Pak Yol

Pak Yol (3 February 1902 – 17 January 1974) was a Korean anarchist and 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.

Pak Yol was born in 1902.

In October 1919, Pak enrolled in a 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.

Pak diverged from his teacher in his adoption of Korean nationalism, as he desired the liberation of 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 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.

In November 1921, Pak Yol established the established the Black Wave Society (国党会), the first Korean anarchist organisation in Japan, at a meeting in the house of the Japanese anarchist Iwasa Sakutarō.

Together with Cho Bong-am, Kim Yaksu and Kim Saguk, Pak became a leading figure within the organisation, editing its journal Black Wave (黒糖), which he published from July 1922.

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 nationalist prejudices that divided the two people and establishing a cosmopolitan society.

He considered the means by which to establish such a society to be social revolution, self-cultivation through the practice of mutual aid and direct action against the state.

The organisation quickly drew the attention of the Japanese authorities, which ordered its dissolution only a month after its formation.

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.

By December 1922, the Black Wave Society had experienced a split, with its communist faction establishing the North Star Society, while its anarchist faction established the Black Labor Society.

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.

In February 1923, the anarchists reorganised into the Black Friends' Society and began publishing a journal called Recalcitrant Koreans.

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 Japanese Pan-Asianism, due to the coercive invasion and colonisation of Korea by the Empire of Japan, and disputed the idea of an "Asian race".

Following the publication of its second issue, the Japanese authorities ordered the journal to change its name, fearing it too provocative.

In July 1923, the journal was renamed to The Contemporary Society.

Bak wrote an article for the journal's fourth issue, in which he distinguished between the concepts of politics and power, using the rise of the Bolsheviks to a "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 unionism and the general strike from his conception of anti-capitalist action.

This article represented a continuation of the Korean anarchists' break with the communists and the beginning of Pak's turn towards nihilism.

Together with other Korean and Japanese anarchists, Pak established the Rebellious Society as a sister organisation to the Black Friends' Society.

The Rebellious Society studied and propagated anarchism without taking any visible direct action.

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.

Although Pak and Fumiko 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.

Former members of the Society returned to Korea, where they established the short-lived Black Flag League in 1925.

One of the League's founding members visited Pak and Fumiko in their Ichigaya prison.

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, following the end of World War II.

Fumiko'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.

After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Pak returned to the Korean peninsular, settling in the south.

During the Korean War, he was kidnapped and taken to North Korea.

Pak Yol died in 1974.