March 1st Movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from March First Movement)
March 1st Movement
Part of the Korean independence movement
A march during one of the protests in Seoul (1919)
DateMarch 1, 1919 (1919-03-01) – months afterwards
Location
Caused byIdeals of self-determination, discontent with colonial rule, and theories that former Emperor Gojong had been poisoned by Japan [ko]
Goals
  • Secure Korea's independence
  • Gain international support
MethodsNonviolent resistance
Resulted in
Concessions
  • Colonial government granted limited cultural freedoms as part of its cultural rule [ja; ko] policies
Parties
Number
Over 2,000,000 across over 2,000 protests
Casualties
Death(s)7,509 (Korean estimate)[1]
Arrested46,948 (Korean estimate)[1]

The March 1st Movement[a] was a series of protests against Japanese colonial rule that were held throughout Korea and internationally by the Korean diaspora beginning on March 1, 1919. In South Korea, the movement is remembered as a landmark event of not only the Korean independence movement, but in all of Korean history.

The protests began with a reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence in Tapgol Park, Seoul. The movement grew and spread rapidly; one estimate puts the number of protests at over 2,000, with over 2,000,000 participants total. Protests continued for months afterwards. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, they were frequently violently suppressed. One Korean estimate in 1920 claimed 7,509 deaths and 46,948 arrests. Japanese authorities reported much lower numbers, although there were instances where authorities were observed destroying evidence, such as during the Jeamni massacre, where Japanese soldiers burnt down a church to destroy the bodies of around 20 to 30 Korean civilians they had lured into the church before killing.[2]

While the movement did not result in Korea's imminent liberation, it had a number of significant effects. It invigorated the Korean independence movement and resulted in the creation of the Korean Provisional Government. In addition, the Japanese colonial government began granting limited cultural freedoms to Koreans under a series of policies that have since been dubbed "cultural rule [ja; ko]". Furthermore, the movement went on to inspire other movements abroad, including the Chinese May Fourth Movement and Indian satyagraha protests.[3]

The anniversary of the protest has been celebrated each year since 1919, although this was largely done in secret in Korea until its liberation in 1945. In South Korea, it is a national holiday. The North Korean government, however, does not evaluate the movement's significance similarly, and promotes writings about the event that seek to emphasize the role of the ruling Kim family in the protests.[4]

Background[edit]

See also: Korea under Japanese rule and Korean independence movement

In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea. Japanese rule was initially especially tight. Japan took control over Korea's economy, and began a process of Japanization: forced cultural assimilation. Resistance was violently suppressed, and freedom of speech and press were tightly controlled.[1][5] Months before the protests, a number of events occurred that heightened Korean discontent and stirred independence sentiment.[1]

Fourteen Points[edit]

See also: Fourteen Points

After the conclusion of World War I in 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson announced his vision for establishing peace and the new world order after the war. This vision was dubbed the Fourteen Points, and included the right of national self-determination.[6][1] Koreans who learned of Wilson's vision were inspired, and interpreted it as signaling support for their independence movement. Their sympathy to the United States and to the Allies greatly increased, when previously they had reportedly disliked the alliance because Japan was a member of it.[7]

However, according to the interpretation of several scholars, Wilson had intended for the statement to apply mostly the former colonies of the defeated Central Powers, which Japan was not a part of.[1][8] The U.S. would only begin openly advocating for Korean independence decades later, after it joined World War II against Japan.[9] Regardless, the colonial government suppressed discussion of the Fourteen Points, even reportedly going so far as to ban a foreign film from being screened in Korea because it had images of President Wilson.[10]

Korean-American independence activists such as Syngman Rhee, Min Chan-ho [ko], and Jeong Han-gyeong [ko] attempted to send a Korean representative to the 1919–1920 Paris Peace Conference, but the U.S. government denied them permission to go.[1][11] Some Koreans in China, including Kim Kyu-sik, were allowed to secretly join the Chinese delegation and travel to the conference. Chinese leaders, hoping to embarrass Japan, attempted to put a discussion of Korea's sovereignty on the agenda, but did not succeed.[12]

Gojong's death and poisoning theories[edit]

Just days after the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference, Gojong, the former emperor of Korea, died on January 21, 1919. Japan reported that Gojong had died from natural causes, but he had reportedly been healthy just until his death. Koreans widely suspected that Japan had poisoned him [ko];[1][13] this was thought especially credible because previous attempts had been made on his life.[14]

The outrage at the possibility that Gojong had been murdered has since been evaluated as having a critical impact on the timing of, and even the altogether occurrence of, the March 1st Movement.[13][15]

February 8 Declaration of Independence[edit]

Main article: February 8 Declaration of Independence

By the mid-1910s, several hundred Korean students were studying in Japan as part of Japan's cultural assimilation efforts.[16][17] While there, they were exposed to and developed a variety of ideas, which they discussed and debated. Of particular interest to them were ideas from the West, particularly liberal democracy, which they received in part via the Japanese Taishō Democracy movement and Wilson's Fourteen Points.[17]

