PA House Unanimously Approves Korean-American Citizenship Day Resolution

HARRISBURG — A state House of Representatives resolution designating June 19 as Korean-American Citizenship Day has unanimously passed that chamber.

House Resolution 203, which was sponsored by Montgomery County Republican State Rep. Todd Stephens of the 151st Legislative District, marks the 132nd anniversary of one of the "unsung fighters for freedom, Dr. Philip Jaisohn, who in 1890, became the first Korean immigrant to acquire United States citizenship in 1890," according to a House GOP news release.

Patch previously reported on the resolution, which honors Jaisohn, also known by his Korean name, Soh Jaipil, who also became the first Korean ever to receive an American medical degree.

"That alone would have made Jaisohn a pioneer in the story of Korean American history but concerned with the political future of his native land, Jaisohn returned to Korea in 1896 where he initiated a revolution of reforms that shunned violence in favor of more reliable but slower changes," Stephens said in a statement.

Stephens said the reforms spurred by Jaisohn helped to improve healthcare and became the "seeds of democracy" in Korea.

Jaisohn passed away at the age of 87 on Jan. 5, 1951. He was living in Norristown, Montgomery County at the time.

"It's no exaggeration to call Dr. Jaisohn the founding father of democracy and Korean modernization and one of the pioneering forces in medicine in Pennsylvania Stephens said in his statement.

According to Stephens, Jaisohn helped to assemble the First Korean Congress in Philadelphia back in April 1919. He joined a delegation that marched into Independence Hall in Philadelphia that year for a public reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence.