현준호의 자본형성 과정과 친일행위

The Process of Capital Formation and Pro-Japanese Behaviors of Musong Hyeon Jun-ho

Hyeon Junho was a representative Korean landed capitalist, a modern elite, an influential local figure, and an anti-national activist. Being sent to the Committee, he was charged with two reasons: first, he actively participated in the colonizing political activities as a member of the groups like Kwanhju Beonyeonghoi(the Association for Kwangju Prosperity), Joseon Yukyeonghoi(the Association for Joseon Education), Jeonnam-Do Pyeonguihoi (Jeonnam Provincial Assembly), Jungchuwon (the Advisory Committee for the Colonial Government), Siguk Daechaek Sasang Boguk Yeonmaeng(the Union for the Political Needs and the Patriotic Thought), Imjeon Bogukdan(the Group for the Patriotic Fight), etc., and did anti-national activities by giving lectures on the state of affairs under the national mobilization order for the war and presenting airplanes and money for the defense expenditures. Secondly, he was suspected as a secret informant against the independent activists. Though the second suspicion-betraying the independent activists- out of his two kinds of anti-national activities might not be true, the first one was absolutely true. Hyeon Junho repeatedly explained and defended himself for the first charge during the examinations of the Committee, but it did not make his pro-Japanese activities cut down. Hyen Junho was asked by an investigator of the Committee, “For whom are the policies carried out by the Japanese colonial government in Korea?” He answered, “Of course, they were administered for their own country and people.” Furthermore, he said that it was eventually “not for our people but for their country and people and for the administration of the policies colonizing Joseon as so-called cultural domination” that the Japanese colonial government organized administrative institutions and social groups in Korea. As being shown above, he had ceaselessly changed his positions during about three months between before his charge to and after his discharge from the Committee. The reason why he was released was not because he did not do any pro-Japanese activities but because the Committee was disorganized by the Lee Seungman government. Even though he was discharged from the Committee, he was not released from the historical fact that he was pro-Japanese at all.