Deaths on January 5

Soh Jaipil, South Korean-American journalist and activist (b. 1864)

Soh Jaipil or Seo Jae-pil (January 7, 1864 – January 5, 1951), also known as Philip Jaisohn, was a Korean-American political activist and physician who was a noted champion of the Korean independence movement, the first Korean naturalized citizen of the United States, and founded Tongnip Sinmun, the first Korean newspaper in Hangul.Soh was one of the organizers of the failed Gapsin Coup in 1884 and convicted for treason, seeking refuge in the United States where he became a citizen and earned a medical doctorate. Upon returning to Korea in 1895, Soh was offered a position as a chief advisor of the Joseon government. He declined, choosing to focus on further development of reform movements, where he advocated for democracy, leaving the Chinese sphere of influence, and numerous civil rights and universal suffrage. Soh was forced back to the United States in 1898, from where he participated in the First Korean Congress and advocated for the March 1st Movement and U.S. Government support for Korean independence. Soh became a chief advisor to the United States Army Military Government in Korea after World War II and was elected as an interim representative in South Korea in the 1946 legislative election. Soh died in 1951 shortly after returning to the United States during the Korean War, and in 1994 his remains were reburied at the Seoul National Cemetery.