도산 안창호

2010년 9월 24일

Downtown Riverside 한 복판에 우뚝 서 있는 도산 안창호 선생의 동상을 지난 5년 동안 이사로서 봉사하는 CBU에서 잡아준 호텔이 바로 옆에 있기에 매번 그냥 지나간다. 오늘은 일찌감치 일어나서 찾아가 봤다. 아주 초면은 아니지만 그래도 새삼스런 만남이었다.

동상에 적혀있는 글들도 옮겨봤다.

Dosan Ahn Chang-Ho

(1878-1938)

Pioneer . Educator . Orange Picker . Patriot

Freedom was his life, and he gave his life to freedom.

Dosan Ahn Chang-Ho believed that an individual could make a difference in the course of human endeavors, and he showed us the way by setting examples. The world is a better place because of him and his courage to recognize truth and tell it without fear.

Born in a small village in Korea in 1878, Ahn Chang-Ho came to America in 1902 with his new bride, Lee HaeRyon (Helen Ahn). As the steam ship approached Hawaii, he saw the islands soar above the horizon, nature’s masterpiece looming in the distance. The twenty-four year old freedom fighter made a resolve then that he would stand tall above the sea of turmoil in Korea created by imperial Japan. He would call himself “Dosan” (Island Mountain).

One of his missions was to learn about the American education system and to bring new ideas to the schools that he had established in Korea. He enrolled in an elementary school to gain firsthand knowledge about the American schooling. At the same time, Dosan turned his attention to the deplorable living conditions of his countrymen in San Francisco. An accomplished orator and persuader at 24, he guided them to form a respectable community there.

Then he came to Riverside in 1904 to help the community of Korean farm workers. Riverside was his home until 1913. He lived in a small Korean village on Pachappa Avenue (Commerce Street) and he picked orange for Cornelius Earle Rumsey, owner of Slta Cresta Groves. Dosan practiced cooperation and careful handling of citrus fruit, then a new concept even for Riverside’s progressive growers.

He was no ordinary range hand as history would show. Following Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910, Dosan formulated the basis for the Provisional Government of Korea here in Riverside. While in Riverside, Dosan also conceived Hung Sa Dahn (Young Korean Academy), and organization to develop leaders for the independence movement.

He left for Shanghai in 1919 to join the Provisional Government of Korea as its interim Prime Minister and the Minister of Labor. At the height of the Japanese expansion into China, the Japanese police arrested him in Shanghai in 1932. He returned to Korea a s prisoner of the Japanese. Prior to the liberation of his homeland, he died in 1938. A national memorial commemoration his life and work stands in the center of Gangnam District in Seoul, Riverside’s distinguished sister city. Now he stands here in Riverside to reminde us of his legacy as pioneer, and educator, an orange picker and a patriot.

Dosan taught fellow Korean workers in California to pursue every task, including picking oranges as a means of being good citizens, serving their country and helping to free Korea from Japanese occupation.

Dosan, Confucian scholar, believed learning created strength, and truth was the key to good character. He came to America to study Western education and Democratic ideals in order to modernize his country and build an independent nation for Korea.

Dosan, an early Christian convert, learned love of humanity with unshakable faith. In Riverside, he taught bible studies and English to fellow Koreans.

Dosan admired the California Fruit Growers Exchange and realized cooperation was the growers’ key to success. He taught Koreans this ideal of cooperation, to help build their national strength.

Dosan organized the Korean Provisional Government, in exile in Shanghai. The government upheld the Shanghai Declaration of Independence, based on Dosan’s democratic ideals.

Dosan fought wholeheartedly for a true Korean republic. He sought every avenue to prepare his people for the responsibilities associated with governing themselves.

그리고 그 옆에 있던 인도의 간디 동상도 봤다.

그리고 Riverside 다운타운의 사진들…