By early 1919, their ideas coalesced, and they also became angered by the rebuffing of the Korean representatives, by the brutality of Japanese rule, and by the possibility that Gojong had been poisoned. On February 8, 600 students of the Korean Young People's Independence Organization (조선청년독립단; 朝鮮靑年獨立團) proclaimed and publicly distributed a declaration of independence, which they sent to not only the Japanese government, but also to the Paris Peace Conference and to representatives of various countries.[1][18] The students were arrested en masse by Japanese authorities, although news of their act reached Korea.[19]

Organization[edit]

In late 1918, leaders of the native Korean religion Cheondoism, including Kwǒn Tong-chin [ko] and O Se-chang, reached a consensus that nonviolent resistance and turning international public opinion against Japan would be effective in advocating for Korea's independence.[1][20] They also agreed that they needed assistance from other major groups in Korea.[1]

They dispatched representatives to negotiate and secure the cooperation of major politicians and groups in Korea. Some negotiations were strained and took months, and they were initially so disheartened that they reportedly even considered abandoning their plan. However, the events of January and February 1919 caused a spike in pro-independence activism, and they quickly secured a number of significant alliances. They gained the support of several former government officials from the Korean Empire, although they were rebuffed by Joseon-era politicians Park Yung-hyo and Han Kyu-sŏl. They also secured alliances from major Christian and Buddhist groups, as well as from several student organizations.[1]

They decided to schedule their protest for the same day as Gojong's public funeral, in order to capitalize on the significant amount of people congregating in Seoul.[13][15] The funeral was initially scheduled for March 3. However, it was rescheduled to March 1 for religious reasons.[1][clarification needed]

From February 25 to 27, representatives from these various groups held a series of secret meetings in Seoul, during which they produced and signed the Korean Declaration of Independence. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on February 27, they printed 21,000 copies of the declaration at the printing facilities of Posǒngsa [ko], a publisher affiliated with Cheondoism. On the morning of the 28th, they distributed these copies around the peninsula, to members of the Korean diaspora, to U.S. President Wilson, and to participants in the Paris Peace Conference. That day, they held a final meeting and reviewed their plans for the protests.[1]

They initially planned to start the protest at Tapgol Park in Seoul, where they'd invite thousands of students to hear the reading of the declaration. However, worries that they were putting the students in danger caused them to change the starting location to the restaurant Taehwagwan [ko] in Insa-dong. This eventually led to a miscommunication, where the students were invited to the park regardless.[1]

Beginning[edit]

Around noon on March 1, 1919, twenty-nine of the thirty-three signers of the declaration gathered in Taehwagwan in Seoul in preparation to start the protest. However, the Korean restaurant owner An Sun-hwan (안순환; 安淳煥) secretly reported the meeting to the Japanese Government-General of Chōsen, and around eighty Japanese military police officers rushed over and arrested the signers.[1]

Meanwhile, around 4,000 to 5,000 students had assembled at Tapgol Park after hearing there was going to be an announcement made there. They waited for the announcement to start, unaware that most of the protest's organizers had been arrested.[1]

Around 2 p.m., an unidentified young man rose up before the crowd and began reading the Korean Declaration of Independence aloud. Near the end of the document's reading, cheers of "long live Korean independence" (대한독립 만세) erupted continually from the crowd, and they filed out onto the main street Jongno for a public march.[1]

Crowds at Deoksugung (March 1919)

By the time the marchers reached the gate Daehanmun of the former royal palace Deoksugung, their numbers had swelled to the tens of thousands. From there, a number of splinter groups marched in different directions throughout the city. News of the protests spread rapidly in Seoul, and marching and public demonstations continued for many hours afterwards.[1]

These protestors were reportedly consistently peaceful, but were met with violent repression by Japanese authorities, which resulted in deaths and arrests.[1]

Spread[edit]

That same day, similar protests were held in other cities in Korea, including in Pyongyang, Chinnamp'o, Anju, and Wonsan. Despite Japanese repression of information, news of the protest in Seoul reached these cities quickly, as they were connected to Seoul via the Gyeongui and Gyeongwon railway lines.[1] On March 2, more protests were held in Kaesong and Keiki-dō (Gyeonggi Province). On March 3, more were held in Yesan and Chūseinan-dō (South Chungcheong Province). Protests continued to spread in this fashion, until by March 19, all thirteen provinces of Korea had hosted protests. On March 21, Jeju Island held their first protest.[1]

Various locations often hosted multiple protests for weeks afterwards. Seoul hosted thirteen and Haeju hosted eight.[1] Numerous small villages hosted three or four protests.[1] For example, Hoengseong County held a series of protests from March 27 to mid-April.[21] Protests often coincided with market days, and were often held at government offices.[1]

Korean shops closing in solidarity with the protest (1919)

Korean shop owners reportedly closed their doors in solidarity with the protests, and refused to reopen even after Japanese soldiers attempted to force them to. Some shop owners demanded the release of imprisoned protestors.[22]

It is impossible to know the precise number of protests that occurred in Korea, as well as their sizes. One estimate puts the number of protests at over 2,000, with over 2,000,000 participants total. The protests were broadly supported across economic and religious spectrums. A significant number of merchants, noblemen, literati, kisaeng, laborers, monks, Christians, Cheondoists, Buddhists, students, and farmers supported the movement.[1]

