Philip Jaisohn is the anglicized name used by Seo Jae Pil (서재필), a noted activist for Korea's independence during the Japanese occupation, and the first Korean to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.
[edit] Birth and early political activity
Philip Jaisohn was born in 1864 as the second son of a county magistrate in Boseong in Jeollanam-do. He passed the gwageo civil service exam and became a junior official in 1882. In the following year, he was sent to Japan where he studied at both the Keio Gijuku (the forerunner of the Keio University) and at the Toyama Army Academy for two years.
After returning to Korea in 1884, he was involved, along with Kim Ok-kyun and others, in the Gapsin coup d'état to overturn the old regime and was appointed as the Minister of Defence by the revolutionaries. The revolution, however, was toppled within three days, as China intervened with military forces, and Seo was forced to an exile in Japan, and later, in the United States.
[edit] Life in the United States
In the United States, he began to use the anglicized name "Philip Jaisohn" while attending the Harry Hillman Academy. In 1890 he was the first Korean to become a naturalized citizen of the United States. This was unusual at the time since American law at the time stated citizenship was only available to the white race. Later he studied medicine at the Columbian Medical College (later George Washington University Medical School), receiving the medical degree in 1892 (the first Korean to receive a degree from a medical institution). In 1894, he married Muriel Armstrong, a niece of the former president of the United States, James Buchanan.
[edit] Return to Korea
In 1896, the plotters of 1884 were pardoned and Seo/Jaisohn returned to Korea at the invitation of Park Young Hyo, another former conspirator of Kapsin Coup, who had just been appointed Prime Minister to serve as an advisor to the Korean government. In Seoul, he founded the Independence Club (독립협회) and published a newspaper, The Independence (독립신문), to promote national independence and the diffusion of liberal democracy. His newspaper, in particular, was the first civilian newspaper in Korean--other Korean newspapers continued to use significant numbers of Hanja for decades.
The Independence Club was particularly critical of corruption or misconduct of members of governmental officials, a fact that earned the organization much displeasure from the official quarters. The government in 1898 accused the Club of seeking to overthrow the monarchy and establish a Republic. Following the arrest of seventeen of its leaders in late 1898, the organization was formally ordered disbanded on December 25, 1899. He was forced to return to the United States once again. The fact he was an American citizen probably saved his life at this time.
[edit] Later life
Back in the United States, he both practiced medicine and became a successful businessman in Philadelphia. He was also involved in medical research and published a number of articles in specialized medical journals. Following the formal annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910, Jaisohn collaborated with various Korean exiles in United States to help advance the cause of Korean independence, organizing, among others, the organization called the League of Friends of Korea in 1920.
He would return to Korea once again after Japan's defeat in World War II, as the American military government in control of what would become South Korea invited him as an advisor in 1947. He felt uneasy about the country's gradual slide towards Syngman Rhee's dictatorship, but the chaotic conditions in Korea combined with his advanced age, made it difficult for him to achieve much. Disappointed, he returned to the United States where he died in January 1951.
