Woo-seong Park Yong-man (1881-1928), who founded the National Corps, was born into the noble class in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province. He lost his father at an early age and was raised by his uncle. He went to Japan, where he studied political science at a high school and Keio University, and joined a political party after associating with reformist figures like Park Yeong-hyo.
As a result, he was arrested by the authorities but released after several months. Park Yong-man, who had become a devout Christian, joined the Independence Association and the All People’s Association, where he became a mid-level leader.
While leading the nationalist organization ‘Boan-hoe,’ opposing Japan’s wasteland development rights, he was imprisoned by Japanese police. In prison, he met Syngman Rhee and Jung Soon-man, with whom he formed a sworn brotherhood known as ‘Sam-man’. With the help of Pastor Jeon Deok-ki from Sangdong Methodist Church and missionaries, he went to the United States for study in 1905.
Initially arriving in Honolulu, he came with Syngman Rhee’s seven-year-old son, Bong-su, who was born when Rhee was 15 to a fellow agemate, Park from Eumjuk. As Rhee was studying in the eastern United States at the time, he left his son in the care of an American family. The boy died of diphtheria in Philadelphia a year after arriving in the US.
Park Yong-man intended to settle in San Francisco but moved to Denver to avoid competition with the Public Association centered around Ahn Chang-ho. There, he helped his uncle, Park Jang-hyun, who managed a job placement agency and lodging for Koreans. Park worked at a railroad construction site, in a mine, and studied at Denver Preparatory School and Hastings College in Nebraska, where he studied politics and military science.
In July 1909, while attending military school, he obtained permission from the school principal to train Korean youths and founded the ‘Korean Boys’ Military School’ in Nebraska. He gathered 27 students for military training and in 1912 graduated 13 Korean officers after three years of training.
Syngman Rhee gave a congratulatory speech at the event, and the boys’ military school produced about a hundred officer candidates by 1914. However, the school was discontinued two years after Park left for Hawaii.
From February 1911, Park served as the chief editor of the New Korea News in San Francisco for a year, and in April, he published ‘The National Military Organization Proposal’. This work, serialized ten times in the newspaper ‘Independence’, advocated for a strong nation through tax obligations, military service, and the organization of defense squads composed of national-conscious volunteers. In June 1912, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Nebraska and wrote ‘National Budget’ in July. After graduating, he became the editor of ‘New Korea News’ in Hawaii.
On November 8, 1912, during the establishment of the Central General Meeting of the Korean Association of Hawaii, Park authored the declaration. In June 1914, with the help of the Korean Association, he founded the military school ‘Daehan National Corps Training Center’ in Mahumānu, Hawaii, for the purpose of training independent military officers. The school had a budget of $78,000 and 103 young men enrolled. Park, considered the foremost authority on military training in America, believed that Korea’s independence was possible only by training soldiers through the power of Koreans.
The training regime followed the U.S. military system, but live firearms were not used; instead, wooden guns were used. At its peak, the number of students increased to 331.
Known as ‘Children Over the Mountain’ or ‘Our Independence Army’, they lived in barracks on a pineapple farm, wore military uniforms, and built an arch-style gate at the entrance to the barracks. While military training of foreigners was not permitted within U.S. territories, the military authorities in Hawaii tacitly allowed it. The young trainees endured strenuous military training after working more than ten hours on the hot farm, singing military songs with wooden guns in hand. At that time, the military-style health exercises they performed became popular in the Korean community.
On August 29, 1914, the inauguration day of the consulate building of the corps, a grand inauguration ceremony was attended by over 600 Koreans. However, Park Yong-man’s belief in military power conflicted increasingly with Syngman Rhee’s emphasis on diplomacy, leading to deepening conflicts and clashes. As a result, the Korean community in Hawaii became divided into factions supporting Park Yong-man and Syngman Rhee. Eventually, the military school was closed after about two years, officially due to poor soil conditions at the pineapple farm, but internal conflicts, particularly with Rhee, were also a contributing factor.
Syngman Rhee’s faction criticized Park Yong-man’s military academy for becoming successful, claiming that it split donations and hindered his own educational projects, and accused him of violating U.S. law by conducting military training.
As the donations from Koreans in Hawaii led to conflicts between Syngman Rhee and the Korean Association, Rhee sued over financial issues related to the construction of the Korean Association’s assembly hall. However, Kim Jong-hak, the then-president of the Korean Association, who was acquitted, even attempted suicide. Park Yong-man’s National Corps project also faced financial turmoil. Rhee’s faction accused Park Yong-man’s faction of establishing a Korean corps within U.S. territory, engaging in dangerous activities, and plotting to destroy a Japanese warship upon its arrival in Honolulu, claiming it would provoke a significant incident between the U.S. and Japan and disrupt peace, leading to a complaint to the Honolulu Police Department. An Chang-ho arrived in Honolulu on January 15, 1915, to resolve this dispute, but returned without resolution.
Eventually, Park Yong-man’s support weakened due to non-cooperation from the Hawaiian government and Japanese sabotage, leading to the closure of the military school base in 1916. Park returned to San Francisco and then back to Hawaii, where he became the chief editor of the ‘Pacific Times’ launched in November 1918. That same month, during the March 1st Movement, he allied with national liberation organizations in Korea, Manchuria, the Russian Far East, and China, and established the ‘Greater Korean Independence Group’.
In April 1919, Park Yong-man was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, but declined the position knowing that Syngman Rhee wanted to limit the independence movement to diplomacy and petitions. Park, committed to his lifelong wish for military training and action, went to China to continue the anti-Japanese movement and established a major company.
In 1920, after consulting with Park Yong-man, No Baek-rin established a Korean aviator training center in Willows, California. Park, a soldier and scholar, lived by Christian values as the foremost leader of the Korean Association in Hawaii and emphasized Korean language education. He compiled a primary school Korean textbook in 1927. While tirelessly working for Korea’s independence in China, Park Yong-man was assassinated in Beijing on October 17, 1928, at the age of 47.
With Syngman Rhee becoming president, Park Yong-man’s contributions to the independence movement were largely obscured and underappreciated. According to various documents, Park’s merits have been underestimated and deserve to be reevaluated for his devoted efforts in the independence movement.
In 1995, the government posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor.
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