Character of the protests[edit]

The character of each protest differed, possibly due to the influence of local culture and religion. In some regions, Christians played a more significant role in organizing protests, and in others Cheondoists were more significant.[1] The scholar Kim Jin-bong argued that Christians played a larger role in regions with more developed transportation, and Cheondoists in regions with less developed transportation.[1]

North Hamgyong Province was the last province to join the protests. Kim Jin-bong characterized its protests as being less intense, and attributed this to transportation being less developed there, as well as security being tighter due to it being on the border with both Russia and China.[1] In Chūseihoku-dō (North Chungcheong Province) and Chūseinan-dō, some radical groups attacked and destroyed Japanese government offices and police stations. Zenrahoku-dō (North Jeolla Province) had protests that have been characterized as less intense than others. This has been attributed to the region being relatively depleted after having previously heavily participated in the 1894–1895 Donghak Peasant Revolution and subsequent righteous army conflicts. In this province and in Zenranan-dō (South Jeolla Province), students often played a significant role in protests.[1]

Women both led and participated in many of the protests, with the famous example of Yu Gwan-sun. A group of female students wrote a public letter entitled From Korean School Girls to world leaders that was reprinted in international newspapers. Their role was then hailed by international feminist observers, and seen as a milestone in their changing social status, especially in contrast to their status in the conservative Joseon period.[23]

Korean diaspora protests[edit]

Manchuria[edit]

Main article: Longjing Manse Movement
The Longjing Manse Movement (March 13, 1919)

On March 7, Koreans in Manchuria learned of the movement. They held a significant protest in Longjing on March 13. Estimates of the number of protestors vary, although some put the number of protestors at around 20,000 to 30,000.[24][25][1] This was around 10% of the total Korean population of the region at the time.[26]: 1:34  One person, who had sent her son to the protest, later recalled what she had heard of it:[27][b]

I heard that a large crowd of people gathered from all over to hear the news. After the noon bell finished ringing, a large flag celebrating Korea's independence was unfurled. Everyone raised their own flags and shouted "long live Korean independence". The flag blocked the sun, and the shouting echoed like thunder. When the Japanese authorities saw this, their faces turned ashen.

Japanese authorities pressured the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin into suppressing the protest. This resulted in around 17 to 19 deaths.[28][29][1] Like in Korea, the Koreans continued to hold protests for weeks afterwards. The region of Jiandao (Gando in Korean) hosted around 54 protests by mid-May.[27]

Russian Empire[edit]

See also: Koryo-saram § History, and Shinhanchon

Koreans in Russia also learned of the protests, and began organizing their own. In Ussuriysk, a protest was held and suppressed on March 17. The Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan had been part of the Allies of World War I, and had signed agreements to suppress the Korean independence movement. Inspired by the Ussuriysk protest, the Koreans of the enclave Shinhanchon in Vladivostok launched their own that same day, which was also suppressed. They launched another the following day.[30]

United States[edit]

Koreans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States held the First Korean Congress and a public rally in support of Korean independence.[1]

Suppression[edit]

The Japanese Government-General of Chōsen was reportedly unaware that the protest would happen until its beginning, and was surprised by the scale and intensity of them. It rushed to recruit people from various backgrounds,[1] including firemen[31] and security guards at railroads, to stop the protests. The government-general received more military police and police officers from Japan, as well as more army divisions. They equipped these groups with lethal weapons and distributed them around Korea.[1][32]

A significant number of mass murders of Korean civilians occurred.[1] There are numerous reports of Japanese authorities around the peninsula opening fire or conducting organized bayonet charges on unarmed protestors.[33][1]

During an intense raid on Suwon and Anseong, Japanese authorities reportedly burnt 276 private homes down, killed 29, and arrested around 2,000 people. A significant number of people were tortured and executed.[1] In one infamous instance now known as the Jeamni massacre, a Japanese lieutenant lured 20 to 30[2] Korean civilians into a church, opened fire on them, then burned the church down to hide evidence of the killings.[1]

  • Selection of Schofield's photographs

The Canadian missionary Frank Schofield took and compiled photos of the protests, and shared them with the international press. There are reports of crucifixions being performed on Korean Christians; this is attested to in one of Schofield's photographs, which was reprinted in American newspapers and frequently paired with expressions of outrage.[31] Foreign eyewitnesses reported that unarmed and peaceful protestors were frequently met with violent retaliation.[31][34] Koreans, regardless of gender or age, are attested to being stripped and publicly flogged.[31][34] One anecdote attested to in newspapers in the U.S. and Russia claims a girl had her hand cut off by a Japanese soldier because she was holding a copy of the declaration. However, she reportedly switched to holding the document in her other hand, and continued to protest.[34][32]

An April 12 cablegram, sent from Shanghai to the Korean National Association in San Francisco, read:

