The March 1st Movement

[Jay]

1998.03.01, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Commemorating the nonviolent demonstration for liberation which began on March 1st, 1919 during the Japanese colonial period. Starting in Seoul, the demonstrations lasted until early April with the particpationfo almost all Koreans nationwide. Koreans abroad also demonstrated all over the world, making known their will for independence. On March 1, 1919, a series of demonstations took place across Korea rallyinh for liberation form Japanese occupation. Marching on the streets and shouting "Mansei", meaning long live Korea, live for 10,000 years, the movement was met with the violent suppression by the Japanese imperial forces. seven thousand were massacred by Japanese police and army forces, sixteen thousand were wounded, and forty five thousand were arrested and over ten thousand convicted., subjected to torture and execution during their imprisonment

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This year’s March 1 Independence Movement of 1919 will not be like the others. This year, the same imperialist power that committed the cultural genocide of the Korean people has returned into official power. While Japan as a state has never been absolved of its crimes against humanity during their four decade colonization of Korea, it was generally expected that Japan would continue on the path of acceptance for its crimes and repentance through fair compensation, acknowledgment of its victims, and just education of its population to the horrors the country leaned against Korea and the rest of Asia. Japan waged an all-out-war on Korean culture when it formally annexed Korea with the help of traitors, had many years prior conducted policies of colonial actions by those in Europe through intimidation and political manipulation and extortion. The symbol of Korea’s severity and independence, the royal palace, was torn down and turned into a tourist attraction for the Japanese upon the colonization of the Korean Peninsula. The Imperial Japanese waged all-out-war against Korean culture, Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean and emphasized manual labor and loyalty to the Emperor. The symbols and nation were forced to adopted Japanese, all films were required to be made in Japanese. Imperial authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, wiping out the historical memory of Korea and made it a crime to teach history from non-approved texts.

Japan forced 725,000 Koreans to work as forced laborers and sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands of Korean women were taken into military brothels against their will, a fact Japan is yet to accept. Japan would continue to portray Korea as backwards and primitive compared to Japan, selectively using Korean art, history, and culture to paint an image of Japanese savoriness to the Korean people. It was clear through their systematic destruction of our culture and identity, the Korean people were nothing more than a barrier in their colonial vision. Koreans initially were banned from adopting Japanese names, however, the Japanese reversed this position as part of an attempt to wipe Korean identity out. Sohn Keechung, a Korean, was forced to play under the Japanese imperial olympic team and under his Japanese name Son Kitei. As Japan had colonized Korea, it would take the gold and bronze medals won by Korean nationals, a crime the IOC has yet to alter and change. Forcing shintoism, worshipping the gods of Imperial Japan, dead emperors, and spirit of ‘war heroes’ who had conquered Korea, Japan’s crimes are endless.

The Ministry of Culture released a tweet commenting Yu Gwansun as a symbol for Korea’s fight for independence/ Yu Gwansun, 16 years at the time, was a young and brave patriot who inspired others to resist against Japan’s colonial rule. Yu’s parents were killed during the massacre of peaceful protests by the Japanese imperial army and forces. Yu was taken to the notorious Seodaemun Prison, where she continued while being tortured, beaten, and starved, to oppose the Japanese government. She was transferred to an underground cell where she was brutally tortured and beaten. Dying at the age of 17, she died from malnutrition and her injures. Yu remains the symbol of the movement that spread across the entire Korean Peninsula. Remind us more of the sacrifices to the nation. However, is a symbol for the catalyst for the movement of all Koreans across the peninsula against Japan’s occupation, her movement led to the spark of life to the Korean independence movement. We commemorate her contributions, and hope that Koreans will continue to live in the long legacy of national heroes, learning from them, and making sure Korea grows as a nation.

