[KS] Jews in Korea during the Second World War

[Frank Hoffmann]

Just a detail:

Robert Neff wrote:

> The Austrian at Masampo whom Prof. Hoffman mentioned was most likely 
> H. J. Houben.

That cannot be H.J. Houben. The 1902 article speaks of an Austrian in 
SEOUL, not Masampo, and the details do not fit otherwise either: Houben 
came in 1899 to Masampo while the person mentioned in that German 
Jewish paper is said to have come "12 years ago to Seoul"--that's 
around 1890 then.

Still, your very own article from 2004 (quoted below) is very 
interesting, among other things because it shows that Japanese and 
Jewish community interests could well have been contradicting each 
other in Korea: other than in Japan, where Jewish immigrants were, e.g. 
in Kobe, appreciated and helped, around the Russo-Japanese War and in 
Korea (not Japan) I am not too sure about that, however much the Jewish 
community may have liked to see Japanese reform politics. All we talk 
about here are economic interests, and then it comes to Japanese 
settlers and businessmen in Korea vs. Jewish and other foreign 
businesses.
……. QUOTE ……
(…)
A later Austrian-Hungarian businessman was H.J. Houben. In 1899, he 
arrived in Pusan as an employee of the Russian owned Chinese Eastern 
Railway Company and worked as the ticket agent for the steamships 
operating out of that port. The following year he appears to have gone 
into business with the Masunga & Co.’s store in Pusan and at the same 
time established his own merchandise store at the newly opened port of 
Masampo. It is interesting to note that other than the Japanese, there 
were only a few Westerners living in Masampo, and they were all 
Russians. Houben was elected treasurer of the Masampo Municipal Council 
in 1900 through 1901, but with the poor business prospects at the port 
he eventually closed his shop there and sought other business 
opportunities. In late 1901 he was involved in a legal dispute with the 
Japanese and appealed to the German Consul for help. He alleged that 
the Japanese owned Seoul-Pusan Railroad laid track across some of his 
property _ how this dispute ended is unclear, but by 1902 H.J. Houben’
s name had disappeared from the list of foreigners residing in Korea.
(…)
QUOTE from: Robert Neff, _The Korea Times_, October 22, 2004.


C o r r e c t i o n :
In my last posting I gave the architect Bruno Taut as a prominent 
example for intellectual Jewish émigrés in Japan. My mistake, he had 
no Jewish roots, he left Germany for mostly political and ethical 
reasons. Somehow I never questioned that he was Jewish. Apologies!


Best,
Frank

--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com