about the life story of Gandhi: "No man can write about the real life and thought of Gandhi, unless he is as big as Gandhi." Nevertheless, as far as I have been able, I have tried to analyse Ham's life and work dispassionately.
Throughout the twentieth century the Korean peninsula has faced intense social unrest and political upheaval. Korea saw immense socio-political shifts during this time. The Korean people have experienced both external turmoil and internal agony, including colonial subjugation by Japan (1910-45), the Korean War (1950-53), the April Revolution and the collapse of the First Republic (1960), and military coups and subsequent dictatorships (1961-1987). Korea's annexation as a colony was particularly relevant in deforming her identity, since Japan changed Korea more profoundly than, for example, Britain transformed any of its colonial states. It attempted to extinguish the Korean language, and imposed fierce pressure on Koreans to forsake their family names - an act of atrocious persecution in a culture centred on family lineage. That is why as David Sanders has argued:
"Notwithstanding the occasional riot and Gandhi's civil disobedience campaign of 1940-1 there was relatively little serious open resistance to the Raj during the war years. This absence of outright [Indian] nationalist opposition was partly a reflection of the recognition that the Japanese - poised to attack India from their bases in Burma - were even more undesirable as potential colonial masters than the awful British."
Additionally, from 1945 the United States saw south Korea as a buffer in the bipolar Cold War power system. The United States Commander Lt.Gen. John R. Hodge (1893-1963), on arrival in Korea declared that he deemed the Koreans "breeds of the same cat as the Japanese" and would deal with them as conquered enemies. Indeed, there was an inclination to deal with Koreans in this way rather than as new partners by the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). Therefore, it seems that the United States troops came to south Korea as 'Conquerors' rather than 'Liberators'. In this respect, it is worth noting how closely attached were United States military officials and the former pro-Japanese Korean officials even after the liberation of Korea from Japan. Within such an historical environment, Ham described Korean history as the 'Broken Axle' and 'Disaster upon Disaster'.
In terms of her culture, change has also taken place during this time. Yet Confucianism, which was the state's main ideology from the fourteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century, still remains a powerful ideological force today. Other religious faiths have been introduced over the centuries, including Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity. Traditional shamanism also retains its hold. It is thus a controversial statement either to declare that Korea's ideological culture has changed little or to assert that it has changed profoundly, since this depends upon one's viewpoint. It seems that Korea has willingly accepted Western ideology and religion, in particular Christianity since the end of the nineteenth century.
Nevertheless, when I reviewed my personal experiences as a Sunday School teacher (1979-1981), and as a Christian magazine editor (1985-1987) at a Presbyterian church, the basic characteristics of Korean Christianity and its churches seemed not so different from traditional Confucianism. That is, Christianity has adjusted its pattern of ecclesiology to fit the hierarchical and authoritarian values of Confucianism. Ministers and church leaders rule as paterfamilias with corresponding responsibilities to, and loyalty from, subordinate children and the church laity, rather than accepting its egalitarian individualism.
Family-centred Confucianism has reappeared as church-centred or denomination-centred Christianity. For example, churches of the same denomination in the same region become fierce competitors for members. Clergymen are interested neither in social issues nor in political questions, but only in their own denominational church affairs. In view of this, these churchgoers only show their strongly self-centred outlook and collective egoism.
On all sides, Ham's life and work reflected the external social turmoil and internal religious quest that twentieth century Korea has experienced. It seems to me that he was a poet, journalist, historian, religious thinker, educator, prolific writer and social activist, as well as being a civil rights leader for democracy. What is more, his ideas were open-ended not only towards the East Asian classical philosophies of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, but also towards traditional Christianity, the Non-Church Movement, Quakerism, Western sciences and rationalism.
If Ham had not been born during the time of confusion in twentieth century Korea, he said he would have enjoyed living as a 'quiet gardener'; he was fond of raising various orchids. Calmness and peace were Ham's highest values. As he recalled: "How happy I should be, if I could only grow flowers at home alone and quietly." But there comes a time, as it came in Ham's life, when a man is denied the right to live a customary and quiet life, when he can only live the life of an outlaw because the political regime so dictates against his will. Clearly Ham was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary surroundings.
Unfortunately or fortunately, Ham was born in a time of upheaval. Therefore, he had to think, act and sacrifice his personal freedom, not only in order to pursue the greatest freedom for the greatest number, but also to protect the minority's rights from abuse by the majority. Not surprisingly, Ham was imprisoned nine times throughout his life, not only under Japanese colonial rule and Russian Communist rule but also under the Korean governments of Syngman Rhee, Park Chunghee and Chun Doohwan. Furthermore Ham was unable to mourn for his parents: when his father passed away, Ham was in prison under the Japanese colonial regime; when he had to escape from Russian-occupied north Korea he left his mother behind.
Ham had to fight for the freedom of his countrymen and to preserve humanity. Ham summed up his life as follows: "I am a man who has been 'kicked' by God, just as a boy kicks a ball in the direction he wants it to go. I have been driven and led by Him." In other words, Ham was obliged to fight in order to preserve, love and for democracy in his country. In such a historical context, one cannot underestimate the degree of interconnection between the socio-political uproar and the life and thought of the man.
My thesis not only reflects my personal view on Ham's life and work; it also considers an inner account of religion (essentially Christianity) and the history of Korea. As a whole, this thesis will consider three main topics: First, the historical background within which Ham lived and struggled; second, Ham's life from 1901 to 1989, and how various influences affected the development and consolidation of his ideas; and third, Ham's thought, in particular his ideological originality and philosophical contributions to the modern world as an intermediary between the East and the West. This thesis fills crucial gaps in the literature on Ham, as there has been no doctoral study whatsoever either within Korea or in the rest of the world on Ham's life and work. Although there are five MA theses on Ham in Korea's universities and one in the United Kingdom by myself, study has generally been centred on a partial description of Ham's life or certain of Ham's ideas.
My thesis consists of an evaluation of the life and work of Ham and its relationship to modern Korean history. This evaluation is essential as the true recording of modern Korean history has been repressed in turn by Japanese colonialism, the Cold War, and three decades of military dictatorship. It has also been glorified and exalted from a nationalist historical view. It is crucial to reappraise what has really happened in the Korean peninsula during this century. In What Is History?, E. H. Carr emphasises the importance of historical reappraisal, commenting "history is an unending dialogue between the present and the past".
This thesis is also written to add to the historical literature on Ham and as a contribution to the religious pluralism literature from Ham's philosophical perspective. I hope this thesis will contribute towards those who are interested in international relations, and world peace as well as towards those who wish to learn about Korea, East Asian religions, the development of universalism in Christianity, the Quaker interpretation of Christianity and the spiritual development of a man, Ham Sokhon. Furthermore, this thesis has been written with what I hope to be an invigorating combination of the general and the specific. At the same time, background information is included so that a reader with no prior knowledge of Korea can appreciate aspects of Korean history, politics, culture and religion. As a comprehensive picture of Ham, this thesis explores a baseline for assessment of both the contributions and the limitations of Ham, along with which it may serve, at the very least, as an historical document.