Japan began massacring in Korea. Over [one] thousand unarmed people killed in Seoul during three hours' demonstration on the twenty-eighth. Japanese troops, fire brigades, and civilians are ordered [to shoot, beat, and hook [sic]] people mercilessly throughout Korea. Killed several thousand since twenty-seventh. Churches, schools, homes of leaders destroyed. Women made naked and beaten before crowds, especially leaders' family. The imprisoned being severely tortured. Doctors are forbidden caring wounded. Foreign Red Cross urgently needed.[31]

There are numerous reports of prison conditions being extremely poor. According to several accounts, in Seoul's Seodaemun Prison, women were stripped naked in front of male guards. Prisoners were bathed en masse and without separation of genders, with one report claiming that around 140 male and female prisoners were made to bathe in the same tub, which quickly became dirty. One girl reported that conditions were extremely cramped and dirty. Prisoners were made to squat, and were punished if they stood, sat, or attempted to sleep.[31]

According to a August 15 article in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia, gatherings became treated with suspicion by Japanese authorities. In one instance, after a Korean attendee of a wedding was found to have documents linking him to the independence movement, Japanese authorities raided the wedding and conducted mass beatings and arrests.[32]

Statistics[edit]

The statistics around the suppression of the March 1st Movement are not known with certainty, and are a subject of controversy.[1]

The history book The Bloody History of the Korean Independence Movement [ko] by Korean scholar Park Eun-sik reports the following statistics:

Statistics reported by Park Eun-sik[1]
Region # protests # participants # deaths # injuries # arrests
Gyeonggi 297 665,900 1,472 3,124 4,680
Hwanghae 115 92,670 238 414 4,218
Pyongan 315 514,670 2,042 3,665 11,610
Hamgyong 101 59,850 135 667 6,215
Gangwon 57 99,510 144 645 1,360
Chungcheong 156 120,850 590 1,116 5,233
Jeolla 222 294,800 384 767 2,900
Gyeongsang 223 154,498 2,470 5,295 1,085
Overseas 51 48,700 34 157 5
Total 1,542 2,023,098 7,509 15,961 46,948

Park published the book in 1920,[35] so it is possible that the numbers are higher, as Japanese authorities continued pursuing and arresting protestors for years afterwards.[1]

Japanese sources differ on the statistics. From March 1 to April 11, Japanese officials reported 553 people killed, and more than 12,000 arrested. They said that 8 policemen and military were killed, and 158 wounded. As punishment, some of the arrested demonstrators were executed in public.[36]

Yu Gwan-sun[edit]

Main article: Yu Gwan-sun
A mug shot of Yu (1919)

Yu Gwan-sun, a 16-year-old participant in the protests, has since become a symbol of March 1st Movement, and is now remembered in South Korea as a martyr. On the first day of the protests, Yu, then a student at Ewha Haktang, participated in the protest in Seoul. On March 5, she participated in another protest at Namdaemun in Seoul and was arrested. Missionaries from her school negotiated her release. She then returned to her hometown of Cheonan, albeit with a smuggled copy of the Declaration of Independence. From there, she went from village to village, spreading the news of the protests and encouraging people to organize their own. On April 1, 3,000 protestors gathered in Cheonan. The Japanese military police opened fire on the protestors and killed 19; among the dead were Yu's parents.[37]

Yu was arrested and detained at Seodaemun Prison. She was repeatedly beaten and tortured, but unrepentantly continued to advocate for Korea's independence. She eventually died of her injuries on September 28, 1920.[37]

Suppression of information and misinformation campaign[edit]

Japan attempted to stop information about the event from leaving the peninsula. Major Japanese newspapers made some initial reports on the event; they almost uniformly downplayed its scale and did not cover it as the main story. Eventually, they ceased reporting on it.[34] However, the English-language newspapers The Japan Chronicle and The Japan Advertiser published a number of articles that were about the violent suppression of the movement, with the latter covering the events of the Jeamni massacre.[1]

Foreign witnesses in Korea played a significant role in documenting, photographing, and communicating information about the event abroad. The first communication about the event to leave the Japanese Empire was in English and went to Shanghai. This led to the first international article on the movement being published there on March 4.[38]

News of the protests first reached the United States on March 10, via a cablegram sent by Korean independence activists in Shanghai to San Francisco.[34] The story was quickly picked up by other American papers. However, the veracity of the story was initially held in doubt. In the March 11 issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, judge John Albert Matthewman, who had previously volunteered for the Red Cross in Korea, stated that he felt that Koreans in Shanghai had fabricated the story. He felt this way because he had observed Japan being so repressive, that such a large-scale protest was functionally impossible to execute.[34]

In response to the increasing numbers of foreign inquiries, various Japanese bodies released public statements that either denied that protests had occurred in Korea at all, downplayed the scale of them, or claimed that they had been fully suppressed much earlier than in reality. There are records of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodging official complaints to the United States and Germany for publishing what it deemed to be rumors about the protests, with requests to stop their publication.[34] Furthermore, Japan promoted narratives that framed the protests as the violent riots of extremist upstarts, and claimed any violence in response was done in self defense.[34][31] One Japanese report claimed prison conditions were like those of a health resort.[31] Japanese diplomats published statements in which they claimed Koreans were uncivilized and incapable of self-governance. Western journalists who were sympathetic to Japan (for example, Edmund Davison of Drew University, who was born in Japan[39]) repeated these narratives in various newspapers internationally, including in articles published by The New York Times and by the Los Angeles Times.[34][39]

