Ahn Jung-geun’s Great Acts and Catholic Theory of Peace

ABSTRACT

Ahn Jung-geun, a Catholic believer, shot Ito Hirobumi, the special envoy of the Japanese Emperor, in Harbin, and this acts caused a huge wave on the international society as well as Japan and Korea. A hundred years later, Ahn Jung Geun is living in history and inspiring everyone who talks about peace in the East. This paper attempts to illuminate and evaluate his life and actions based on the peace theory of the modern Catholic church. It is presupposed that an attempt to evaluate a person 100 years ago on a modern basis has to admit that he was a great man who was ahead of his time. In the Catholic theory of peace I will introduce the four traditional theories such as human dignity, common good, solidarity, and assistance, and the four internal attitudes of Francesco Pope, which can build peace even in conflict. And I will deal how these principles and attitudes are realized in the mind, life, and death of Ahn Jung Geun. This illuminating work reveals how his conscientious agony, peace and justice-oriented minds are combined in the Catholic faith, by referring to his autobiography and listening to hearings of judicial process. And then I evaluate his acts in an ethical way as a question of what a good life is. “見利思義 見危授命: If you see interests, think then justice, if you see dangers, give then your life”. This adage, which he wrote, summarizes the life of him who was devoted himself to education and activities as volunteer- soldier and finally protested against injustice and was killed in order to create a more peaceful and free world without seeking his own benefit in the situation where the people suffered in the aggression of imperialism.