Homer Bezaleel Hulbert (January 26, 1863 – August 5, 1949) was an American missionary, journalist, and political activist who advocated for the independence of
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
.
Biography
Hulbert was born in
New Haven, Vermont
New Haven is a town in Addison County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,683 at the 2020 census. In addition to the town center, New Haven contains the communities of Belden (sometimes called Belden Falls), Brooksville, New Haven Juncti ...
, in 1863 to
Calvin Calvin may refer to:
Names
* Calvin (given name)
** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
* Calvin (surname)
** Particularly John Calvin, theologian
Places
In the United States
* Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet
* Calvi ...
and Mary Hulbert. His mother, Mary Elizabeth Woodward Hulbert, was a granddaughter of Mary Wheelock, daughter of
Eleazar Wheelock
Eleazar Wheelock (April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779) was an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in Lebanon, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He had tutored Samson Occom, a Mohe ...
, the founder of
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
. After graduating from St. Johnsbury Academy and Dartmouth College, Hulbert attended
Union Theological Seminary in 1884. He originally visited Korea in 1886 with two other instructors, Delzell A. Bunker and George W. Gilmore, to teach English at the Royal English School. In 1901 he founded the magazine ''The Korea Review''. Before 1905, his attitude towards Japanese involvement in Korea was positive, as he saw the Japanese as agents of reform, in contrast to Russia, which he saw as reactionary. He changed his position in September 1905, when he criticized Japanese plans to turn the Korean Empire into a protectorate.
He resigned his position as a teacher in a public middle school, and in October 1905, he went to the United States as an emissary of Emperor
Gojong to protest Japan's actions.
After returning to the Korean Empire in 1906, he was sent as part of a secret delegation from Gojong to the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague in June 1907. The Korean delegation failed to gain a hearing with other world powers, and the Japanese used Gonjong's actions as a pretext to force him to abdicate.
Hulbert's 1906 book, ''The Passing of Korea'', criticized Japanese rule. He was not so much theoretically opposed to colonialism as he was concerned that modernization under the secular Japanese was inferior to a Christian-inspired modernization. He was expelled by the Japanese resident-general for Korea on May 8, 1907.
Legacy
Hulbert contributed to the advancement of
hangeul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The ...
with his research and study into the orthography and the grammar of Hangul with
Ju Si-gyeong
Ju Sigyeong (, December 22, 1876 – July 27, 1914) was one of the founders of modern Korean linguistics. He was born in Pongsan-gun, Hwanghae-do in 1876. He helped to standardize the Korean language, based on the spelling and grammar of vernacu ...
. He also made the first hangeul (Korean) textbook ''Sămin p'ilji'' 사민필지 ("Essential Knowledge for Scholars and Commoners").
He was reported to have been a close personal friend of Gojong.
Syngman Rhee, one of his middle school students, became the first President of Korea and invited Hulbert back to Korea in 1948. It was on that trip that Hulbert developed pneumonia and died. Hulbert's tombstone reads, "I would rather be buried in Korea than in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
." He is interred at
Yanghwajin Foreigners' Cemetery
Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery ( ko, 양화진외국인선교사묘원), also known as the Hapjeong-dong () International Cemetery, is a cemetery overlooking the Han River in the district of Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Designated in 189 ...
in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
. He was the recipient of the
Order of Merit for National Foundation
The Order of Merit for National Foundation (Hangul: 건국훈장) is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for th ...
by the Korean government. He is referred to in the Republic of Korea as a 독립유공자 (contributor to independence). A statue of Hulbert was established in his honor, the only such statue dedicated to an American civilian in Seoul.
Anthropology
Homer Hulbert said that Korea and Japan have the same two racial types, but Japan is mostly
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
and Korea is mostly
Manchu-Korean. Hulbert said that Korea is physically mostly of the northern type but also said that the nation, being physically mostly of the northern type, did not disprove Hulbert's claim that the Malay element developed Korea's first civilization although it was not necessarily originating Korea's first civilization, and the Malay element imposed its language in its main features in the entire peninsula. Hulbert said that in Korea there was a
genetic admixture
Genetic admixture occurs when previously diverged or isolated genetic lineages mix.⅝ Admixture results in the introduction of new genetic lineages into a population.
Examples
Climatic cycles facilitate genetic admixture in cold periods and gene ...
with Chinese blood that stopped more than 1000 years ago.
[Kim, Ji-myung. (2014). Champion of the Rose of Sharon. '']The Korea Times
''The Korea Times'' is the oldest of three English-language newspapers published daily in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the '' Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language daily; both are owned by Dongwha Enterprise, a wood-based manufacture ...
''. Retrieved May 31, 2017, fro
link.
/ref>
Selected bibliography
* 1892 ''The Korean Repository'' (He was the editor of this monthly magazine)
* 1889 ''Knowledge Necessary for All''
* 1903 ''Sign of the Jumna''
1903 ''Search for a Siberian Klondike''
* 1905 ''The History of Korea''
1905 ''Comparative Grammar of Korean and Dravidian''
1906 ''The Passing of Korea''
1907 ''The Japanese in Korea: Extracts from the Korea Review''
* 1925 ''Omjee - The Wizard''
* 1926 ''The Face in the Mist''
See also
* Royal English School (육영공원 Korean Wikipedia)
References
Homer Hulbert Biography. Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branc
Homer Hulbert Biography , Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch
External links
The Hulbert Memorial Society
*
*
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History Trivia(Ep.13) Homer Hulbert(호머 헐버트)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulbert, Homer
1863 births
1949 deaths
American Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in Korea
Korean independence activists
Recipients of the Order of Merit for National Foundation
People from New Haven, Vermont
American expatriates in Korea
Paleolinguists
Missionary linguists