KOREAN COMMUNITY NEWS - AUG 2024
Photo taken at 1916 Hung Sa Dahn (흥사단) annual meeting. Dosan is in the middle of the front row.
KOREAN COMMUNITY NEWS
By Eun Byoul Oh
This month in Korean-American community, we are celebrating Young Korean Academy, also known as Hung Sa Dahn (흥사단). YKA was first established on May 13, 1913 in San Francisco in order to fund the Independence Movement in Korea, which was under Japanese occupation.
The organization was founded by Ahn Chang Ho, who is known by his pen name Dosan. The first leaders of the organization were each from eight provinces of Korea. Hong Eon (Gyeonggi Province), Yeom Manseok (Gangwon Province), Chanho Min (Hwanghae Province) Song Jong Ik (Gyeongsang Province), Kim Jonglim (Hamgyeong Province), and Wondo Jeong (Chung Cheong Province).Members of YKA had direct and indirect hand in the organization of independence movements, such as the March First Movement and the 105-Man Incident.
YKA’s mission was to grow young Korean thinkers to promote the spirit of Korea and reunite the Korean communities in the U.S. through churches. YKA has worked to protect the rights of pioneering Korean-Americans. The young scholars of YKA became the future leaders of independent and democratic Korea. The headquarters of YKA later moved to Los Angeles, and it moved to Korea in 1948, when Korea was liberated from Japan in 1948. Currently, the organization continues to be the incubator for young Korean leaders and it continues its mission to preserve Korea’s independence history as well as to commemorate Korean history and culture.
Dosan Ahn Chang Ho pictured YKA’s members as responsible, moral citizens who could be leaders in their community. He laid out three fundamental disciplines and four fundamental principles for YKA’s members to adhere to.
Three Fundamental Disciplines
Personality Discipline forms a healthy personality by developing virtue, training bodies, and acquiring specialized knowledge or manufacturing skills.
Unity Discipline creates sacred organization by keeping the faith, conforming to the rules, and helping by loving each other.
Civil Discipline enhances national dignity by developing a self-reliant spirit and self-governing ability and promoting knowledge about democratic society and a life that participates in community service.
Four Fundamental Principles
Seek the Truth is the principle of putting down a lie and loving the truth, which is, to respect reality.
Act Upon the Truth is the principle of reaching out steadily toward a goal, emphasizing practice and action, rather than empty words.
Be Loyal and Trustworthy is the principle of trying to be honest to others and trying one’s best in everything.
Be Courageous is the principle of living an enterprising life with strong will in each affair - leaving aside hesitation and inaction.
The footprints of Dosan and YKA can be found in various parts of Los Angeles. Several places in Los Angeles bear the name of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho’s: Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Interchange, Santa Monica Fwy, Los Angeles; the Ahn Family House; Dosan Ahn Chang-Ho Memorial, 3750 Main St, Riverside, CA; and the post office in Koreatown, Los Angeles, was renamed after Dosan. Dosan also helped fund the Willows Korean Aviation School in Willows, California (very small town) that trained the Korean pilots for the resistance, two of whom later went on to be the first Korean pilots in the Republic of Korea Air Force.
