Developing the first Hangul (Korean) dictionary was no small venture. In fact, the Korean-born project eventually came to fruition after ten years of development during political upheaval, widespread cultural repression, staff imprisonment, and all-out war. One unlikely partner in the publishing project was the Rockefeller Foundation, and the story is revealed through that institution’s archives.
On June 12, 1947, Charles Burton Fahs, Assistant Director of the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), was more than halfway through his three-month survey trip to the Far East. He had just finished touring various institutions and locations in the Philippines, China, and Japan, to observe the effects of World War II and the initial stages of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Fahs flew to Korea for a brief week-long visit. In his diary, Fahs recounted his activities on the morning of June 12th, beginning with making a visit to Paul Anderson, a member of the United States Education Staff in Korea. Anderson, in turn, introduced Fahs to a man named Choi Hyon Pai (최 현배).
Choi has worked for twenty years on Korean language studies – grammar, a dictionary, standardized pronunciation, and simplified spelling. Korea has no Korean dictionary (i.e. no Korean-Korean dictionary), work in the Korean language having been discouraged by the Japanese as nationalistic.Charles Fahs, 1947Entry for “June 12, 1947, ” Fahs Diary, April 8-May 23, 1947, RG 12, Rockefeller Foundation Records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
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Choi was merely one of the twenty-five individuals that Fahs met with on June 12th; Choi’s personal history and the ongoing Korean dictionary project merit just six sentences in the officer’s diary for that day. Yet out of this brief encounter, a ten-year relationship developed, wherein Fahs, Choi, and others labored to produce the first complete dictionary of the Korean language for use by the people of Korea.
For an account of the attempts and creation of the dictionary from the Korean perspective, see Park Yong-Gyu, “Historical Meaning of the Compilation, ”
King Sejong is credited with the creation of the Korean alphabet in the 1400s. Originally known as Hunminjeongum (훈민정음), it was also called the Eonmun (언문). Beginning in the early 20th century, it began to be regularly referred to as Hangul (한글). In the centuries following Hangul’s creation, the general preference for the use of Chinese characters in scholarly works was a contributing factor to the lack of a dictionary.
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During the late 1800s, Korean-French and Korean-English dictionaries were produced to aid religious and cultural communication. In 1920, under the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), the Japanese Government-General of Korea created a dictionary for its own use.
Hangul. One such committee was the Korean Language Society (조선어학회), founded in 1921 (also called the Korean Language Research Society). As Fahs related to one of his Rockefeller Foundation colleagues, the Korean Language Society was “a group of over three hundred scholars which was organized during the earlier and more liberal period of Japanese occupation.”
Fahs to Stevens, “Suggested Oral Presentation for Korean Dictionary Project, ” March 31, 1948, Series 613 R, RG 1.2, Rockefeller Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
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Choi Hyon Pai served as one of the directors of the Society, which experienced heightened persecution during the later years of the Japanese occupation of Korea, when the colonial government imposed strict anti-Hangul policies. “In the latter years…the work of the Society was forbidden, and during the war its members were arrested, ” Fahs noted.
Despite the dangerous political climate, however, the Korean Language Society continued its work. They sought to produce a dictionary which would reflect clear, standardized spelling and syntax.
Upon his return to the States, Fahs began to explore what role the Rockefeller Foundation might play in the Korean dictionary project. Because the issue was not the
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Of it, questions surrounding possible support were more practical than theoretical. Nevertheless, an added layer of complexity was the need for cooperation amongst the Korean Language Society, the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK), and the Foundation.
Fahs met with Anderson again, this time on American soil, on December 2, 1947. Anderson reported that, despite hopeful attempts, he had been unable to secure any sort of military government funding for the project. Anderson feared that publication would likely be “indefinitely postponed” if forced to rely solely on donations from the Korean people. Although Volume I of the dictionary had recently been published, nearly all Korean funds and supplies for the project had been used in the process – and yet, four volumes were still forthcoming. In fact, Anderson noted, copies of the first volume “exhausted the open or black market supply of paper.”
