March First Movement

March First Movement
Hangul 삼일 운동 Hanja 三一運動 Revised Romanization Samil Undong McCune-Reischauer Samil Undong

The March First Movement, or the Samil Movement, was one of the earliest displays of Korean independence movements during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The name refers to an event that occurred on 1 March 1919, hence the movement's name (meaning "three-one" or March 1 in Korean). It is also sometimes referred to as the Mansei Demonstrations.

Proclamation of Korean Independence

Background

The Samil Movement stemmed from the repressive nature of Japanese policies under its military administration of Korea following 1905, and was inspired by the "Fourteen Points" outlining the right of national "self-determination" proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919. World War I had paved the way for relationships to be radically changed between colonizer nations and their colonies, and Korean activists leading figures both at home and abroad felt a new hope.

Leaders included Son Pyong-hui of Cheondogyo, a nationalist religious movement that stemmed from the Donghak of the Joseon Dynasty, Yi Sang-jae and Pak Hui-do, directors of the Young Men's Christian Association in Seoul, and Buddhist Han Yong-un who had been calling for independence responded to an offer of cooperation from Cheondogyo leaders. Choe Nam-son and Kim Do-tae helped forge Cheondogyo-Christian ties. Confucian scholars in Korea did not join the March 1st movement, as Japan's official acceptance of Confucianism had them tacitly accepting the Japanese mandate of rule. The scholars did draw up the Pari-jangseo "Petition for Independence" and had it sent to the Paris Peace Conference through Kim Jang-seuk, but the petition was not presented directly to the Japanese governor as was the March 1 Korean Declaration of Independence (see www.yugyo.org/global/thought/unfolding/sagun_view.php?sagun_code=S0027&lang_code=ENG). It is not that Confucianist figures actually acquiesced to imperialist oppression — in Manchuria they took up arms against the Japanese — but that they were in a compromising situation. As the March 1st Movement leaders were punished, so eventually were Confucian leaders for the Pari-jangseo.</ref>

In December 1918 and January 1919 Korean students in Tokyo met underground, discussed independence, and selected a leadership of ten people including Choe Pal-yong. The Association of Korean Students in Japan declared Korean independence at the Korean YMCA building in Tokyo, but police dispersed them. Again on February 23, organized as the Korean Youth Independence Corps the students demonstrated in Hibiya Park. In China the New Korea Youth Party was organized in 1918, and sent Kim Kyu-shik the Paris Peace Conference to appeal for Korean independence. Syngman Rhee, who had emigrated in 1911 to head a Christian school in Hawaii (he later became South Korea's first president), hoped to join them from the US in 1918. Washington, however, had acquiesced to Japan's 1910 annexation of Korea and refused to allow him to travel for fear of angering Tokyo. Rhee wrote to President Woodrow Wilson in Paris and asked for Korea be put under trusteeship of the League of Nations.

Korean students studying in Tokyo published a statement demanding Korean independence. When this statement reached the underground nationalist movement in Korea (which included 33 Cheondogyo, Buddhist and Christian leaders including Son Byong-Hi), the leadership decided that the time to act was nearing. Secret plans were drawn up and information disseminated by word of mouth throughout the towns and villages of Korea.

The timing of the uprising was scheduled for two days before the funeral of Emperor Gojong. From a Korean point of view this funeral brought to an end not only the Joseon Dynasty but also one of the last symbols of the Korean nation. With the death of their last reigning Emperor, many Koreans felt that the last remaining link to the time they had an independent nation was now lost, and that Korea’s fate now lay solely in the hands of the Japanese.

Events

At 2 PM on the 1 March 1919, the 33 nationalists who formed the core of the Samil Movement convened at Taehwagwan Restaurant in Seoul, and read the Proclamation of Korean Independence that had been drawn up by the historian/writer Choe Namson and the poet Manhae, also known as Han Yongun. The nationalists initially planned to assemble at Tapgol Park in downtown Seoul, but they chose a more private location out of fear that the gathering might turn into a riot. The leaders of the movement signed the document and sent a copy to the Japanese Governor General, with their compliments. They then telephoned the central police station to inform them of their actions and were arrested afterwards.

