Independence activist and politician, younger brother of Jo So-ang; lieutenant colonel of the Korean Liberation Army; Second National Assembly member
| Life | 1904 ~ 1982 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 함안 조씨 |
Jo Si-won (趙時元, 1904-1982) was an independence activist and politician of the Haman Jo clan. His name before changing it was Jo Yong-won (趙鏞元), and his pen name was Hoil. Born in Yangju, Gyeonggi, he was the son of Jo Jeong-gyu and Park Pil-yang, and the younger brother of the independence activist Jo So-ang. Around 1920 he followed his elder brothers to Shanghai and graduated from the affiliated middle school of Nanfang University and then its department of history and sociology.
From 1928 he worked in youth organizations, moving between Beijing and Manchuria, and in 1930 took part in forming the Korean Liberation Front in Shanghai. In 1935 he joined the monthly Jingwang, led by his brother So-ang and Hong Jin. From February 1938 to March 1939 he headed the Seonmudan (propaganda corps) of the Provisional Government's Ministry of Military Affairs, was a member of the Provisional Assembly in 1939, and a central executive committee member of the Korean Independence Party in 1940.
He took part in founding the Korean Liberation Army and served from 1940 to 1945, ending as a lieutenant colonel and adjutant to the commander-in-chief. After liberation he formed the Socialist Party in 1949 with Jo So-ang and Bang Eung-mo, and was elected to the Second National Assembly in 1950. He lost in the 1960 general election and served as chairman of the Samgyun Society. He was posthumously awarded the Independence Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1963 and named Independence Activist of the Month in October 2004.
Jo Si-won's family is famed for its independence activism. Six of the seven siblings including Jo So-ang and Jo Si-won are said to have received national merit medals, and his wife Yi Sun-seung received the Patriotism Medal for her independence work in Shanghai. His daughter Jo Sun-ok served in the Korean Liberation Army and his son-in-law An Chun-saeng, a recognized independence patriot, served as head of the Independence Hall of Korea.
He left Gyeongseong No. 1 High School without graduating but received an honorary diploma from Gyeonggi Middle and High School in 1946 and completed the first class of the National Defense University's public administration degree in 1956. He moved from Confucianism through Presbyterianism to the Catholic Church, with the baptismal name Joseph.
The constituency of the 1950 Second National Assembly election is given as Yangju A or B depending on the source and needs checking. In the 1960 Fifth National Assembly election he ran as an independent in Yangju A and lost in third place with 7,214 votes.
His tomb could not be confirmed here.