The Korean diaspora and foreign witnesses played a significant role in challenging these narratives. Korean Americans, such as Syngman Rhee and Henry Chung [ko], penned responses to Japanese or pro-Japanese articles that were published in various American newspapers.[23][39] In Russia, the Korean newspaper published from Vladivostok Hanin Sinbo was referenced by Russian journalists.[31] According to the analysis of one South Korean journalist, many articles internationally became increasingly skeptical of Japan's narratives as time progressed.[34]

American journalist Valentine S. McClatchy, publisher of the The Sacramento Bee, was in Seoul and witnessed Gojong's funeral and much of the early protests. He described Japanese investigators following him and searching his house in an apparent effort to stop him from leaving Korea and leaking information. McClatchy would eventually leave Korea on March 17, but made a point of traveling around the peninsula and documenting what he saw before his departure. Upon his return, he dedicated the front page of the Bee's April 6 issue to the protests, and criticized Japan for manipulating information on the event.[31]

Policy changes[edit]

The movement was widely seen as an embarrassment to the colonial government, although Japanese opinions differed on what caused the protests, how serious they were, and how to prevent future unrest.[40]

Cultural rule[edit]

The colonial government began significant reform efforts. Many of these efforts have been grouped under the name "cultural rule [ja; ko]" (Japanese: 文化政治; bunka seiji). These policies allowed several limited cultural freedoms and programs for Koreans. This included permission for several Korean newspapers to be founded, including The Dong-a Ilbo and The Chosun Ilbo,[1] as well as the establishment of institutions like the Chōsen Art Exhibition[41] and the Government-General of Chōsen Library.[42] In addition, while the colonial government had previously been more consistently dismissive towards Korean culture, it began conceding that Korea had some unique traditions worthy of protection and development.[1]

The scholar Kim Jin-bong evaluates these policy changes as being largely cosmetic and intended to appease Koreans and international observers. Throughout the period of cultural rule, Japan continued violently suppressing the Korean independence movement.[1] By the late 1930s, many of these concessions were retracted, and Japan began enforcing assimilation with greater intensity.[5]

International reactions[edit]

Within days, numerous countries around the world reported on the event and often wrote critically of its violent suppression.[43][1] Western countries often focused on the plight of Korean Christians.[43] However, foreign governments did not openly oppose Japan's rule over Korea, nor did they condemn the violence applied in suppressing the protests. This was largely due to each government determining that forwarding their policy goals with Japan outweighed offering support to Korea.[1][8]

United States[edit]

In the May, 1920 issue of Scribner's Magazine an article entitled "Korea's Rebellion: the part played by Christians" appeared.[44]

In April 1919, the U.S. State Department told their ambassador to Japan that "the consulate [in Seoul] should be extremely careful not to encourage any belief that the United States will assist the Korean nationalists in carrying out their plans and that it should not do anything which may cause Japanese authorities to suspect [the] American Government sympathizes with the Korean nationalist movement."[45] On July 15, Republican senators Miles Poindexter and George W. Norris opposed the ratification of the articles of the League of Nations, and cited Korea as an example of a nation the organization had failed to aid.[1]

Many American journalists and an American Presbyterian church organization condemned the violent suppression of the protests.[1] A South Korean journalist observed that The New York Times had published an article critical of the Korean independence movement just a month prior to the protest, but shifted to expressing sympathy soon afterwards. On June 15, it dedicated the entirety of one of its six pages to coverage of modern Korean history and the protests, with a full reprint of the text of the Korean Declaration of Independence.[39]

Ultimately, the U.S. did officially not condemn Japan's suppression of the movement or support Korea's independence.[1][8]

China[edit]

While the Chinese government did not openly advocate for Korea's independence, it offered support in a number of other ways.[1][34][12] The Republic Daily News, which was strongly aligned with the Chinese government, covered the protests on a daily basis for some time, praising the protestors and criticizing their suppression.[3][34] One such article was entitled "Respectable and Admirable Koreans" (Chinese: 可敬可憫之朝鮮人), and contained the line, "If the [protestor] in front falls, the one behind continues marching forward. [The Koreans] truly do not fear death".[22] Prominent Chinese intellectual Chen Duxiu, in his magazine The Weekly Review (每週評論), praised the protests and advocated for Chinese people to follow the Korean example. Student journalists of Peking University similarly wrote favorably of the protests.[3] These sentiments were echoed by English-language newspapers in China, including the Peking Daily News and Peking and Tientsin Times.[1]

In 2019, a letter that possibly caused a stir in China but was previously relatively unknown in Korea was rediscovered. In the letter, an anonymous female Korean student implored U.S. President Wilson to advocate for Korea's independence. It is unknown if the U.S. ever received the letter, although one Yonhap News Agency reporter argued that the letter was possibly significant in influencing Chinese public opinion on the protests, as it was widely republished and was followed by a shift towards more sympathetic reporting towards Korea.[46]

United Kingdom[edit]

