On this day, 21 February 1936, Korean anarchist Shin Chae-ho died in prison. He and his partner had been arrested by Japanese colonial police and he was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour for belonging to a secret organisation.
Shin had been Korea’s most prominent journalist, writing for Hansong News and Dae Han Daily, and he drafted the Korean Revolutionary Manifesto put out by the Band of Heroes anti-colonial combat organisation.
Shin’s writings highlighted the relationship between destruction and creation: “The revolutionary path begins at destruction, thus opening up new ways for progress. However, revolution does not stop at destruction. There can be no destruction without construction; no construction without destruction… In the mind of the revolutionist, these two are indivisibly linked: destruction, ergo construction”.
Shin was also well known for his idiosyncrasies. For example he was known to wear, at least occasionally, women’s underwear, as he thought it was “beautiful”. And when he washed his face, he would always end up splashed with water. When asked why this happened, he responded: “Because I refuse to lower my head for anyone till the day I die!”
Shin was eventually arrested while trying to set up and Oriental Anarchists League with individuals in Beijing and Manchuria, which was also under Japanese occupation.
In 1945, Shin’s comrades in Shanghai set up a publishing house called the Shin Chae-ho Study School, publishing historical and theoretical works until it was shut down by the Communist Party government in 1949.
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