Korean March First Movement
Koreans declared independence from Japan on 1 March 1919 and were shot at for months. Korea had been a Japanese protectorate since 1905 and a colony since 1910, governed under military rule by governors-general who were serving officers, with Korean-language newspapers closed, political organisation banned, and schoolteachers wearing swords in class. Two things produced the moment. Wilson's Fourteen Points had put self-determination into international currency, and the former emperor Gojong died suddenly in January 1919, with a widespread and unproven belief that he had been poisoned; his funeral brought enormous crowds to Seoul. Thirty-three religious leaders — Christian, Chondogyo and Buddhist — signed a declaration of independence, read it aloud at a restaurant, telephoned the police and waited to be arrested. Students read it in Pagoda Park, and the demonstrations spread across the country within days. Some two million people are estimated to have taken part in over 1,500 gatherings, and the movement was explicitly non-violent by design. The suppression was not. Japanese figures give about 550 dead and Korean sources some 7,500, with 46,000 arrested; at Jeamni a church was locked with its congregation inside and burned. Japan responded by replacing military rule with what it called cultural policy, permitting Korean newspapers and associations under supervision. A provisional government formed in Shanghai in April, and both Korean states today trace their legitimacy to March 1919 in their constitutions. The declaration itself is a striking document. It argues the case for independence without denouncing Japan in the language of grievance, states that the movement must not degenerate into bitter resentment, and asks for a new order in East Asia rather than revenge. Its thirty-three signatories were tried and imprisoned.
- Year: 1919 CE
- Category: Political