Anderson emphasized that completion of the Dictionary is essential to many of the programs of the military government in Korea despite inability to help.Charles Fahs, 1947.Fahs diary interview, December 2, 1947, Rockefeller Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
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This is because the dictionary, which included a standard guide on spelling and pronunciation, would be of invaluable help to the US Army’s Office of Education textbook program. The textbook program was part of a larger reestablishment of the Korean educational system, which was in shambles following the Japanese occupation and World War II. Schools had closed, and over 40% of all teaching positions in the elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges and universities were vacant, previously filled by Japanese personnel. The lack of “standardization as to spelling, pronunciation and in some cases meaning” hindered the USAMGIK’s Korean textbook program.
A grant of material from the Rockefeller Foundation that would make possible the distribution of this material would be a major contribution to the rebirth of the Korean nation.Charles Fahs, 1947.Fahs diary interview, December 2, 1947, Rockefeller Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center. Collecting Expert Opinions
Although the dictionary seemed to be of great value to the US Army Military Government in Korea, and of interest to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Division of the Humanities, Fahs sought out additional expert opinions. Having obtained a copy of the first volume, he contacted two colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. From George McCune of the Department of History and a former RF fellow, he requested an opinion “with regard to its quality and its importance.”
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From Samuel Farquhar, Director of UC California Press, he asked for advice regarding the amount and types of supplies needed for publication. Recent developments meant that the dictionary was now projected to comprise six volumes.
McCune reported back to Fahs with his opinion of the dictionary. Although not greatly impressed upon first review, he nonetheless relayed to Fahs his final verdict:
After considerable thought on the subject, I have concluded that this dictionary represents an enormous stride forward in Korean lexicography and that as such it deserves high praise…It is particularly important that a dictionary of this sort be published at the outset of the rebirth of the Korean language, so that a correct start be made in native writing.George McCune, 1947.McCune to Fahs, February 10, 1948, Rockefeller Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
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From discussion with Farquhar on the most appropriate printing materials and estimates of supply, Fahs began to formulate what shape RF support could take. Farquhar believed that it would likely be best to purchase the materials in the United States and ship them to Korea, rather than to try to procure them abroad.
In preparation for adding the Korean Dictionary Project to the docket for the June 1948 Board of Trustees meeting, Fahs shared a draft with David H. Stevens, Director of the Humanities Division. There Fahs noted that the proposal was only for materials which were not available to Koreans due to restrictions imposed under the US occupation. Fahs saw nothing but benefit in RF support of the project:
It is seldom that an opportunity occurs to aid a project which represents first-class scholarship, has at the same time such basic and broad general significance and, without being political in character, has such important symbolic implications for the growth both of cultural nationalism and of good relations with the United States.Charles Fahs, 1948.Fahs to Stevens, “Suggested Oral Presentation for Korean Dictionary Project, ” March 31, 1948, Rockefeller Foundation records, Rockefeller Archive Center. Grant Funding Comes Through for the Korean Dictionary
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At the June 18, 1948 meeting, the Executive Committee appropriated $45, 000 “to provide essential materials to enable the Korean Language Society to publish 20, 000 copies each of the five unpublished volumes of its new dictionary of the Korean language.”
The grant terms stipulated that all funds were to expire by December 30, 1950. The Society gratefully and enthusiastically responded that they would do their utmost to complete publication before that date.
Fahs established contact with the Society as well as with the Eul-yu (also known as Eu Ryu or Ul-yu) Publishing Company and its representative, Minn Pyung Do. Typesetting began almost immediately. The first batch of supplies arrived in the late fall of 1948, with transport and delivery within Korea supplied by the US Army. Volume II of the dictionary became available to the Korean public on June 10, 1949, and by September 30th, printing of the third volume was in progress.
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In April 1950, Fahs returned to Seoul on another of his trips to
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