In the early 1920s, British members of parliament Arthur Hayday and Thomas Walter Grundy mentioned the issue of Korea and asked what could be done for it. In addition, a society that advocated for Korea's independence formed in both the U.K. and France called The Friends of Korea (French: Les Amis de la Coree). None of these efforts resulted in significant action.[1]

Russia[edit]

At the time of the movement, Russia was engaged in the Russian Civil War and Russian Revolution. The foreign ministry of the anti-Bolshevik Russian State consulted with Japan in March, then officially took a neutral stance on the protest.[32]

By contrast, Vladimir Lenin and other Bolsheviks frequently expressed solidarity with the Koreans. Several South Korean and American scholars and journalists have since noted that the protesting Koreans were from across the political spectrum, and that Lenin and the Bolsheviks actively sought to link movements such as these with their cause, as they stood to benefit from doing so.[32][1] After the Soviet Union assumed control over territories with significant Korean populations in the Russian Far East, it allowed and sometimes encouraged Koreans to openly express support for the Korean independence movement.[32][1]

According to a 2019 study on global coverage of the protests, a May 3 article in the leftist newspaper Pravda is the earliest known Russian article on the protests. The article criticized Japan's violent suppression of the protests, as well as the subsequent disinformation campaign.[32]

Mexico[edit]

Mexican newspapers began publishing on the movement on March 13, and widely condemned Japan's actions.[43] The Korean community in Mexico launched a fundraising campaign in response to the movement, and sent the raised funds to Korean independence activists in Shanghai. Despite the community living in significant poverty, one estimate claims the Koreans there donated an average of 20% of their income to the independence movement.[47]

Impact and aftermath[edit]

While the movement did not secure Korea's liberation, it had a number of significant effects for Korea and a number of other countries.[1][3]

Amidst the violent repression of the protests and the hunt for its participants and leaders, numerous Koreans fled the peninsula. A number of them congregated in Shanghai, and in April 1919, they founded the Korean Provisional Government (KPG). This government is now considered a predecessor to the modern government of South Korea, and holds an important place in the independence movement and in South Korean identity.[1]

Other independence movements[edit]

Several weeks later, organizers of the May Fourth Movement in China such as Fu Ssu-nien cited the March 1st Movement as one of their inspirations.[3] That protest has since been evaluated as a critical moment in modern Chinese history.[48][49]

Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi read of the peaceful protests while in South Africa. He reportedly decided to return to India soon afterwards and launch the non-cooperation movement.[3]

In the U.S.-occupied Philippines, university students in Manila held a pro-independence protest in June 1919, and cited the March 1st Movement as inspiration.[3]

In British-occupied Egypt, students of Cairo University held a pro-independence protest amidst the 1919 Egyptian revolution, and cited the March 1st Movement as an inspiration.[3]

Commemorations[edit]

South Korea[edit]

Centennial celebration of the movement, with President Moon in center (2019)

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

In 2018, President Moon Jae-in's administration established the Commission on the Centennial Anniversary of March 1st Independence Movement and the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) to celebrate these occasions.[50] The KPG was the government-in-exile of Korea during the Japanese occupation, and a predecessor of the current government. North Korea refused to participate in the joint project of the anniversary due to "scheduling issues".[51] The commission ceased its operation in June 2020.

Seoul Metropolitan Government stated the March 1st movement as "the catalyst movement of democracy and the republic for Korean people."[52]

North Korea[edit]

In the North, the day is remembered as "The People's Uprising Day" (인민 봉기일), and taught as the day that Kim Il Sung's family took the lead of the independence movement. Kim would have been around eight years old around 1919. It is commemorated as a relatively minor holiday, with mostly central and few local celebrations. The events are geared towards inciting anti-American and anti-Japanese sentiment.[4][53]

The epicenter of the movement is taught as being Pyongyang instead of Seoul, and the contributions of figures who became influential in the later South Korean government are downplayed. The 33 national representatives who are considered to have led the movement in the South are replaced by Kim Hyong-jik, Kim's father. Those 33 representatives are instead described as having surrendered immediately after reading their declaration. Furthermore, eight-year-old Kim is described as leading a march for some 30 li from the Mangyongdae neighborhood of Pyongyang to the Potong Gate, also in Pyongyang.[53]

While scholars in both the South and North are in relative consensus that the movement was doomed to fail (at least in the short term), North Korean textbooks argue that the movement failed because of bourgeois interference and the lack of a central proletariat revolutionary party to lead it.[53]

Other regions[edit]

A number of other places with significant Korean diaspora populations have commemorated the anniversary of the March 1st Movement at a variety of points in time.

