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Moon Yumi Modern Utopia or ‘Animal Society’?
Emancipation Proclamation, as a “most remarkable ideological
achievement in modern liberal thought.” He calls
this idea of democracy the “highest form of American
nationalist thought” and “the essence of Americanism,”
guiding the country’s education, the arts, intellectual
thought, and religion. Chŏng also views this democracy
as a source of American expansionism undergirding the
Monroe Doctrine and its transition to pan-Americanism.
At the stage of pan-Americanism, Chŏng argues, American
democracy has lost its authentic characteristics as a
manifestation of the Puritans’ liberalism, and has been
transformed into a “liberal expansionism” in pursuit of
external freedom. Concurrently, this liberal expansionism
has directed the US to propose the League of Nations
and the Permanent Court of International Justice, not to
speak of relieving the Philippines of its colonial rule. 33
Chŏng praises some specific features of everyday life
in America: its wealth, the hygienic lifestyle and convenient
housing, the transportation networks with their
speed and size, and the excellent educational system. He
particularly admires American public education, its “perfect”
institutions and tremendous scale, and the quality
of higher education that he observed at Columbia University
and other colleges in New York. Chŏng finds an
“unbridgeable gap” between this US education system
and the Korean situation, describing American college
campuses as “euphoric spaces where young men and
women enjoy their beautiful youth, obtain learning and
discipline for their future, and experience a cradle for
romance and love marriage.” 34
Chŏng foresees that there will be a “revival of the
Roman Empire” in the future of American civilization as
its materialism creates a luxurious life side by side with
sexual disorders and moral decadence. Nevertheless, he
anticipates the arrival of an “American era,” placing great
hope in Roosevelt’s reforms. The “frantic individualism
and worship of gold” in American civilization, he writes,
will be corrected with the “birth of a new social system,”
initiated by the leadership of President Roosevelt and his
“fight against big business.” Whether Roosevelt succeeds
or fails, Chŏng argues his efforts will lead Americans to
acknowledge the urgency of reforming the country’s economic
system and encourage cooperation among them.
Once this American reform succeeds, Chŏng insists, the
world will see a “morning” when this “Holy Grail of the
beaming material civilization will renew its face and
dominate the coasts of the Pacific.” 35
This affection toward the Rooseveltian reforms is also
found in other Chogwang essays. The aforementioned
Han Poyong in his June 1937 article cites the 1936 Peace
Conference in Buenos Aires initiated by Roosevelt, and
calls this pan-American assembly of the North and South
American republics a “ridicule” of the militaristic regimes
in Europe, which constantly invade each other. 36 Han evaluates
America’s labor movements in the Roosevelt era as
a non-Communist road to solve working-class problems,
and contrasts the Rooseveltian “promise” with the “dark
prospect” of Fascist Europe. Han argues that labor movements
are constrained where the “spiritual movements
couched in statism and nationalism” prevail and antagonize
foreigners. 37 Because of such Fascist oppression,
Han continues, the working class in Europe, suffering
from high inflation and no wage increase, never dared to
conduct labor movements for fear of being labeled “antistatist”
or “anti-nationalistic.” Han sees a very different
development in Rooseveltian America. The president is
still making efforts to find a compromise, since the American
business class opposed his policies and the Supreme
Court judged some laws unconstitutional. Despite such
obstacles, Han reports, the leftist CIO (Committee for
Industrial Organization) and its leader John Lewis have
achieved concessions from business on the rights of the
working class to collective action, a minimum wage rate,
and minimum working-hours. The Supreme Court has
also ruled that these labor laws are constitutional. 38
Han seems to suggest America’s labor movement as an
alternative to Communist movements. Given America’s
freedom of the press, he argues, the American Communists
can circulate their official newspaper (The Daily
Worker) and other publications for the working class.
However, their radical position is unpopular in the US
because the life of American laborers is not as miserable
as that of the European working class. Although the Third
Communist International has opened a branch in the US,
33 Chŏng Ilhyŏng, “Amerik’a munmyŏngŭi chonghoenggwan,” pp. 140-141.
34 Chŏng Ilhyŏng, “Amerik’a munmyŏngŭi chonghoenggwan,” p. 143.
35 Chŏng Ilhyŏng, “Amerik’a munmyŏngŭi chonghoenggwan,” pp. 148-149.
36 Han Poyong, “Sŭngsehan migugŭi nodong undong: CIO ŭi yakchin’gwa AFL ŭi mollak,” Chogwang, June 1937, p. 163.
37 Han Poyong, ,“Sŭngsehan migugŭi nodong undong,” pp. 163-175.
38 Han Poyong, “Sŭngsehan migugŭi nodong undong,” pp. 164-165.
22 Korean Histories 3.2 2013