Yang You-chan

Yang You-chan entered diplomacy after a medical career in Hawaii. Born in Busan in 1897, he attended school in Honolulu and studied at the University of Hawaii and Boston University, qualifying in medicine in 1923. He practiced in Honolulu and participated in Korean community, Christian, and youth organizations. Syngman Rhee appointed him ambassador in 1951; he also led a Korean delegation in negotiations with Japan in 1952. ¹

Yang repeatedly pressed Washington over reconstruction assistance. In January 1955, he met John Foster Dulles to deliver a letter from Rhee and commemorative stamps marking the mutual defense treaty. He urged faster release of rehabilitation funds before the fiscal year ended and argued for industrial investment, citing North Korea's industrial growth. ²

His public appearances included the opening of the Masterpieces of Korean Art exhibition at Washington's National Gallery of Art in December 1957. Yang and his wife toured the exhibition with a curator. The exhibition subsequently traveled across the United States. ³

Yang left the ambassadorship after Rhee's fall in 1960. He later served as an ambassador at large and in United Nations diplomacy. He died in the United States in 1975. ¹