Anniversary marches in Vladivostok (1920)

The Korean enclave Shinhanchon in Vladivostok, Russia commemorated the anniversary of the movement each year from 1920.[54]

Korean-Mexicans in the city of Mérida celebrated the anniversary of the movement with public events in recent years. Some celebrations have included reenactments of the reading of the declaration and public marches.[55][56]

Apology[edit]

In August 2015, Yukio Hatoyama, who had previously served as Prime Minister of Japan for nine months, visited Seodaemun Prison, where many protestors had been held, and apologized on his knees for how the prisoners had been treated.[37]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Korean: 3·1 운동; this name is sometimes transliterated as the Sam-il Movement, where "sam" and "il" are the Korean reading for 3 and 1. Alternate name Manse Movement (Korean: 만세운동; Hanja: 萬歲運動; lit. Ten-thousand Year Movement)
  2. ^ 저녁 때 들으니 사방에서 인사들이 소식을 듣고 모여 인산인해를 이루었다고 한다. 정오 종소리에 맞춰 용정 부근 서전대야에 큰 조선독립 깃발을 세우고 사람마다 태극기를 들고 조선독립만세를 부르며 독립을 선언했다. 깃발은 해를 가리고 함성은 우레와 같았다. 이를 본 왜인의 얼굴색이 잿빛으로 변했다.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf 김, 진봉, "3·1운동 (三一運動)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-29
  2. ^ a b 김, 진봉, "수원 제암리 참변 (水原 堤岩里 慘變)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-30
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shin, Yong-ha (February 27, 2009). "Why Did Mao, Nehru and Tagore Applaud the March First Movement?". The Chosun Ilbo. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2009-06-27 – via Korea Focus.
  4. ^ a b Kim, Hyeon-gyeong (1 March 1997). "In North Korea, March 1st is distortedly taught as being caused by the Kim Il-sung family". MBC News. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  5. ^ a b 정, 진석; 최, 진우. "신문 (新聞)". Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean). Academy of Korean Studies. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  6. ^ Neuhaus, Dolf-Alexander (2017). ""Awakening Asia": Korean Student Activists in Japan, The Asia Kunglun, and Asian Solidarity, 1910–1923". Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review. 6 (2): 608–638. doi:10.1353/ach.2017.0021. S2CID 148778883.
  7. ^ Manela 2007, p. 131.
  8. ^ a b c Hart-Landsberg, Martin (1998). Korea: Division, Reunification, & U.S. Foreign Policy. Monthly Review Press. p. 30.
  9. ^ Son, Sae-il (July 2, 2007), "孫世一의 비교 傳記 (64)" [Son Sae-il's Comparative Critical Biography (64)], Monthly Chosun (in Korean), archived from the original on March 20, 2023, retrieved May 1, 2023
  10. ^ Manela 2007, pp. 129–130.
  11. ^ Chang, Roberta (2003). The Koreans in Hawai'i: A Pictorial History, 1903–2003. University of Hawaii Press, p. 100.
  12. ^ a b Manela 2007, p. 29.
  13. ^ a b c Manela 2007, p. 132.
  14. ^ "Did you know that ...(22) The coffee plot". The Korea Times. 2011-09-09. Retrieved 2017-09-06.
  15. ^ a b Wells 1989, p. 7.
  16. ^ Manela 2007, p. 125.
  17. ^ a b Wells 1989, pp. 8–9.
  18. ^ Hae-yeon, Kim (2023-02-23). "[Newsmaker] Handwritten English translation of Feb. 8 Declaration of Independence found after 104 years". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
  19. ^ 박, 성수, "2·8독립선언서 (二八獨立宣言書)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-29
  20. ^ Wells 1989, p. 14.
  21. ^ 김, 영인 (2019-01-03). "횡성 4·1만세운동 공원 호국 성지화 사업 추진". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-29.
  22. ^ a b 차, 병섭 (2019-02-14). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ③ 상하이서 첫 '타전'…은폐 급급하던 日, 허 찔렸다". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  23. ^ a b 임, 주영 (2019-02-18). "[외신속 3·1운동] ⑦ WP "선언문 든 소녀의 손 잘라내"…日편들던 워싱턴 '충격'". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  24. ^ 김, 광재, "3·13반일시위운동 (三·一三反日示威運動)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-03
  25. ^ 안, 상경 (2022-03-11). "[아! 만주⑰] 용정 3.13반일의사릉: 만주에서 울린 그 날의 함성을 기억하다". 월드코리안뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  26. ^ 영상한국사 I 67 3월 13일, 간도 용정에서 대규모 만세시위가 벌어지다. Retrieved 2024-04-03 – via www.youtube.com.
  27. ^ a b 안, 상경 (2022-03-11). "[아! 만주⑰] 용정 3.13반일의사릉: 만주에서 울린 그 날의 함성을 기억하다". 월드코리안뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  28. ^ 김, 광재, "3·13반일시위운동 (三·一三反日示威運動)", 한국민족문화대백과사전 [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture] (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-03
  29. ^ 윤, 병석 (2008). 북간도지역 한인 민족운동 (in Korean). 독립기념관 한국독립운동사연구소. p. 173. ISBN 9788993026658.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  30. ^ 안, 영배 (2020-01-18). "두만강 건너간 한인들이 세운 '신한촌'… 해외 독립운동 상징으로". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 옥, 철 (2019-02-16). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ⑤ 샌프란發 대서특필…美서 대일여론전 '포문' 열다". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  32. ^ a b c d e f g 유, 철종 (2019-02-19). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ⑧ 러 프라우다·이즈베스티야도 주목…"조선여성 영웅적 항쟁"". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  33. ^ 임, 주영 (2019-02-18). "[외신속 3·1운동] ⑦ WP "선언문 든 소녀의 손 잘라내"…日편들던 워싱턴 '충격'". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 김, 상훈 (2019-02-14). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ① 그 날 그 함성…통제·조작의 '프레임' 뚫고 세계로". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  35. ^ 송, 병기, "한국독립운동지혈사 (韓國獨立運動之血史)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-04-29