As The Republic of Korea holds a commemorative event, it continues to take efforts to raise awareness of Japan's atrocities agains the Korean people. Building upon momentum of Korea's rise to the global stage, many Koreans abroad would seek to raise awareness and educate the global community on the Japan's role. As the Imperial Japanese government was restored, its legacy is only reinforced. The Korean people call on the globe to ban Japan's symbols of aggression including the Rising Sun Flag, to demand Japan atone for their crimes, and to be educated on the issues of comfort women and cultural suppression. On this day, we must remember that the 3-1 movement was a plea for the globes help, to which the globe turned their back on the Korean people's aspirations for independence. The Korean people shall never again be subjected to the terms of colonial impositions by Japan, however, the traumatic experiences can never be forgotten. We hope the globe will continue to challenge imperial Japan and ensure that their imperial past is not forgotten or washed to represent humanism, development, and peace. The first step is to say sorry, but sorry is not enough.

This event among many others would be organized by the Korean Community Center and Korean nationals in a number of countries, and media disseminated globally. The hopes to raise awareness on this day, and to educate the globe on Japan's actions.

 

[Owen]

In Japan, there was an estimated 500,000 Zainichi Koreans, Koreans who were either stateless or took up North or South Korean citizenship and are permanent residents in Japan. Many would see the developments in South Korea as an opportunity and many would take to the streets to protest the injustices they've faced and continue to face. In particularly highly populated Korean areas such as Ikuno Ward in Osaka and the Shin-Okubo neighbourhood in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, they would be marching.

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The police would be made aware of the protests happening across the country and local police would begin responding to them to make sure the peace is kept.

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Some minor clashes would take place and about 30 people would be arrested for uncivil behaviour.

 

[Jay]

1998.03.1 Seoul, President Kim's speech
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Fellow Koreans and compatriots abroad,

It is truly meaningful and deeply emotional time that the March 1 Independence Movement Day ceremony is being held. For, we have been reminded, history is not a fact of the past, but an omnipresent force of the present. Seventy nine years ago today, the Korean people's resilient recovery and reemergence began here at Tapgol Park. Cheondogyo believers, Christians and Buddhists rose above religious differences to unite with one mind. Students stood at the forefront of a great national union. Across the peninsula, we united as Koreans. The cries for freedom and independence that sprang from Tapgol Park enabled common subjects to be reborn as citizens of a democratic republic. The shouts for justice, peace and humanitarianism became chants of unity, bringing the colonized people together. Across the peninsula, the cries and yearns for liberty were heard. The March 1 Independence Movement was a campaign all Koreans joined to regain their lives from the exploitation of colonial rule. The March 1 Independence Movement made it possible for us to gain momentum to overcome colonization by Japan and initiate a national leap forward. I pay profound respect to our proud forebears who turned the history of the Republic of Korea around while weathering adversities. It was our people themselves, awakened by the March 1 Independence Movement, who protected the lives of their families, neighbors and communities. After the Provisional Republic of Korea Government was founded, medical professionals established the Korean Red Cross Society in Shanghai, China, to come to the relief of the oppressed Korean people in the wake of the independence movement. In 1920, they set up the Korean Red Cross Nursing School and fostered nurses to treat independence fighters. Today, we must strive in this spirit to raise the health and wellness of our country and reach the levels only in the imaginations of the past. I want our children to live in a world where we boast a world-class medical system.

Fellow Koreans and compatriots abroad,

The nearly eight decades since the March 1 movement are a testament to our people’s progress towards freedom, peace, justice, and humanitarianism, the universal values of humanity. As we prevail over colonization, war, poverty, dictatorship, and division. We must become pioneers carrying the spirit of the March 1 movement, and strengthen innovation and inclusiveness, and never letting our democracy go. The world is paying attention to our steps, and we must restore our precocious society through solidarity and cooperation so that Korea becomes the country that spearheads the international order with the spirit of humanitarianism, multilateralism, mutual benefits and inclusiveness. Our forebears turned our history around in a time of crises and adversities, yet their spirits are alive here today, we we must honor them and remember them, moving forward. We are stronger when we are together. We will leap to new heights.

