March 1st movement

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Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 삼일 운동
Hanja : 三 一 運動
Revised Romanization : Samil Undong
McCune-Reischauer : Samil Undong
The declaration of independence of March 1, 1919

The March 1st Movement , Korean : 삼일 운동 (Samil Undong), was an independence movement in Korea, annexed by Japan in 1910 . The movement was directed against the occupation of Korea by Japan and its colonial policy and began on March 1, 1919 with the public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Seoul , followed by demonstrations that lasted for months in almost all provinces of the country until they were crushed by the Japanese army .

Origin and background

The March 1st Movement had its ideological roots in the Donghak Movement ( 동학 운동 , Donghak Movement) (1860–1894), a religious and social movement that a.o. a. wanted to improve the living conditions of the peasants in the Uibyeong ( 의병 (Just Army)) (1895–1910), a resistance movement against Japanese aggression that led a partisan struggle against the Japanese occupation forces, and in the Wijeong Cheoksa Undong ( 위정 척사 운동 ) , a movement that was directed against Western influences and wanted to reform the Confucian system. All three movements turned against oppression and heteronomy and strove for the independence of Joseon , the kingdom of the Korean peninsula .

While the Wijeong Cheoksa movement believed that if traditional Korean Confucian society was strengthened and maintained, the negative influences of Western culture and the influences of the Chinese Qing dynasty could be warded off, the Donghak movement turned against the growing influence of Catholicism in the Land, whereas the Uibyeong rather supported the ideology of Wijeong Cheoksa.

When the Donghak movement dared an armed uprising in February 1894 and proclaimed its intended reform policy on June 1, 1894, the Korean government called on Chinese troops, which were temporarily available near Seoul. Not asked for help, the Japanese government dispatched 8,000 soldiers on June 10, ostensibly to help put down the Donghak uprising , but in reality to gain influence over Korea. The conflict ended with the first Sino-Japanese war , from which Japan emerged victorious. Once in the country, Japan retained control over the government. Another uprising in October was violently ended by the Japanese military; its leader Jeon Bong-jun ( 전봉준 ) was executed on April 23, 1895.

In 1896, immigrant Philip Jaisohn , who had returned from the USA , founded the first newspaper, Dongnip Shinmun ( 독립 신문 , Independence Newspaper), to be published in the Koranic language . The Tongnip Hyophoe ( 독립 협회 ), the independence club , was formed from their circle of sympathizers . Its members, intellectuals and government officials built the Independence Gate in Seoul in November 1896 after they destroyed the previous one as a symbol of China's humiliation. The club quickly gained supporters across the country, organized demonstrations and was initially able to persuade the Korean Emperor Gojong ( 고종 광무제 ) - Korea was declared an empire in 1897 - to make changes. But on November 5, 1898, the club was banned, many of its leaders jailed and the newspaper closed. The uprisings, which were initially similar to a civil war, were initially able to calm down on the part of the emperor. However, with the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire in 1910, its influence disappeared and the movement remained banned.

course

A bronze plate at Pagoda Park commemorates the reading of the Declaration of Independence

After Korea was incorporated into the Japanese Empire as the province of Chosen, the independence movement received new impetus and organized itself in all of the larger cities in the province.

In 1919 the group wrote a declaration of independence. This was signed by 33 nationalists as representatives and announced by them on March 1st on the day of King Gojong's funeral as part of the funeral procession for him in Keijō in Pagoda Park . The place, date and content were deliberately chosen to attract as much attention as possible at the (then still ongoing) Paris Peace Conference . After the announcement, the 33 representatives placed themselves into police custody. According to North Korean data, the Jangdae Hill in Heijō is considered the starting point for the March 1st movement.

The declaration of independence was presented simultaneously in the other cities in which the group had organized.

After the declaration was read, riots and protests broke out across the province, but they were peaceful. According to a statistical survey, about ten percent of Chōsen's residents took part (about two million people in absolute terms). It is believed that about 57 percent of the protesters were farmers, which means the movement was not a movement of the intellectual elite.

The provincial police and colonial administration were completely surprised and initially not in control of the situation. Even if the protests were suppressed relatively quickly afterwards and the situation was later pacified, it was only a year later that she finally succeeded in suppressing the uprising. By then, according to Japanese sources, 553 people had been killed, 12,000 arrested, 8 police officers and military personnel killed and 158 wounded. According to a Korean estimate, 7,509 were killed, 46,303 arrested and 15,849 wounded.

Effects

The violent suppression of the protests sparked public criticism in motherland Japan, which found favor with the Japanese government and gave the impetus for reforms in Chōsen: The colonial policy then changed to a milder and more lenient one and the Governor General Saitō Makoto led a policy of encouragement for the interest and development of Korean culture. The rules that Chōsen's Korean-born residents found most unacceptable were also repealed. Furthermore, the Japanese military police Kempeitai , which had been keeping order up to now, was replaced by a normal police force and more freedom of the press was allowed. The uprising can therefore be rated as partially successful.

