Woo Jang-choon

Who was Woo Jang-choon?

Woo Jang-choon was a Korean-Japanese agricultural scientist and botanist famous for breeding plants. He is credited in scientific literature as "U Nagaharu", where "U" is a Korean reading of his Korean family name but "Nagaharu" is a Japanese reading of the Chinese characters in his Korean given name. Woo was born and raised in Japan, overcoming poverty and discrimination in Imperial Japan to become a prominent researcher and teacher. When Korea was freed of Japanese rule in 1945, Woo left his family in Japan, and traveled to Korea to lead the country's efforts in botany and agriculture. There is a memorial museum in the port city of Busan where he lived and worked in Korea, honoring his life and accomplishments.