윤산온의 교육선교 활동과 신사참배문제

Abstract

This article deals with a prominent missionary in Pyeng-an province, George S. McCune who came to Korea in 1905 and departed in 1936. After graduating from Park College, McCune worked as a faculty member and was married to a daughter of the Park College founder. As an education missionary in Korea, he tried to connect the work and study program to the education institutions in Northwest region in Korea. At first Sinsŏng middle school at Sŏnchŏn and later Soong-sil middle school/ college at Pyengyang, he introduced the departments of industry and agriculture to students. This work and study program contributed to the regional atmospheres from which many middle class people rose. Though his theological position was conservative and even “fundamental” especially in the Bible issues, it was estimated that he was participating and had sympathy with Korean Independence cause at the time. One example was his presumable involvement in the event of “Terauchi assassination plot” in 1912. It does not mean that he was always anti-Japanese. His main enthusiasm was always on the evangelism and education. But regardless of his will, his works was fundamentally contradictory to the Japanese authorities because the mid-1930s saw the totalitarianism over the thoughts and religion in the Korean colony. That was the Sintō shrine issue which started fully in late 1935 until 1938. McCune was at the center of this issue, but the American consulate in Seoul and embassy in Tokyo did not give consent to his and Northern Presbyterian collegues' position. Even American missionary circle in Japan did not side with him. Although he did not get support from his government, his deportation signaled the chasm in the margin of the Japanese empire in terms of the U.S. and Japanese relations.