Agent who worked for Japanese intelligence; pro-Japanese collaborator
| Life | 1870년 ~ 1952년 |
| Era | 대한제국·일제강점기 |
| Clan | 분성 배씨(김해 배씨로도 표기) |
Bae Jeong-ja (裵貞子, 1870-1952) was a woman who worked in intelligence for Japan in the late Korean Empire and the colonial period, and is classed among pro-Japanese collaborators. According to Wikipedia her birth name was Bae Bun-nam and she was from Gimhae in South Gyeongsang. Her father was executed after the fall of the Heungseon Daewongun and she and her mother were reduced to hardship; she became a nun in 1882 and went to Japan in 1885.
It is widely told that she became the adopted daughter of Ito Hirobumi in Japan, but Wikipedia notes that Japanese sources contain no such record and the account comes only from the Korean side. She is said to have returned in 1894 and passed political information to the Japanese from beside Emperor Gojong; in the 1920s she worked against independence activists in Manchuria, Siberia, Jiandao and Shanghai and retired in 1927. During the Pacific War she is described as involved in sending women overseas under the name of soldier comfort groups.
After liberation she was arrested in 1949 by the Special Investigation Committee on Anti-National Activities, the first person detained under that law, but was released when the committee was dissolved. She appears on the 2007 list of the Truth Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators and in the 2008 list of planned entries for the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. This entry states facts only and adds no further judgment.
Her seat is given as Gimhae in her own Wikipedia article, while the Bunseong Bae article lists her among its notable people. Bunseong is the old name of Gimhae, but the 2015 census counts the Bunseong and Gimhae Bae separately, so whether they are one lineage could not be confirmed.
Much of her life story rests on Korean-side accounts, and Wikipedia itself notes that there is no source proving some of it. The tale of adoption by Ito Hirobumi is not treated as established, and the year of death differs: a 1998 Seoul Shinmun series gives 1870-1952 while some English-language summaries give 1870-1950.
Not confirmed.
Not confirmed.