Hugh Cynn, who was one of the most essential personnel of the Joseon Protestant church during the Japanese Occupation period, promoted the cause of diplomatic negotiations with the U.S., and had his actions continue through the Joseon Branch of the Pacific Research Institute. During the 1920s, he considered that the international reality had actually entered the state of a rather ideal world, where justice, humanity and democracy were prevailing. He also organized the Heungeob Club with influential persons gathered from several areas of the society including the Protestant church, the academic society, the media and business. In essence, he was the leader of the pro-Lee Seung Man faction inside the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas, and he also engaged in the 'Preparation First' movement. From his point of view, the diplomatic negotiations and the 'Preparation First' movement were mutually accommodating and benefitting ones, and so he awaited certain changes to erupt in the international situations, such as conflicts that would hopefully arise between the U.S. and Japan. But eventually the U.S. revealed its imperialistic nature, and did not respond in the way that Hugh Cynn would have hoped for. His plans did not come together.
Coming into the 1930s, Hugh Cynn attempted a new type of a Protestant Church-based movement. When it became clear that the diplomatic negotiations and the 'Preparation First' movement he originally promoted were not working because of a variety of reasons, he became skeptical of the values promoted by the U.S. and the Western democracy, and in a rather abrupt turn in terms of philosophy, at the same time witnessing the overall difficulties that Capitalism was going through at the time, he became enchanted with the National Socialist nature of the European Fascism, which led him to organize the Positive Religion Band. After he joined the Positive Religion Band, other intellectuals from the Protestant and Christian churches who were involved with the Band became increasingly critical of the basic principles of the Capitalist economic system such as the principle of struggle for survival or non-interference. They were mainly influenced by a person named Gagawa Toyohiko who was a Japanese Christian and also an Activist working for the poor. And they were also witnessing the Worldwide recession. They came to maintain a fairly anti-Capitalist, and anti-Socialist stances. After all, the Positive Religion Band was trying to steer away from the U.S.-centric perception of the world. But the Positive Religion Band failed to achieve a superior status in its competition with the main stream of the Protestant church, and in the end was dismantled.
After 1937, Hugh Cynn and the members of the Positive Religion Band engaged themselves in a series of active Pro-Japanese campaigns, joining the expansionist policies of the Japanese imperialism and militarism, just like any other intellectuals and personnel from other religious orders. They started to endorse the theory of 'Mutual Prosperity of the Grand East-Asian Society' which was based upon the notion signaling and awaiting the ultimate conflict which would arise between the yellow race and the white race rather than a conflict that should exist between Joseon and Japan. U.S. was perceived as an imperialist state, and Hugh Cynn and the others strongly criticized the practice of racial discrimination that was continuing inside the American society. In the end, with the support of the Joseon Governor General office, they seized control of the Methodist Church, and embarked upon the task of 'Japanizing' the Joseon Protestant Church. On the other hand, while Hugh Cynn and the members of the Positive Religion Band became pro-Japanese activists in a massive fashion, other factions inside the Protestant Church which were pursuing a rather conservatist position, arranged a rejection movement vetoing the forcibly required visits to the Shinsa Holy Shrine. After the liberation, either factions on the side of Hugh Cynn or not, the entire Joseon Protestant Church had to pay a considerable price for their actions which happened during the Japanese Occupation period.