Agricultural Achievements in Japan
Woo was soon given a position by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture. In order to further his social life, his mother trained him to be tolerant of alcohol, and Woo made many friends. By the age of 23, he had researched morning glory flowers and written a paper on the evolution and relationships between three species of Brassica, introducing a still-current theory known as the Triangle of U.
Woo served as a tutor to his neighbor's sons, and the neighbor introduced Woo to his sister, Koharu. They fell in love, but had difficulty convincing Koharu's parents for permission to marry. In the end, Koharu eloped with Woo, and they were married. Their first child was a daughter, Tomoko.
With Dr. Terao, Woo published two papers on petunia flowers. Then, Dr. Terao assigned Woo to study further on Petunia hybrida Vilm, which, among the different varieties of the species, could not be completely made into double flowers. Half of the flowers would not grow when forced into the double flower phenotype. Further work by Woo brought the complete double flowered Petunia into reality in 1930, and this earned him international prestige in the scientific community.
Woo returned to studying morning glory flowers, but his papers, nearly complete, were burnt in a fire. Then he pursued the study of genotypes and phenotypes. He was assigned to create new crucifers through combination of different phenotypes. His four years of research led to a successful interbreeding of Japanese and Korean crucifers, and another internationally renowned paper. Doctoral degree was given from the Tokyo University to Woo as an accolade for his excellence. A significant observation in Dr. Woo's paper was that, evolution does not happen only through buildup of beneficial mutations that lead to speciation, but also through exchange of genes between different species.
Many Japanese agricultural study graduates came under Dr. Woo to learn, but were given overwhelming amount of exacting chores. Yet, they all continued up the ranks; Dr. Woo, however, had to stay in the Japan's Ministry of Agriculture's examination room because the Japanese policy during the occupation of Korea was to fetter Koreans from achieving high status. Especially, Dr. Woo had not changed his Korean name to Japanese -a policy aimed to assimilate Koreans into the Japanese culture. And when he was raised, he was requested to change his name; Woo abdicated from his position at the Konosu examination room.
He was hired into the Takiyi research farm, where he improved on seed-production methods and agricultural food products through artificial selection. While he concentrated on establishing a solid base for the resources needed for research, he wrote a paper on artificially combining sperms and eggs to improve the quality of the plants. He fathered four daughters and two sons.
Around the end of the World War II, the Takiyi research farm ran a free educational program for students, and Dr. Woo was the lecturer for Korean students; as Japan began to lose the war, Koreans were forcibly drafted into the army.
Read more about this topic: Woo Jang-choon
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