Yun Ch’i Ho (1865–1945) wrote his diary nearly every day. His social, religious, and political status make this a crucial document of the modernization period of the Korean Peninsula. Although Yun resided in the United States only from 1888–1895, his entries in English, which start in 1889, continue until his last entry in 1943. (He wrote using Chinese characters in the one existing volume from 1883.)
The manuscript, stored at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, Georgia, has been translated into Korean and published; but the original writing in English has never been published, and therefore has not been read as important literature in English despite Yun being one of the first Korean students to travel abroad to study in the United States, educated as a Christian in a Deep Southern college only thirty years after Emancipation.
Yun Ch’i Ho is arguably the most complex character in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the Korean Peninsula, which transitioned from monarchy under the Joseon Dynasty to empire; then entered into the Japanese colonial period before becoming a Trust Territory. Once imprisoned for his activism against Japanese rule over Korea, later he took a turn from his Korean nationalism and was instrumental in supporting the idea of Korea as one nation under Japan. Once revered by his country people, his later infamy results in a lack of exposure of the many crucial historical moments Yun was able to witness and document due to his position.
Andrew Urban writes, “Yun Ch’i-ho, a twenty-eight-year-old Korean international student, regularly attended the meetings of the two rival debating and literary societies, which doubled as Emory’s oldest and most prestigious social clubs. In November 1892, Yun was appointed to a month-long term as president of the Few Society, an honorary position that he had accepted with trepidation…Yun’s status among his white classmates proved to be a divisive issue. Whereas evangelical Methodist classmates and the church leadership responsible for sponsoring Yun’s education praised his religious devotion and studiousness, tying this to what they believed was the larger promise of missionary work in Asia, Emory also included students whose commitment to white supremacy meant that they opposed any gesture that treated him as an equal.”
This is the type-scripting of the diary, dating from 1889–1943, handwritten in English. After scanning Yun’s English entries page by page, DiGregorio noted the difficult-to-decipher handwriting. The objective is to restore these writings to the world of literature in English simply because it was written in that language in the world conditioned by that language.
Scanned at the Emory University Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library
by Sung Hwan Kim and David Michael DiGregorio;
typescript by David Michael DiGregorio
[box 9 folder 2] 7 Dec. 1889-14 Aug. 1890
[box 9 folder 3] 5 Aug. 1890-12 Jul. 1891
[box 9 folder 4] 10 Sep. 1891-20 Jan. 1892
[box 9 folder 5] 25 Jan. 1892-1 May 1892
[box 9 folder 6] 6 May 1892-26 Jul. 1892
[box 9 folder 7] 27 Jul. 1892-26 Nov. 1892
[box 9 folder 8] 27 Nov. 1892-15 Feb. 1893
[box 9 folder 9] 17 Feb. 1893-20 May 1893
[box 10 folder 1] 22 May 1893-24 Jul. 1893
[box 10 folder 2] 25 Jul. 1893-1 Nov. 1893
[box 10 folder 3] 2 Nov. 1893-14 Mar. 1894