There was an unfortunate chapter in history between Japan and Korea. Today is the day to remember the most dramatic moment in that history. We cannot forget the history. The perpetrator might be able to forget, but the victim will never be able to. Nor shall we allow them to forget, nor shall we allow them to erase themselves from the pain caused on us. Now, nearly eight decades later, Japan has taught to once again become an imperial power desiring colonization and promotion of a Japanese-centric Asian world. Over the past decades, Korea and Japan have both increased each other's competitiveness and cooperation. Korea's growth has helped Japan's advancement while Japan's growth has assisted Korea's. Yet today, Japan has forsaken this and sought to return to the past. This, we can not accept as the status quo. To make amends with the past, Japan must repent and let go, it can not turn backwards in the face of our mutual progress as neighbors. It can not turn to a path of militarism, imperialism, and nationalism that will plunge Asia once again on a course of crisis, a crisis of humanity. Imperial Japan was a vile entity, an entity that committed crimes against humanity everywhere it expanded, from Korea to China to Indonesia. Japan must apologize and be sincere, it must compensate the victims of its oppression, and it must vow to never again commit the acts of horror it unleashed on Asia during the middle half of the 20th century.

The impact of colonialism has never left our peninsula, none more reminding than the physical barriers that separate us as a people. Nothing more reminding of our continued battle of spirit and mind, to see the reunification of our people. I shall never allow, nor shall I ever permit, the conditions that absolve permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. I shall spend every resource we have to ensure that we can reunify the Korean people and that our families live in peace and harmony from Mount Paektu to Jeju-do, from Dokdo to Pyongyang, the Korean Peninsula shall be whole, the Korean people shall be reunified, and the Korean race under the sovereignty of none but their own. I hope that North Korea will cooperate and interact with us and work towards this goal. On this occasion I make a plea to our brothers and sisters, join us, let us end the physical scar that rips this peninsula, the home of our ancestors, and begin to heal it.

The only obstacle we have to overcome is that, sometimes, issues of the past cannot be separated from those of the future but are intermingled with each other. We should learn a lesson by squarely facing the past. It is by no means shameful to learn a lesson from past wrongs, but it is rather a way to gain respect from the international community. Korea is striving to learn a lesson by never forgetting the shameful history of being colonized and the painful history of a fratricidal war. However, we must not let the past hold us back. The Korean Government will always pursue wise solutions based on a victim-centered approach. We will also do everything possible to restore the honor and dignity of victims. Bilateral cooperation will only begin between Japan and Korea once Japan apologizes for its crimes, recognizes the victims, compensates its victims, and takes meaningful steps to show us that it is genuinely committed to peaceful coexistence. The March 1 Declaration of Korean Independence proposed that Japan courageously and wisely rectify past wrongs and cultivate new friendly relations based on genuine understanding. Our spirit is the same now as it was then. The Korean Government is always ready to sit down and have talks with the Japanese Government. I am confident that if we put our heads together in the spirit of trying to understand each other's perspectives, we will also be able to wisely resolve issues of the past.

Fellow Koreans, decorated independence activists and bereaved families,

Only a few hundred surviving decorated independence activists remain by our side. They have embraced with heart and soul the destiny of the Korean people, and it is the unlimited responsibility of the Government to provide them with the means to live an honorable and comfortable life. They have made the ultimate sacrifices to this nation, they are the parents who birth this nation through their hardship. I promise that their sacrifices will never be forgotten, and shall provide every service to ensure the decorated independence activists live a life of peace, in the face of the life of hardship they faced to ensure our freedom. The families and fighters for our independence deserve nothing but our thanks, we shall never forget their actions, and shall continue to provide for their assistance and needs as we can.