Despite the nationalists' concerns, massive crowds assembled in the Pagoda Park to hear a student, Chung Jae-yong, read the declaration publicly. Afterwards, the gathering formed into a procession, which the Japanese police attempted to suppress. According to reports issued by the Korean Yon-Hap news agency, the crowd was fired upon by the officers and "…more than 7,500 demonstrators were killed and about 16,000 wounded. Some 47,000 others were arrested by the Japanese police".

Coinciding with these events, special delegates associated with the movement also read copies of the independence proclamation from appointed places throughout the country at 2 PM on that same day, but the nationwide uprisings that resulted were also brutally put down by the Japanese police and army.

However, these protests continued to spread, and as the Japanese national and military police could not contain the crowds, the army and even the navy were also called in. There were several reports of atrocities. In one notable instance, it was reported that Japanese police in the village of Jeam-ri herded male protesters into a church, locked it, and burned it to the ground.

By the end of the months of protests, Japanese officials declared that 553 people were killed with over 12,000 arrested. However, Korean and most neutral sources counted 7,500 killed and 45,000 arrested.

Before the Japanese finally suppressed the movement twelve months later, approximately 2,000,000 Koreans had participated in the more than 1,500 demonstrations.

Effects

One consequence of the March 1st movement was that it marked a major change in Japanese imperial policy towards Korea. Japanese Governor-General Hasegawa Yoshimichi accepted responsibility for the loss of control (although most of the repressive measures leading to the uprising had been put into place by his predecessors) and was replaced by Saito Makoto. Some of the aspects of Japanese rule considered most objectionable to Koreans were removed. The military police were replaced by a civilian force, and limited press freedom was permitted under what was termed the 'cultural policy'. Many of these lenient policies were reversed during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

The March 1 Movement was a catalyst for the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in April 1919.

On May 24, 1949, March 1st was designated a national holiday in South Korea.

Proclamation of Korean Independence

This is the translated text.<ref>found in McKenzie, F. A., Korea's Fight for Freedom (2nd ed.) (Seoul: Yonsei University Press), 1969. p. 247-258, and included in David Kent's work cited below.

We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and the liberty of the Korean people. We tell it to the world in witness of the equality of all nations and we pass it on to our posterity as their inherent right.

We make this proclamation, having back of us 5000 years of history, and 20000000 of a united loyal people. We take this step to insure to our children for all time to come, personal liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of this new era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving principle of the present age, the whole human race's just claim. It is something that cannot be stamped out, or stifled, or gagged, or suppressed by any means.

Victims of an older age, when brute force and the spirit of plunder ruled, we have come after these long thousands of years to experience the agony of ten years of foreign expression, with every loss to the right to live, every restriction of the freedom of thought, every damage done to the dignity of life, every opportunity lost for a share in the intelligent advance of the age in which we live.

Assuredly, if the defects of the past are to be rectified, if the agony of the present is to be unloosed, if the future oppression is to be avoided, if thought is to be set free, if right of action is to be given a place, if we are to attain to any way of progress, if we are to deliver our children from the painful, shameful heritage, if we are to leave blessing and happiness intact for those who succeed us, the first of all necessary things is the clear cut independence of our people. What cannot our twenty million do, every man with sword in heart, in this day when human nature and conscience are making a stand for truth and right? What barrier can we not break, what purpose can we not accomplish?

We have no desire to accuse Japan of breaking many solemn treaties since 1636, nor to single out specially the teachers in the schools or government officials who treat the heritage of our ancestors as a colony of their own, and our people and their civilisation as a nation of savages, finding delight only in beating us down and bringing us under their heel.

We have no wish to find special fault with Japan's lack of fairness or her contempt of our civilisation and the principles on which her state rests; we, who have greater cause to reprimand ourselves, need not spend precious time in finding fault with others; neither need we, who require so urgently to build for the future, spend useless hours over what is past and gone. Our urgent need to-day is the setting up of this house of ours and not a discussion of who has broken it down, or what has caused its ruin. Our work is to clear the future of defects in accord with the earnest dictates of conscience. Let us not be filled with bitterness or resentment over past agonies or past occasions for anger.

