A Japanese scroll painting, ink and colour on paper, circa 1900.

From the estate of Professor emeritus Seung-bog Cho.

Born in northern korean Hamgyong-putko 1922 and moved with his parents and uncle with family to Yanbian in northeastern China, got a scholarship i 1937 to study high school/upper secondary schol in the part of China where he grew up, which had become japanese under the name Manchukuo, to Tokyo and then Tokyo Imperial University , now Tokyo University. 1948 after having gained his Master in philosophy from Tokyo University and worked for the Allied forces and American Military Government under General Douglas MacArthur, apart from being active with contacts with future Korean leaders and the korean nobless connected to the japanese court he went to Minnesota to teach and continue his doctoral studies in philosophy 1948 at Minnesota University. The break out of the korean war made him , due to his activities for an united Korea, persona non grata in the US and he came to Sweden on January 1952 after having spent christmas and the new year at the home of the President of Oslo University and his sister, president of the norwegean branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). One of his mentors in Sweden was medical doctor Andrea Andrén and her daughter architect Hillevi Svedberg. Andrea Andrén was part of the feminist movement who created Medborgarskolan at the property Fogelstad of Elisabeth Tamm and took Seung-bog on a trip and dinner to the home of Elisabeth Tamm.

In Sweden he married 1955 french music teacher Rose Lutz. He settled down in the university town of Uppsala and through fellow researchers and colleagues within philosophy, worked at the university library Carolina Rediviva, taught and wrote articles and reviews for instance on Joseph Needham's Opus Magnus "Science and Civilisation in China" for the Department of History of Ideas at Uppsala University with Professor Sten Lindroth. Seung-bog Cho was invited to the college of Professor Needham at Cambridge University and received him, his wife and chinese colleague and dear friend at his home in Uppsala for the 500 year anniversary of Uppsala University, sIn Uppsala he taught Chinese, Japanese and Korean at the department of East Asian languages at Uppsala University under the president Torgny Segerstedt while he completed his thesis in sinology for Professor Berhard Karlgren, his doctoral publications (A phonological study of Korean: with a historical analysis1967, A phonological study of early modern Japanese: on the basis of the Korean source-materials. Volume I, Material, historical background, methodology and sound correspondences 1970 and A phonological study of early modern Japanese: on the basis of the Korean source-materials. Volume II, Analysis and reconstruction of early modern Japanese phonology 1970) for Professor Björn Colinder, preceeded by a sabatical at Collège de France in Paris. He taught at Uppsala University to around the beginning of the 70s and simultaneously took up a position in 1963-64 in Korean and Japanese at Stockholm University where he later became the first Professor of Japanese in Sweden. As a graduate of the prestigious Tokyo University he assisted in the creation of agreements for university sweden with Japan, China and Korea (Tokyo University, Seoul National University, Peking University, Chinese and Korean Academy of Sciences etc). During all his life the wish for a peaceful solution for the unification of the divided Korea with his unique network of leaders in China and in the two Korea enabled such contacts as former Korean President and Nobel Peace Price laureat Kim Daejung. He was active within the Stockholm Peace Appel in the 50s with Dr Andrea Andrén, Editor Evert Kumm and others during the Korean war and then met some of the future political leaders of apart from Sweden also China