As a further consequence of the crackdown, several governments in exile were formed in Shanghai on April 11, 1919 , including the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea under Rhee Syng-man .

A hearing of the case at the Paris Peace Conference did not take place, contrary to what the initiators of the protests thought. Only the Socialist International took action with a resolution of the conference in Lucerne from 2–9 August 1919 party for the Chosen, now incorporated into the Japanese Empire, and called on the League of Nations to accept "Korea" as a member.

literature

  • Jong-min Kim: Politics in South Korea between tradition and progress . Crisis sequences in an emerging country (= European university publications  : series 31, political science volume 31 ). Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1983, ISBN 3-8204-5992-8 .
  • Ki-baik Lee : A New History of Korea . Harvard University Press , Cambridge, Massachusetts 1984, ISBN 0-674-61576-X , Chapter 14. Nationalist Stirrings and Imperialist Aggression - 5. The March First Movement , pp. 338-345 (English).
  • James H. Grayson : Christianity and State Shinto in Colonial Korea: A Clash of Nationalisms and Religious Beliefs . Volume 1, No. 1 . Diskus , Sheffield 1993, pp. 12 (English, Online Archive [TXT; 8 kB ; accessed on June 2, 2016]).
  • Gottfried-Karl Kindermann: The rise of Korea in world politics . Günter Olzog Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7892-8220-0 .
  • Geoff Simons : Korea - The Search for Sovereignty . St. Martins's Press , New York 1995, ISBN 0-312-22074-X (English).
  • Andrew C. Took : Korea - Tradition & Transformation . A History of the Korean People . 2nd Edition. Hollym International Corp. , Elizabeth, New Jersey 1996, ISBN 1-56591-070-2 (English).
  • Geir Helgessen : Democracy and Authority in Korea . St. Martins's Press , New York 1998, ISBN 0-312-17384-9 (English).
  • Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . In: Heinrich P. Kelz (Hrsg.): Languages ​​and language learning . tape 204 . Asgard-Verlag, St. Augustin 2004, ISBN 3-537-82040-2 , Chapter: 13.5 The Movement of March 1st , 1919 and Other Resistance Movements, p. 256-261 .
  • Hyun-hee Lee, Sung-soo Park, Nae-hyun Yoon : New History of Korea . In: Korean Studies Series . No. 30 . Jimoondang , Paju-si 2005, ISBN 89-88095-85-5 (English).
  • Yong Hwa Chung : The Modern Transformation of Korean identity: . Enlightenment and Orientalism . In: Korea Journal . Jump . Seoul 2006 (English, online [PDF; 240 kB ; accessed on June 2, 2016]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . 2004, p.  260 .
  2. ↑ Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . 2004, p.  178 f .
  3. ↑ Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . 2004, p.  230 f .
  4. ↑ In-Su Kim : Genesis and History of Political Science in Korea . Ed .: Ruhr University. Bochum June 2010 ( Online [PDF; 2.4  MB ; accessed on June 2, 2016] dissertation).
  5. ^ Chung : The Modern Transformation of Korean Identity . 2006, p.  109-138 .
  6. ↑ a b Kim: Politics in South Korea between tradition and progress . 1983, p. 31 .
  7. ^ Taken : Korea - Tradition & Transformation . 1996, p.  173 .
  8. ↑ Kim: Politics in South Korea between tradition and progress . 1983, p. 32 .
  9. ↑ Kindermann: The Rise of Korea in World Politics . 1994, p. 45 .
  10. ↑ Kindermann: The Rise of Korea in World Politics . 1994, p. 44 .
  11. ^ A b Grayson : Christianity and State Shinto in Colonial Korea: A Clash of Nationalisms and Religious Beliefs . 1993, p.  12 .
  12. ^ N. Koreans remember uprising against Japanese Imperialists . (Video 1:39 min.) Youtube , March 1, 2012, accessed on April 26, 2015 (Korean, excerpt from an article by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's state news agency).
  13. ^ A b Grayson : Christianity and State Shinto in Colonial Korea: A Clash of Nationalisms and Religious Beliefs . 1993, p.  13 .
  14. ^ March First Movement . Enzyclopaedia Britannica , accessed June 3, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Park Eunsik, Kim Do-hyeong : 한국 독립 운동 지 혈사 The bloody history of the Korean independence movement . Somyŏng Ch'ulp'an, Seoul 1920 (Korean).
  16. ↑ Thomas Fröhlich, Yishang Liu: Taiwan's Immortal Anti-Colonialism : Jiang Weishui and the Resistance to Japanese Colonial Rule . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8394-1018-9 , pp. 31 (English).
  17. ^ Grayson : Christianity and State Shinto in Colonial Korea: A Clash of Nationalisms and Religious Beliefs . 1993, p.  19 .