Park Kyung-won

{{Infobox person

|name=Park Kyung-won

|nickname=

|image=Miss Boku (LOC) (25841570803).jpg

|image_size=

|caption=Park in 1927 as "Miss Boku"

|birth_date={{birth date|1901|06|24}}

|birth_place= Daegu, Gyeongsang-do, Korean Empire
(now South Korea)

|death_date={{death date and age|1933|08|07|1901|06|24}}

|death_place=Hakone, Kanagawa, Empire of Japan
(now Japan)

|spouse=

|children=

|occupation=Aviator

}}

{{Infobox Korean name

|hanja=朴敬元

|hangul=박경원

|rr=Bak Gyeong-won

|mr=Pak Kyŏng'wŏn

}}

Park Kyung-won ({{Korean|hangul=박경원}}; 24 June 1901 – 7 August 1933) was the first female Korean civilian aviator.

Park is not the first female Korean pilot, however. That title is generally given to Kwon Ki-ok, who was trained by the Republic of China Air Force.{{cite news|url=http://www.chosunonline.com/article/20051016000045|date=2005-10-16|accessdate=2007-05-22|publisher=Chosun Online|title=映画『青燕』、韓国初の女性飛行士めぐり論争 (Movie 'Blue Swallow' and the debate about Korea's first female aviator)|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930180405/http://www.chosunonline.com/article/20051016000045|archivedate=2007-09-30}}

Park is the subject of the controversial 2005 South Korean film Blue Swallow, in which she was portrayed by actress Jang Jin-young.{{cite news |last=Kim |first=Tae-jong |date=2006-02-22 |title='Blue Swallow' faces turbulence |url=https://www.hancinema.net/-blue-swallow-faces-turbulence-4746.html |accessdate=2007-05-20 |publisher=HanCinema}}

Early life

Park was born in Daegu, Gyeongsang-do. From 1912 to 1916, she attended Daegu's Myeongsin Women's School, a Presbyterian missionary school operated by Americans; a year after her graduation, on 13 September 1917, she departed her hometown for Japan. Upon her arrival in Japan, she initially settled in Yokohama's Minamiyoshida-machi, where she enrolled in the Kasahara Industrial Training School, spending two and a half years. From 1919, she began attending a Korean church in Yokohama, and later converted to Christianity. In February 1920, she returned to Daegu to enter a nursing school there; though her true aim was to become a pilot, she needed to earn money for the tuition fees first.{{cite news |last=현 |first=해탄 |date=1999-12-25 |title=우리나라 최초의 여류 비행사 박경원 (Our country's first female pilot, Park Kyung-won) |url=http://www.arirang21.com/news/read.php?idxno=443 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060118203728/http://www.arirang21.com/news/read.php?idxno=443 |archivedate=January 18, 2006 |accessdate=2007-05-23 |publisher=Arirang News}}

Aviation career

In January 1925, Park returned to Japan, where she finally enrolled in an aviation school in Kamata (present-day Ōta, Tokyo). She had initially hoped to attend the same flight school as An Chang-nam, the first Korean male pilot, but it had burned down in 1923. She graduated and took the test for her third-class pilot's licence on 25 January 1927; she obtained the licence three days later. On 30 July of the following year, she obtained her second-class pilot's licence.

Image:ParkKyungWonCrash.jpg

On 4 May 1933, Park was chosen to fly on a new route between Japan and Manchukuo. She flew to Seoul on 19 May to meet with government officials there. At 10:35 AM on 7 August 1933, she took off in her Salmson 2 A2 biplane, named the Blue Swallow,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3yW5MdzKnUC&dq=park+gyeong-won&pg=PA230 | title=Women in Korean History | publisher=Ewha Womans University Press | author=Pae-yong Yi | year=2008 | pages=230 | isbn=9788973007721}} from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on one such flight to Manchuria; she crashed 42 minutes later near Hakone, Kanagawa and died.{{cite news|url=http://www.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=299511|title=제국주의의 치어걸, 누가 미화하는가 (Who will try to glorify the cheerleader for imperialism?)|publisher=OhmyNews|date=2005-05-19|last=Jeong|first=Hye-ju|accessdate=2007-05-24}}

Park Kyung-won

Early life

Aviation career

References

Further reading