  36. ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Walthall, Anne (1947). East Asia : a cultural, social, and political history (Third ed.). Boston. ISBN 9781133606475. OCLC 811729581.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ a b c Kang, Inyoung (2018-03-29). "Overlooked No More: Yu Gwan-sun, a Korean Independence Activist Who Defied Japanese Rule". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  38. ^ 김, 상훈 (2019-02-14). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ① 그 날 그 함성…통제·조작의 '프레임' 뚫고 세계로". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  39. ^ a b c d 이, 준서 (2019-02-17). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ⑥ 美 타임스스퀘어에 울려퍼진 독립선언…세계가 눈뜨다". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  40. ^ Caprio, Mark E. (2011). "Marketing Assimilation: The Press and the Formation of the Japanese-Korean Colonial Relationship". The Journal of Korean Studies. 16 (1): 16–17. doi:10.1353/jks.2011.0006. ISSN 0731-1613. JSTOR 41490268.
  41. ^ 이, 경성, "조선미술전람회 (朝鮮美術展覽會)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-03-12
  42. ^ 강, 주진, "국립중앙도서관 (國立中央圖書館)", Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean), Academy of Korean Studies, retrieved 2024-03-12
  43. ^ a b c 국, 기헌 (2019-02-24). "[외신속 3·1 운동] ⑬ 중남미 언론 "코레아, 해방 원한다"…日 대량학살 고발(끝)". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  44. ^ Peffer, N. (1920). "Korea's Rebellion: the part played by Christians". Scribners Magazine. 67 (5): 513.
  45. ^ United States Policy Regarding Korea, Part I: 1834–1941. US Department of State. pp. 35–36.
  46. ^ 차, 대운 (2019-02-15). "[외신속 3·1운동] ④ 韓人 여학생이 띄운 편지, '대륙의 심금'을 울리다". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  47. ^ 남, 문희 (2021-10-03). "쿠바의 한인, 우리가 알지 못했던 독립운동가들". 시사IN (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  48. ^ Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. (2019-05-04). "Opinion | May Fourth, the Day That Changed China". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  49. ^ "May Fourth Movement". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  50. ^ "March 1st Independence Movement and Korean Provisional Government >Memories & Gratitude>March 1st Independence Movement>March 1st Independence Movement". Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  51. ^ Gibson, Jenna (Mar 1, 2019). "Korea Commemorates 100th Anniversary of March 1st Independence Protests".
  52. ^ "서울 볼거리 구경하기 – 서울에 아름다움을 느껴보세요". Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  53. ^ a b c Han, Yeong-jin (28 February 2006). "Eight-year-old boy Kim Il-sung gathered the independence movement and travelled 30 li". Daily NK. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  54. ^ 안, 영배 (2020-01-18). "두만강 건너간 한인들이 세운 '신한촌'… 해외 독립운동 상징으로". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  55. ^ "메리다 3.1운동 100주년 만세운동 재현 상세보기|대사관 보도자료주멕시코 대한민국 대사관". overseas.mofa.go.kr. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
  56. ^ "한복 입고 3·1절 기념행사 참석한 멕시코 한인후손들". 재외동포신문 (in Korean). 2024-03-04. Retrieved 2024-04-29.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Baldwin, Frank (1972). The March First Movement: Korean Challenge and Japanese Response. Columbia University Press.
  • Hart, Dennis. "Remembering the nation: construction of the March First movement in North and South Korean history textbooks" Review of Korean Studies (Seoul) 4, no. 1 (June 2001) pp. 35–59, historiography
  • Kim, Juhea (2021). Beasts of a Little Land. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 117–131. ISBN 9780063093577.
  • Ko, Seung Kyun. The March First Movement: A Study of the Rise of Korean Nationalism under the Japanese Colonialism Koreana Quarterly: A Korean Affairs Review (Seoul) 14, no. 1–2 (1972) pp. 14–33.
  • Ku, Dae-yeol. Korea Under Colonialism: The March First Movement and Anglo-Japanese Relations (Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul, 1985) online review
  • Kwon, Tae-eok. "Imperial Japan's 'civilization' rule in the 1910s and Korean sentiments: the causes of the national-scale dissemination of the March First Movement" Journal of Northeast Asian History 15#1 (Win 2018) pp. 113–142.
  • Lee, Timothy S. "A political factor in the rise of Protestantism in Korea: Protestantism and the 1919 March First Movement." Church History 69.1 (2000): 116–142. online
  • Palmer, Brandon. "The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support." Korea Journal (2020), 60#4 pp 194–216
  • Shin, Michael (2018). Korean national identity under Japanese colonial rule: Yi Gwangsu and the March First Movement of 1919. Routledge.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to March 1st Movement.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=March_1st_Movement&oldid=1221779554"