Daegu landowner and businessman who served as a Privy Council adviser to the Government-General
| Life | 1885 ~ 1956 |
| Era | 일제강점기 |
| Clan | 달성 서씨 |
Seo Byeong-ju (徐炳柱, 6 October 1885 - 18 March 1956) was a colonial-era official and businessman of the Dalseong Seo clan, with his registered domicile in Samdeok-dong, Daegu. He is described as one of the large landowners and local notables of Daegu. In 1913 he donated land for a road and received a wooden cup from the Government-General, and in 1921 he joined a sightseeing tour of Japan organized by the Maeil Sinbo. He was appointed to the Daegu municipal council in 1923 and elected to the school-union council in 1927.
In business he served as a director of Joyang Mujin Co. from 1925 to 1937, was a founding member of the Yeonhoje irrigation association in 1927, and headed the Yeonhoje and Haean irrigation associations from 1931 to 1939. He became a director of the Yeongnam Myeongdeokhoe in 1932, was elected to the provincial council of North Gyeongsang as an appointed member in 1933 and 1937, organized the North Gyeongsang Landowners' Production Association in 1938, and held directorships in several local companies in 1939. From June 1939 to August 1940 he was a Privy Council adviser to the Government-General and was named a councillor of the Joseon Confucian Federation.
In 1940 he was sentenced to six months in prison and a 6,000 won fine for black-market ginseng trading and withdrew from all public posts. After Liberation, in March 1949, a record says he visited the North Gyeongsang office of the Special Investigation Committee on Anti-National Acts and asked to be investigated as a suspect, surrendering himself. He is included in the Privy Council section of the list of 705 pro-Japanese collaborators issued by the Presidential Commission and in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. This entry sets out public records summarized on Wikipedia, leaves out judgments, and lets readers draw their own.
He is recorded as holding advisory posts such as Daegu municipal councillor, school-union councillor and appointed provincial councillor of North Gyeongsang.
He was director of a mujin (rotating-loan) company, headed irrigation associations and organized the North Gyeongsang Landowners' Production Association.
He was a Privy Council adviser in 1939-1940, and a record says that after Liberation he asked to be investigated as a suspect. Only facts are given.
The location of his tomb could not be confirmed here.