“Forgive but Never Forget – at Jeamni 3.1 Independence Movement Memorial Hall”
(Published February 24, 2013)

by Lee Hyeon-su, a Gyeonggi Junior Reporter
 
On August 29, 1910, Korea was annexed into Japan by force. The insulting colonization lasted for 35 years. Yet those of us who have not experienced those hard times cannot actually feel the pains of losing our national sovereignty as painfully as our ancestors did.
 
However all Koreans, young or old, will never forget the most bitter period of their history no matter how much time has passed since the end of the Japanese military occupation.
 
Today is the 94th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement that took place in 1919.
 
“Long Live Korean Independence!” Our ancestors rose against the Japanese occupation across the country for a cry out for national independence at whatever costs, lives or properties.
 
I went to 3.1 Independence Movement Memorial Hall located in Jeam-ri, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province to learn more about our painful history during the Japanese military occupation from 1910 to 1945.

▲ Jeamni 3.1 Independence Movement Memorial Hall
(The Backgrounds of the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919)

Korea (the Joseon Dynasty) lost its national sovereignty to Imperial Japan through a forced annexation treat in 1910. Our ancestors continuously resisted Japan’s cruelest military rule. They set up a number of organizations and tried calling on Japan to retreat from the Korean peninsula through peaceful means to no avail.
 
On February 1919, Korean students rose to declare national independence in Tokyo, Japan. The widespread suspicion of poisoning Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire to death by the Japanese military added to the popular anger against the Japanese military occupiers of the peninsula.
 
Against such a background, the March 1 Independence Movement became the biggest national resistance movement ever against the Japanese colonialists.

Thirty-three national representatives were selected and they presented three principles for the independence movement on March 1, such as popularizing the independence movement, following directions by the unified leadership, and resorting to peaceful means.
 
Out of the 33 representatives, 29 gathered at noon and notified the Japanese occupiers of Korea’s national independence. They were arrested by the Japanese police and out into custody immediately.
 
At two o’clock, about 5,000 Koreans, including some middle students, began to shout ‘Long Live Korean Independence!’ an action strictly banned by the Japanese occupiers then in the middle of Seoul.
 
The independence movement soon spread not just to all the corners of the country but also to many Korean communities overseas. It continued for months at the cost of significant human and property losses to countless Koreans.

(The March 1 Independence Movement in Gyeonggi Province)

The independence movement in Gyeonggi Province began with a demonstration in Gaeseong (currently in North Korea) on March 3. It spread to Siheung on the 7, to Incheon on the 9 and to Yangpyeong on the 10. A total of 22 cities and counties participated in the protest against Japan.
 
The demonstration in Gaesong, the first in the province, was staged by girl students of Hosudon Girls School in town.
 
The protest that resulted in the cruelest disaster happened in Jeam-ri, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province on April 15, 1919.
 
The massacre was soon known to the entire world including the United States, as part of the Japan’s atrocities being committed in the Korean peninsula.
 
The biggest protest in the country against the Japanese colonization took place in Ganghwa, Gyeonggi Province, on March 18. A total of 20,000 people participated in the protest. So many people were able to gather at a place there because that day, the town was hosting an open market held every five days.
 
Overall, a total of 300 protests took place in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province together with the attention of more than 500,000 citizens.
 
As the Japanese police called in the Japanese army to crack down on the protests nationwide, more than 7,000 Koreans were killed and more than 15,700 Koreans were injured.

(The Jeamri Massacre)
In Hwaseong County (currently Hwaseong City), protests in Sagang, Samgoe, Baran and Jeam-ri were particularly massive.

April 5, 1919, Baran was the location of an open market. A total of 800 Koreans participated in a protest and shouted ‘Long Live Korean Independence!’
 
The Japanese army arrested the protest leaders, labeling the Baran area as one of the most dangerous places for them.
 
On April 15, the Japanese army asked more than 20 Christians and believers in Cheondoism (a local religion) to gather at Jeamri Church. They locked the door, poured gasoline and set the church on fire.
 
Twenty Koreans died inside the church and three were shot to death outside by the Japanese army.
 
The same Japanese military unit went up to Goju-ri, Paltan-myeon, Hwanseong County and killed Kim Heung-yeol and five of his family members and set fire to the house.
 
The atrocity was reported by American missionaries and consuls to American embassy and consequently the entire world got to know of the tragedy at Jeamni.
 
The world discovered, among others, that Japan had been lying about its forced annexation of Korea and that Koreans were fighting so hard to recover their national independence.
 
Following the March 1 Independence Movement, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was set up in Shanghai, China as a result of the many contributions and sacrifices made by many patriots at home and abroad.
 