Our part is to influence the Japanese government, dominated as it is by the old idea of brute force which thinks to run counter to reason and universal law, so that it will change, act honestly and in accord with the principles of right and truth.

The result of annexation, brought about without any conference with the Korean people, is that the Japanese, indifferent to us, use every kind of partiality for their own, and by false set of figures show a profit and loss account between us two peoples most untrue, digging a trench of everlasting resentment deeper and deeper the farther they go.

Ought not the way of enlightened courage to be to correct the evils of the past by ways that are sincere, and by true sympathy and friendly feeling make a new world in which the two peoples will be equally blessed?

To bind by force twenty millions of resentful Koreans will mean not only loss of peace forever for this part of the Far East, but also will increase the ever growing suspicion of four hundred millions of Chinese - upon whom depends the danger or safety of the Far East - besides strengthening the hatred of Japan. From this all the rest of the East will suffer. To-day Korean independence will mean not only daily life and happiness for us, but also it would mean Japan's departure from an evil way and exaltation to the place of true protector of the East, so that China, too, even in her dreams, would put all fear of Japan aside. This thought comes from no minor resentment, but from a large hope for the future welfare and blessing of mankind.

A new era wakes before our eyes, the old world of force is gone, and the new world of righteousness and truth is here. Out of the experience and avail of the old world arises this light on life's affairs. The insects stifled by the foe and snow of winter awake at this same time with the breezes of spring and the soft light of the sun upon them.

It is the day of the restoration of all things on the full tide of which we set forth, without delay or fear. We desire a full measure of satisfaction in the way of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and an opportunity to develop what is in us for the glory of our people.

We awake now from the old world with its darkened conditions in full determination and one heart and one mind, with right on our side, along with the forces of nature, to a new life. May all the ancestors to the thousands and ten thousand generations aid us from within and all the force of the world aid us from without, and let the day we take hold be the day of our attainment. In this hope we go forward. Three Items of Agreement

1. This work of ours is in belief of truth, religion and life, undertaken at the request of our people, in order to make known their desire for liberty. Let no violence be done to any one.

1. Let those who follow us, every man, all the time, every hour, show forth with gladness this same mind.

1. Let all things be done decently and in order, so that our behaviour to the very end may be honourable and upright".

The 4252nd year of the Kingdom of Korea 3d Month

Representatives of the people.

The signatures attached to the document are:

Son Pyung-Hi, Kil sun-Chu, Yi Pil-Chu, Paik Yong-Sung, Kim Won-Kyu, Kim Pyung-Cho, Kim Chang-Choon, Kwon Dong-Chin, Kwon Byung-Duk, Na Yong-Whan, Na In-Hup, Yang Chun-Paik, Yang Han-Mook, Lew Yer-Dai, Yi Kop-Sung, Yi Mung-Yong, Yi Seung-Hoon, Yi Chong-Hoon, Yi Chong-Il, Lim Yei-Whan, Pak Choon-Seung, Pak Hi-Do, Pak Tong-Wan, Sin Hong-Sik, Sin Suk-Ku, Oh Sei-Chang, Oh Wha-Young, Chung Choon-Su, Choi Sung-Mo, Choi In, Han Yong-Woon, Hong Byung-Ki, Hong Ki-Cho.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cumings, Bruce. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New York: W.N. Norton and Company, 1997.
• Han, Woo-keun. The History of Korea. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.
• David Kent, Korea, Land of the Rising Sun: The Rise of Nationalism, and the Impact of the Sam-Il (3-1) Movement As A Living Symbol of Anti-Japanese Resistance, [1], "The Hermit Kingdom: Confucianist Advantages for the Japanese," [2]

See also

• List of Korea-related topics

External links

• [3]
• Full text of Samil Proclamation of Korean Independence
• Further explanation including Japanese actions and photographs
• Torture Murder of a Teenage Girl, Yu Kwan-soon
• The Jeam-ri Massacre

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