Spirit of March First Movement for Independence Lives On in Korea
- Philip Fernandez -
Commemoration of the centenary of the March 1 Movement in
Seoul.
On March 1, the Korean people marked the
centenary of
the
March First Movement. This movement that began March 1, 1919 was
a turning point in their national struggle for independence and
self-determination against the Japanese imperialist occupation.
It galvanized their struggle for emancipation and finds
expression today in the fight for peace and national
reunification of Korea.
In the early morning of March 1, 1919, Korean
students
and
activists gathered in the capital Seoul and declared the
independence of Korea from Japan. The movement spread to all
corners of the peninsula and continued for a full year. In his
book Korea's Fight for Freedom, eyewitness Frank McKenzie
noted: "Large numbers of copies of the declaration of
independence were ready. These were circulated, usually by boys
and schoolgirls, sometimes by women, each city being mapped out
in districts. It was soon seen that every class of the community
was united. Men who had been ennobled by the Japanese stood with
the coolies; shopkeepers closed their stores, policemen who had
worked with the Japanese took off their uniforms, and joined the
crowds, porters, and labourers, scholars and preachers, men and
women all came together."
Some 2,000,000 Koreans participated in more than
1,500
demonstrations in that period. They were met with brutal
repression by the Japanese military. It is estimated that 7,000
patriots were killed by Japanese military and police and some
16,000 people were wounded. Almost 46,000 people were arrested
and many were jailed, tortured and killed. More than 700 private
homes, many churches as well as schools were burned to the ground
by the Japanese in an effort to quell the rising tide of the
Korean people's fight for freedom and independence. Even though
the Japanese military occupiers were able to suppress the protest
movement of the people for the moment, the seeds of national
liberation took hold. Political activists forced into exile
formed their own organizations in China, Russia and elsewhere to
continue to agitate for freedom. Later on, guerrilla movements
also were launched from China and Manchuria against the Japanese
in the 1930s, including the North East Anti-Japanese Army led by
Kim Il Sung, the founder and first leader of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea. These armed struggles ultimately led
to the defeat of Japan and the liberation of Korea on August 14,
1945.
The Japanese occupation of Korea was a
consequence of
Japan's
rise as an imperialist state in the late 19th century. After
defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, imperial
Japan laid claim to Korea. In a secret deal between imperialists
in 1905 called the Taft-Katsura Agreement, the U.S. "recognized"
Japan's claims to Korea while Japan "recognized" U.S. claims to
Hawaii (an independent kingdom annexed by the U.S. in 1898) and
the Philippines (taken as spoil of war by the U.S. in 1899 after
prevailing in the Spanish-American War).
In November 1905, Japan imposed the Eulsa Treaty
on
Korea
that deprived the latter of her sovereignty and made her a
protectorate of Japan. The Korean people resisted this act of
aggression. They took up resistance in many forms, including
guerilla warfare involving thousands of fighters called the "Army
of the Righteous" against Japanese troops which continued for the
next five years until the armed struggle went into retreat and
Japan formally annexed Korea in April, 1910.
What followed was a reign of terror over the
Korean
people.
Their lands were confiscated and handed over to Japanese farmers,
and many lost their livelihoods. Almost 100,000 landlords and
farmers were moved from Japan to Korea. Koreans were forbidden to
speak their language and were forced to learn Japanese and take
on Japanese names. Korean cultural treasures were looted and
taken to Japan. Tens of thousands of Koreans were forced to flee
or were recruited as slave labourers in Japanese industry.
Political dissent was suppressed. Japanese manufacturing
companies set up shop and exploited the rich natural resources of
Korea. In this way, the Japanese imperialists sought to
assimilate Koreans into their empire.
The Korean people, with their long and glorious
history
of
resistance to Chinese, Russian, and U.S. aggression against
their country, were not about to permit the Japanese militarists
to do the same. At the end of the First World War, inspired by
the Russian revolution and the striving of the colonial peoples
for their rights, some 600 Korean students living and studying in
Tokyo, Japan held a secret meeting and then proclaimed the
Independence of Korea in a public demonstration in February 1919.
The students were successful in secretly sending their
declaration to Seoul which became the inspiration for the March
First Movement.
The opening of the March First Declaration of
Independence
reads:
"We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea
and the
liberty of the Korean people. This we proclaim to all the nations
of the world in witness of human equality. This we proclaim to
our descendants so that they may enjoy in perpetuity their
inherent right to nationhood. Inasmuch as this proclamation
originates from our five-thousand-year history, inasmuch as it
springs from the loyalty of twenty million people, inasmuch as it
affirms our yearning for the advancement of everlasting liberty,
inasmuch as it expresses our desire to take part in the global
reform rooted in human conscience, it is the solemn will of
heaven, the great tide of our age, and a just act necessary for
the co-existence of all humankind...."
This same spirit inspires the Korean people's
movement
today
to re-unify their divided nation, establish peace on the Korean
peninsula and take their place as one independent nation among
the nations of the world.
Seoul, March 1, 2019
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 9 - March 16, 2019
Article Link:
Spirit of March First Movement for Independence Lives On in Korea - Philip Fernandez
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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