Pak Un-Sik
Pak Un-Sik
Born 1859 in Hwangju, Hwanghae-pukto Province; died Nov. 9, 1926, in Shanghai. Korean historian, philosopher, and figure in the national liberation movement.
In the early 20th century, Pak Un-sik edited a number of patriotic and instructive newspapers and journals. When Japanese rule was established in Korea in 1910, he emigrated to China, where he published The Tragic History of Korea(Shanghai, 1914), a book exposing the crimes of the Japanese aggressors in Korea. He welcomed the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, through which “freedom and equality for the people became a reality and the freedom and self-determination of all nations was proclaimed.”
Pak Un-sik belonged to the left wing of the Korean national movement in emigration. His world view combined Confucianism with ideas of English positivism and the French Enlightenment. He is the author of The Bloody History of the Movement for Korean Independence, a work reprinted many times.