Hangul 지청천 Hangul 이대형 Hanja 池靑天 Hanja 李大亨 | Name Ji Cheong-cheon Died 1959, Seoul, South Korea | |
Revised Romanization Ji Cheong-cheon McCune–Reischauer Chi Ch'ongch'on | ||
Ji Cheong-cheon (15 February 1888 – 15 January 1957), also known as Yi Cheong-cheon, was a Korean independence activist during the period of Japanese rule (1910–1945). He later became a South Korean politician. His name was originally Yi Dae-hyeong, but he took the nom de guerre Ji Cheong-cheon, meaning "Earth and Blue Sky", while leading Korean guerrilla forces against the Japanese.
He was a 1914 graduate of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy; however, he defected to the Korean guerrilla forces in 1919, bringing with him knowledge of modern military techniques when he was a lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army . His skills were appreciated by the Korean guerrilla forces who made him the superintendent of the Sinheung Military Academy where new leaders of the Korean forces were being trained.
In 1940, he became the commander-in-chief of the Korean Liberation Army sponsored by the Chinese Nationalists. During the Second World War, he invited General Hong Sa-ik, the highest ranking Korean officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, to defect and join the Korean Liberation Army, but the invitation was declined.
Following Korea's liberation, he served as a member of the South Korea's National Assembly. He died in 1959, and was posthumously honored by the government of South Korea with the Order of Independence Merit for National Foundation in 1962.