The material for this book has come mainly from the National
Bahá'í Archives of Japan, where records and papers of Hand of the
Cause Miss Agnes Alexander as well as all of the early records of the National
Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia, of which Korea was a member, are held.
The author was secretary of that National Assembly for many years and was
responsible for the preservation of its records. The National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Korea also contributed information and
photographs. Much of the material in this book is published for the first time,
as it comes from primary sources.
With a few exceptions the scope of this book is limited to the 1950s and early
1960s, as after that the National Spiritual Assembly of Korea was keeping its
own records and news from various national communities was more readily
available to researchers through The Bahá'í World volumes,
Bahá'í International News Service editions, regular reports to
the World Center in Haifa, etc.
However, records of the very early days are not so readily available. There
are a few accounts in the U.S. Bahá'í News editions but much of
the contents herein come from reports sent by pioneers in Korea to Hand of the
Cause Miss Alexander and to the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia
and the Asia Teaching Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
United States. The compiler is indebted to Dr. William Maxwell, Mr. John
McHenry III, Miss Lecile Webster, Mr. William Smits and Mrs. Lee Gap Sun for
helping to identify people and answer questions. She wishes to thank members of
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Korea and the
National Office staff for invaluable assistance checking research points in the
final stages of this project.
Mrs. Margaret Ruhe supplied the information that her father and mother,
Professor and Mrs. Kuntz, made their pilgrimage March/April 1921 thereby
confirming the year that Mr. Roe (Roh Chung-il, who had met Professor and Mrs.
Kuntz on board their ship) gained the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
When the author was compiling histories for Korea and other countries in Asia,
she was often struck by the changing of people's attitudes through their years.
For example, Mr. Kim Chang-zin, the first Korean to believe in
Bahá'u'lláh, remained faithful through the years, unchanging to
the end of his long life. Whereas, in contrast, some of the other very eager
and firm Bahá'ís, having had an important part in the development
of the Faith in their land, sometimes for years, would, after a certain length
of time, go inactive, often for no apparent reason. Their service, although
short, was vital at a time when every single soul who believed in
Bahá'u'lláh had such
61
an important role to play in the development of the Faith.
Every soul is important always and will be to the end of time -- but the first
ones, acting on their belief, built the edifice on which the Faith now
stands.
The author was also struck by the pure hearts of the early pioneers. It is
impossible to convey how incredibly difficult areas such as Korea were to live
and teach in, in the early days, and how steadfastly the pioneers clung to
their posts, relying only on Bahá'u'lláh to assist them. In those
early days there were no jet aircraft, no efficient heaters or air
conditioning, no comfortable hotels, and few or no livable apartments, often no
adequate food or even suitable clothing, and few conveniences or amenities of
any kind and usually no friends within reach, and little money to improve their
circumstances. Of the letters written by the friends in Korea to the National
Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia, many concerned finances. There was often
barely enough money to do even necessary things like ordering pamphlets and
books, printing in the native language, renting "centers," which really meant
renting rooms, often very small, in which to have meetings, and paying
transportation to new areas for people to go for the purpose of teaching the
Faith. A phrase in a letter written on behalf of the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi,
comes to mind, which said that isolated pioneers are like a light-house of
Bahá'u'lláh shining at a strategic point and casting its beam out
into the darkness.
If the American presence seems large in the early days of the Faith in Korea,
it is because it was so. In addition to those Bahá'ís mentioned
in the text the following names should be recorded: Jimmy Bates, Frederick
Fultz, Donald Oja, Ernest Jones and Walter Owens -- all servicemen with the
U.S. Armed Forces in Korea in the 1950s and 1960s; also Mr. Charles Duncan, who
resided in Korea 1967-1971.
Of the countries about which I have collected information to write of the
early days, Korea seems to have been the most deprived, yet the Korean people
have shown a resiliency, a determination, a dynamic quality second to none in
the Asian countries as demonstrated by the growth of the Faith there and,
indeed, by the growth of Korea into a modern, industrial nation.
62 Sources
Letters, documents, reports, photographs from the Agnes Alexander collection
as well as the files of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of North East Asia and the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of Japan, all of which are held at the Archives in
the National Bahá'í Center, Tokyo, Japan
The National Bahá'í Archives of the United States
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Korea
Chapter 12