A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - FENDLER Károly: A magyar-koreai kapcsolatok száz éve (1892-1992) (magyar és angol nyelven)

would not be complete if we were not to explore what was known about Hungary in Korea, what image Hungary had in the years around the turn of the century. Although it is naturally a task for our Korean colleagues, I would like to refer briefly to the facts known thus far. In order to popularize and propagate their reformist efforts and views, the supporters of kyemong undong, an enlightenment movement that was evolving around the turn of the century, translated into Korean the biographies and works of famous personalities of Western countries and nations and the history of independence wars. It was at that time when, for example, the book "Stories on the Heroic Kossuth, the Leader of the 1848-1849 War of Independence" was translated. As far as we know, it was the first book on Hungary that was published in Korea. What happened to the book thereafter is still a bit mysterious. Several publications issued in North Korea mention the fact of the book having been translated but so far I have not been able to find it either in P'yőngyang or Seoul. I cannot rule out that it may be the Korean translation of the work by the Japanese author, Tokai Sansi, who knew Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) in person. His book was published under the same title in Japanese in 1885. After all, it would be an important milestone in our cultural relations if a copy of the book on Kossuth could be found with your assistance. With Korea's annexation by Japan (1910) and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1918), official and other relations between Hungary and Korea came to a halt for a long time. Between the two world wars, Hungary maintained diplomatic relations only with Japan in the Far East (1928-1942). So we only know about scarce contacts with Korea in those years. Of them, I would like to note in particular the study tour An Ikt'ae (1906-1965), the renowned Korean composer of the national anthem of the Korean Republic, made in Hungary. In 1937-38 he studied the music of the Hungarian and East-European people under Zoltán Kodály's guidance. We can note that the Hungarian press reported extensively on the sensational victory of Son Ki-jöng it the marathon race at the Berlin Olympic Games, making a special point of his Korean nationality. Although not directly relating to Hungary's relations with Korea and still unexplored in full detail, I should mention the involvement of Béla Kun, one of the leaders of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, in the Korean communist movement (1922-1931) and in the three-member Korea committee of Komintern. As I have already mentioned, we can trace only scarce Korean Implications in the official foreign relations between Hungary and Japan in the 1930s. What is perhaps more important in this respect is the way Japan's policy was judged in Hungary in general. There is some ambiguity to note in this regard. On the one hand, it was fashionable in both countries in the 1920s and 1930s to search for and publicize an alleged kinship of the two nations and to form friendship societies, etc.

4 On the other hand, however, we can trace an element of contempt in diplomatic reports and official documents as regards Japanese fascism and Japan's plans for expansion. For example, the general staff of the Hungarian Army prepared monthly "status reports on the Far East" for the foreign minister with particular regard to the developments in Manchuria, the relations between Japan and China, Japan and the Soviet Union, etc. Those reports regularly followed events such as the dislocation and movements of the Japanese army, etc. Illustrating it on a map, the reports also recorded the position and the force of the two Japanese divisions sta4 As it is known, Hungary joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1939. 162