뉴욕 소약국민동맹회의와 재미 한인의 독립운동

Abstract

The Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities was the meeting in which representatives from twenty-four to twenty-five nations affected by President Woodrow Wilson’s principle of national self-determination and the new era of democracy participated. The meeting was held to insist upon and achieve rights and contexts for the small and subject nations at the peace conference expected to be held immediately after the end of World War I. The purpose of this research was to investigate the activities of Korean representatives who participated in the New York Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities on two separate occasions in 1917 and 1918. In 1917, Park Yong-man was sent as a Korean representative by the Hawaii Branch of the National Association. In 1918, the headquarters of the Korean National Association, which represented all Korean-Americans, dispatched Min Chan-ho and Henry Chung as delegates. The New Korea Association which Koreans-Americans in New York separately organized dispatched Kim Hun-seek as a representative of Korean-Americans. In the first meeting in 1917, Park Yong-man delivered a touching address that made the delegations from around the world sympathize with and support Korean independence matters. In 1918, the activities of the delegations dispatched by the Headquarters of the Korean National Association were not particularly noticeable, however. The independence petition activity of the New Korea Association reported by American and Japanese media, however, raised interest in the independence movement among overseas Koreans, including those in the United States. The headquarters of the Korean National Association regarded the Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities as a stepping stone in preparation for the Paris Peace Conference. However, the Korean National Association did not neglect preparation of the Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities. The Congress outlined the activity guidelines of the Korean delegations and propelled their participation in the Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities, including providing financial support. The result of the Korean delegations’ activities was not particularly remarkable compared to such efforts. The Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities was an ideal international meeting for small and weak nations such as the colonial Korean nation before and after World War I. It was the first experience in an international meeting for Korean-Americans in the 1910s where delegations of Korean-Americans participated. Whatever the result, these two new international experiences cultured the discerning eye and the ability of Korean-Americans to deal with and prepare Korean independence issues in the changing international situations. Furthermore, these experiences could provide stimulation for Korean students in Tokyo to seek a new independence movement with the changes in international politics. In this way, the activities for participation in the Congress of the League of Small and Subject Nationalities were the driving force that brought about and propelled the heat of the independence movement for Korean-Americans. It can be said that the Congress provided a good basis for expanding the prospect of a Korean independence Movement as steps toward the February Eighth and the March First independence movements at the same time.