ABSTRACT
Chung Ju Yung got right back into business as usual as the Japanese withdrew from the Korean peninsula after World War II. In 1946, while it was possible to move from North to South, he moved back to Seoul — and set up a garage named “Hyundai Jadongcha Gongupsa,” Hyundai Motor Service. It was the first time Chung had ever used the name “Hyundai,” “modern,” for a commercial enterprise. To Chung, the peasant’s son, the word seemed sophisticated, progressive. “I think I thought of the name because I owned a car garage.” A car, he pointed out with irrefutable logic, “is a convenience of ‘modern’ civilization, isn’t it?” At first, he specialized in refitting surplus U.S. military vehicles, cast off by the forces that had arrived in September 1945 to occupy the land up to the 38th parallel. A year later, he added Japanese cars too — and soon had 30 people working for him, already half the strength of his old garage, Ato Service.
