Kwon Chong-hoon
Kwon Chong-hoon | |
|---|---|
| 권정훈 | |
 General Kwon in 1934 | |
| Emperor of Menghe | |
| In office March 1927 – August 1937 | |
| Preceded by | none |
| Succeeded by | Kim Myŏng-hwan |
| High General of the Menghean Army | |
| In office 1918–1937 | |
| Preceded by | Chhoe Ho Johng |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 February 1875 Hwaju, Taehwa |
| Died | 4 August 1937 (aged 62) Donggyŏng |
| Nationality | Meng |
| Political party | Menghe Nationalist Party |
| Children | Kwon Mu-yohl Kwon Hye-johng |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Greater Menghe Empire |
| Years of service | 1899–1937 |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | Assault on Fort Henri |
Kwon Chong-hoon (Menghean: 권정훈 / 權政勳, today transliterated as Gwŏn Jŏng-hun) was a military general and former war hero who ruled Menghe between the years of 1927 and 1937, after seizing power in a military coup. During this time, he adopted a reign name in the style of past Menghean rulers, calling himself the Kuangmoo Emperor (Gwangmu Daeje).
General Kwon is best remembered for his role in bringing Menghe into the Great Conquest War and leading it during the early years of that conflict. An ardent nationalist with a military background, he aimed to restore Menghe to its pre-1500 status, when the Ŭi Dynasty had dominated the South Menghe Sea at its height. He was also an open racial supremacist, believing that the Meng people were genetically and culturally superior to other ethnic groups, especially those of Casaterran origin. He is widely believed to have laid the course for Imperial Menghe’s war crimes during the Great Conquest War, though he died in early 1937 before the worst of the atrocities began.
Early life
Kwon Chong-hoon was born into a wealthy merchant family in 1875, in the city of Hwaju. At the time, Hwaju was a key military center for the Sinŭi Dynasty, which controlled the northwestern half of the country in a feud with the state of Namyang to the south. Of the two states, Sinŭi was the more militarized and nationalist, and some historians believe this rhetoric is what influenced the future general’s worldview.
At the age of 17, Kwon enrolled in the prestigious Taehwa Officers’ Academy, where he received a military education. The Sinŭi-Namyang Continuation War ended before he finished his training, but he did see brief service in Menghe’s 1899 intervention in Uzerdiyar, which restored Menghe’s borders to their present extent. During this time, he served in a railway coordination unit, and did not see combat.
Military service
After Menghe’s full unification, Kwon steadily rose through the ranks of the military, and was well-regarded by his commanding officers as a motivated and loyal soldier. During this time, the country enjoyed a relatively long stretch of peace, but army officers from Sinŭi backgrounds were rising in prominence.
During the War of the Sylvan Succession, Kwon Chong-hoon – then a Colonel – was deployed overseas to take part in an operation in Qusayn, then a colony of Allancia. As one of the regimental commanders tasked with the assault on Fort Henri, which ended in a very costly Menghean victory. When he saw the first wave of troops falter before the fort’s defenses, he chose to lead the attack from the front lines, and suffered severe injuries from machine-gun fire.
While his wounds kept him from participating in future engagements, the story of his heroic feat rapidly circulated around Menghe, promoted by the Army as an example of dutiful self-sacrifice. Upon his return, he was greeted as a war hero, and promoted to the rank of Major-General.
During the interwar period, General Kwon used his newfound fame and influence to become a vocal advocate for Menghean expansionism and the restoration of Ŭi-era hegemony. Early on, he emerged as a staunch opponent of the Menghean government’s decision to cede control of Qusayn to New Tyran, and he protested against the generous terms of the Hadaway Naval Treaty. His words resonated with other officers in the Army, which had become a center of militarism and nationalism, and by 1925 he had reached the rank of High General, the highest commander in the Army.
Political career
Tensions between the nationalist military and the reformist government boiled over on February 18th, 1927, when General Kwon led a coup that overthrew the civilian leadership. With the support of both the Army and the Navy, he installed himself as Menghe’s supreme ruler, disbanded the National Assembly, and formed a new cabinet out of military officials.
Acting in the same nationalist vein, he sought to structure Menghe after the Ŭi and other dynasties, changing the nation’s full title to the Greater Menghean Empire (대멩제국/ 大孟帝國, Dae Meng Jeguk) and granting himself the title of Daeje, or Emperor. He also adopted the Nyŏnho, or reign name, of Gwangmu, or “Radiant Warrior,” though he is better known as General Kwon in Menghean and Casaterran historical records. As Emperor, he promoted the slogan of Buguk Gangbyŏng (부국강병 / 富國强兵), often translated as "enrich the country, strengthen the military." His economic policies have been described as an early form of corporatism, using alliances with major merchant families as the foundation of state power and a channel for the indirect control of production.
As Menghe’s supreme leader, General Kwon tightened his authoritarian control over the country, restricting the activities of scholars and writers and mobilizing the education system as a sphere of propaganda. He also implemented a policy of racial categorization, legalizing discrimination against persons of Casaterran or mixed descent. In writings published before he came to power, General Kwon outlined a plan to deport all descendants of colonists overseas, but the necessary resources for such an operation were never marshalled and Menghean forces later resorted to targeted killings.
Kwon Chong-hoon also sought to follow through on his long-standing promises to return Menghe to its former glory. Late in 1927, he revived the Sinŭi policy of conscription and steadily increased the number of recruits taken in every year, building up Menghe’s conventional forces in both scale and quality. By 1934, there were over five million personnel in the Menghean Army, making it the largest in the Eastern Hemisphere.
While the Navy’s leadership had favored a focus on expansion in the Southern Sea area, General Kwon initially called for a focus on the north, where Menghe held a strong numerical advantage over its rivals. He was responsible for instigating the Wonbuk border conflict with Polvokia, which ended in a ceasefire that favored the latter. Fearful that the indecisive skirmishes had worn down his reputation, Kwon then turned his attention to the south, ordering the surprise attack on Altagracia that sparked the Great Conquest War in the Eastern Hemisphere.
On August 4th, 1937, General Kwon suffered a stroke during a meeting of the general staff, and was pronounced dead upon arriving at Donggyŏng Hospital. His death set off a brief period of instability in Menghe, as he had not laid out a clear path of succession during his lifetime. Only in late September would Kim Myŏng-hwan, his former chief of staff, seize power as the Donghŭi Emperor and oversee the remainder of the war. In accordance with Sindo tradition, the General was cremated and his ashes were sent to his family in Hwaju, but he was not elevated to Sŏngin status.
Legacy
Today, General Kwon is not remembered favorably, even in Menghe. His name has become synonymous with Menghe’s aggressive expansionism and discriminatory racial policy, and he is considered responsible for both the initiation of the war and for its early conduct.
Notably, while subsequent Menghean regimes gradually rehabilitated Kim Myŏng-hwan, and currently elevate him as a national hero, Kwon Chong-hoon has not received the same treatment. Official policy in the Democratic People’s Republic of Menghe vilified him as an imperialist aggressor and defender of the feudal class system, a policy the Army begrudgingly accepted. Today, his portrayal in Menghe is sometimes ambiguous. The government has tolerated displays of support from the public, but it has remained overwhelmingly negative in its own treatment of the General, and has prohibited or heavily censored his writings. Some political scientists have even argued that the Menghean regime is attempting to “transplant” guilt for Menghe’s wartime racial policies onto Kwon in order to exonerate his successor.