Thanks to the efforts of the provisional government and a countless number of patriots fighting for national independence around the world, our country was liberated from the Japanese military rule on August 15, 1945 and was able to set up an independent country soon afterward.▲ Let’s Not Forget Their Sacrifices!

I wonder how much we cherish this independent status of our nation when we are going to commemorate the 93rd anniversary of the bloodiest protest against Japanese occupation on March 1.
 
I read a shocking article on the Chosun Ilbo on March 1, 2012.
 
The Chosun Ilbo, a major daily in Korea, reported on the results of its survey among some elementary school students in Seoul about their acquaintance of the national anthem. The following is the summary of the report: “We have failed to find even just one elementary student who can sing the national anthems in its entirety. Fewer than half of elementary students we met could sing even the 1st verse of the national anthem. It is just shocking.
 
Recently, the Chosun Ilbo took a survey of 100 elementary school students, male and female, who are training Taekwondo in five places across the city of Seoul. Not a single student could write down all four verses of the national anthem. Only 36 students knew the 1st verse of the national anthem completely.
 
Out of the remaining 64, who were unable to write down even the 1st verse of the national anthem, 18 students could write down nothing on their pieces of paper.
 
Some students asked, “Why should I bother about it?”
 
Few knew who the composer of the national anthem was. Out of 100, only seven students correctly wrote ‘Ahn Eak-tai.
 
Out of the remaining 93, about half wrote nothing and the others wrote a variety of names including ‘King Sejong (who invented the Korean alphabet)’ and ‘Beethoven.’
 
Elementary schools teach the national anthem to their first graders. The course entitled ‘Life Guidance’ for the first graders ask students to write down all the four verses of the national anthem.
 
However, there is just nothing at all about the national anthem on the curricula for the second graders and above.
 
Source [Breaking News Divisionⓒ the Maeil Business Newspaper, a subsidiary of the Chosun Ilbo, mk.co.kr]▲ “We will never forget our painful national history. We will always love the Republic of Korea,” said students from Incheon on their pilgrimage to the Jeamni 3.1 Independence Movement Memorial Hall.

Japan is still hurting the pride of Koreans in a variety of ways.
 
Japan keeps insulting the comfort woman statue erected outside of Japanese embassy in Seoul by spreading a combined picture in which the comfort woman statue is saying “Dokdo is Japan’s territory.”
 
Furthermore, the picture portrays the girl in nudity with her body replaced by a nude model in an adult magazine. With a cigarette in her mouth, she has got a few bills stuck in her underwear.
 
Beside the picture is an ‘X’ sign and a phrase in Chinese characters meaning ‘a fake comfort woman for the Japanese army’. Across the picture is another phrase in Chinese characters meaning ‘a prostitute following the Japanese army’.
 
Beside the girl statue in the picture is the actual stake erected by a Japanese man which says “Takeshima (the Japanese name for Dokdo) is Japan’s territory.”
 
The picture has turned out to originate from a pro-Japanese online community registered on a domestic portal. It began to appear on February 22 when the Japanese government pushed ahead with the ‘Takeshima Day’ celebration.
 
Source: Voices of the People, vop.co.kr

“Japan held the so-called ‘Takeshima Day’ event with the participation of a vice ministerial official from its central government and more than a dozen lawmakers.
 
For the first time since the launch of the event in 2006, a vice ministerial official from the central government, Aiko Shimajiri, attended the event.
 
The fact that a central government official and a number of legislators attended the event is an indication of the Japanese government’s real intent to elevate the status of the event to a national level contrary to its repeated assurance that the event was a local thing.
 
Kim Jeom-gu, chief of Korea’s self-proclaimed Dokdo Defense Corps protested the event in Japan and was arrested by the Japanese police.
 
The Japanese rightists warned of staging protests in front of the office of the Federation of Korean Residents in Shimane Prefecture, Japan.
 
The federation decided to close its office on February 22 because of numerous threats from the Japanese right wing.
 
Demonstrations by the Japanese right wing are anticipated in front of the Korean embassy in Tokyo on February 22, too.
 
The Takeshima Day event was held just three days before the inauguration of a new administration in Korea. It is expected to further heighten the tensions between Korea and Japan.
 
Source: [http://media.daum.net/foreign/newsview?newsid=20130222141206367]

In 2013, the March 1 Indedenpance Movement commemorations will be held across the country including the open market site in Baran. The commemorations will include the reenactment of the ‘Long Live Korean Independence!’ event.
 
Let’s raise the national flag at each of our homes across the country on March 1. Let us all shout “Long Live Korean Independence!” many times out loud so that the entire world can hear us.