March First Movement

March First Movement
Hangul ?i"A`I" ??i^??? Hanja (c)?(c)¡Ài`e'e^?¢çO^N~ 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. It is also sometimes referred to as the Mansei Demonstrations.

Background

The Samil Movement stemmed from repressive policies of Japan under its military occupation and administration of Korea following 1905. It 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 at home and abroad felt a new hope.

In China the New Korea Youth Party was organized in 1918, and they 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), tried to travel to Paris in 1918 but the US government. Washington 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 the trusteeship of the League of Nations.

Korean students' National Congress Manifesto in Toyko

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, with the National Congress Manifesto. Police dispersed them. Again on February 23, organized as the Korean Youth Independence Corps, students demonstrated in Hibiya Park.

When the Tokyo manifesto reached the underground nationalist movement in Korea, the leadership decided that the time was nearing to begin the independence movement. Secret plans were drawn up and information disseminated by word of mouth throughout the towns and villages of Korea.

The leadership: "33 Korean Patriots"

Leaders included Son Pyong-hui of Cheondogyo, a nationalist religious movement that stemmed from the Donghak peasant revolution 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. )

Korean emperor's funeral

The uprising was held 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 had been feeling that the last remaining link to the time they had an independent nation was lost, and that Korea's fate now lay solely in the hands of the Japanese.

Proclamation of Korean Independence

At 2 PM on the 1 March 1919, the 33 nationalists who formed the core of the March 1st 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. Coinciding with these events, 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. The Japanese colonial authorities unleashed savage attacks on protesters, but protests spread and spread. When 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 protesters into a church, locked it, and burned it to the ground.

Although Japanese officials declared that only 553 people were killed and about 12,000 arrested over the month of demonstrations that followed, Korean sources (and the [Britannica]) say actually more than 7,500 demonstrators were killed and some 16,000 wounded, and about 47,000 others were arrested. Political Science Professor Lee Chong-sik at U. of Pennsylvania published very detailed lists of 19,525 Koreans arrested in connection with the March 1st Movement, by province or region, religious affiliation, educational level, age level and occupation.

Before the Japanese finally suppressed the movement twelve months later, approximately 2,000,000 Koreans had participated in 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.

Template:North Korea?

Text: Proclamation of Korean Independence

This is the translated text, signed by Korean 33 patriots. It was read on the morning of 1 March 1919 at Tapgol Park in Seoul, and in the afternoon at many other places throughout Korea.

---

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 5,000 year of history, and 20,000,000 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 oppression, 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.

Assumedly, 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 millions 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 a accomplish?

We have no desire to accuse Japan of breaking many solemn treaties since 1836, 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 civilization 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 civilization 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 today is the settling up of this house or 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 defeats 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 common 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 a 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 pence 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. Today 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 travail 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 use for the glory of our people.

We awake now from the aid 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 old 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.
2. Let those who follow us, every man, all the time, every hour, show forth with gladness this same mind.
3. Let all things be done decently and in order, so that our behavior to the very end may be honorable and upright".

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

Representatives of the people.

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

Text: National Congress Manifesto

This is the translated text.. Leaflets were also posted, to the effect:

Oh, our compatriots

The opportunity to take revenge against the enemy of the Royal Emperor and recover the national sovereignty has come. Rise in unanimity and help carry out the great deed.

January, thirteenth year of Yung-Hi.

Kungmin Taehoe

---

National Congress Manifesto

How miserable are our 20,000,000 compatriots. Do you know the reason for the sudden demise of His Majesty the Emperor? He has been always healthy and there was no news of his illness. But he has suddenly expired at midnight in his sleeping chamber. Would this be ordinary? As we advocated the national independence in the Paris Peace Conference, the cunning Japanese produced a certificate stating that "The Korean people are happy with Japanese rule and do not wish to separate from the Japanese," in order to cover the eyes and ears of the world. Yi Wan-Yong signed it as the representative of the nobility; Kim Yun-Sik signed it as the representative of the scholars; Yun Taek-Yong signed it as the representative of the royal relatives; Cho Chung-Ung and Song Byong-Jun signed it as social representatives; Shin Hung-U signed it as the representative of educational and religious fields. It was then submitted to His Majesty for his royal seal --- the worst crime possible. His majesty was most enraged and reprimanded them. They did not know what to do, and fearing other incidents in the future, they finally decided to assassinate His Majesty. Yun Tok-Yong and Han Sang-Hak, two traitors, were made to serve His Majesty's dinner, and poison was secretly added to his food at night through the two waiting women.

The Royal Body was immediately torn by agony and soon the Emperor took his last breath. There is no way to describe the pain and agony in our hearts. The two women were also put to death by poison, immediately, so that the intrigue might not be leaked out. The hands of the brigands are becoming more obvious, and cruelty is running to extremes. We have not yet revenged the humiliation of the past (the murder of the queen). And yet another calamity is brought upon us. Ask the blue sky who is incurring these misfortunes. If our people still exist, how could we neglect to cleanse these humiliations? Since the American president proclaimed the Fourteen Points, the voice of national self-determination has swept the world, and twelve nations, including Poland, Ireland and Czechoslovakia, have obtained independence. How could we, the people of the great Korean nation, miss this opportunity? Our compatriots abroad are utilizing this opportunity to reform the world and recover us the ruined nation. If the entire nation rises in unity, we may recover our lost national rights and save the already ruined nation.

Also, in order to revenge the mortal foe of His Majesty and Her Highness, our twenty million compatriots, arise!

January, thirteenth year of Yung-Hi (1919).

(seal) Kungmin TaeHoe

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Lee, Chong-Sik. Politics of Korean Nationalism. (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1963.
• Cumings, Bruce. Korea?¢ç?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, [3], "The Hermit Kingdom: Confucianist Advantages for the Japanese," [4]

See also

• List of Korea-related topics

External links

• [5]
• 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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