Fellow Koreans,

In 1946, at the first post-liberation March 1 Independence Movement ceremony, Cho Soang, a member of the State Council of the Provisional Republic of Korea Government, made a declaration, "We will achieve genuine liberation by ensuring that our compatriots become free, have political rights and do not worry about food, clothing and shelter." As its founding spirit, the Provisional Government proclaimed the principle of three equalities -- equal development between individuals, peoples and nations is possible only when we have independent power. It was an unassuming yet grand vision, upon which we have accomplished outstanding achievements. Today, we must work together as Koreans to hold the spirit of the men and women who created this Republic and ensure that our people never have to worry, have their rights protected, and are free. Once one of the world's poorest countries, the Republic of Korea has now joined the ranks of the world's top ten economies, we have become the seventh largest export powerhouse in the world. Yet, we can not smile and ignore the problems in our society, and we must rise up and address them. The percentage of our youth who complete higher education being highest in the globe shows me that the potential of our people, who have constantly learned and accumulated knowledge, is truly unknown. We are also expanding support for developing countries and ones with lesser-developed healthcare systems. Nearly eight decades ago, the Korean delegation was turned away at the threshold of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Now, we have become a proud country that has even been invited to the Nordic Council. Through participation in this year's emergency council Summit, we have set goals that are mutually aligned with our partners and setting the tone for Korea’s role as the center of engagement in the globe. We have with our partners reaffirmed, collective action is not limited to defense and war, but to peace and development.

We inherited the spirit of seeking out reciprocal equality and peace with other countries from our forebears seventy nine years ago. Now, seventy nine years later, we are once again acutely realizing how important the spirits of solidarity, cooperation, multilateralism and inclusiveness are. We have overcome an era in which all human beings fell into misfortunes due to colonialism and wars in a power-dominated unilateral world. Yet, I call on our partners and neighbors to atone for their crimes and sins so we can heal as a community of nations. We have realized that international solidarity and the spirit of cooperation are indispensable for progressing humanity. We have also become aware that countries around the world should cooperate with one another and work together. That is my promise to the world on this occasion, that no nation shall be disregarded like Korea was at the 1919 peace conference, that no nation shall suffer in pain alone, that the Korean people with our brothers and sisters of the global community of colonized and oppressed people can be reassured we stand behind them and with them. This is the wisdom we carry from our ancestors."

 

[Jay]

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1999.03.01, Seoul, Republic of Korea

80 years ago on his day, a series of demonstrations took place across Korea rallying for liberation from Japanese colonial occupation. Seven thousand were massacred by Japanese forces and many more killed through systematic torture and detention. We have withered the storms of these turbulent years. We have achieved the reunification of our people. We have smashed the walls that kept our people apart. We have liberated the minds of mindless oppression we have both been fed.

For all the good reasons, this 80th anniversary of our commemoration of our resistance, will be like no other. We celebrate our collective resistance with our brothers and sisters of the North. We have shown that Japan's all-out-war on our culture and identity has failed. We have shown that the global ideological ambitions to wipeout our blood brotherhood has failed. We have shown no matter how hard foreign powers act. Our blood, our identity, and our nation will prosper. The movement is a testament to our people's progress towards justice, humanitarianism, and independence. It is a our longing pains from colonization, war, poverty, and vision

In our achievements, we must reflect on what we have lost. We must reflect on the penetrating wound in our hearts. The millions of Koreans forced into sex slavery, forced labor, and conscription. The hundreds of thousands of books, documents, records, and cultural artifacts burned and destroyed. Like a poisoned dagger, these actions seeps into our blood. Pains from colonization, war, poverty, and division. Burning us with fury and anger. But. We must use this justifiable rage and anger. We must turn it into energy, energy which we use to develop this nation. We must be leaders in every field. We must never be followers of others. Not when it comes to the development and progress of this country.

As our Republic holds a commemorative event, we must continue to raise awareness of Japan's atrocities agains the Korean people. The Korean people call on the globe to ban Japan's symbols of aggression including the Rising Sun Flag, to demand Japan atone for their crimes, and to be educated on the issues of comfort women and cultural suppression. On this day, we must remember that the 3-1 movement was a plea for the globes help, to which the globe turned their back on the Korean people's aspirations for independence. The Korean people shall never again be subjected to the terms of colonial impositions by any nation.

We continue to uphold the promise for the continued cultivation of our ideals, values, and nation to build a future for our children and future generations to live in peace and harmony in co-existence as one people. We have achieved the work of decades of efforts and sacrifices. As we celebrate our reunification and our collective resistance, may we live long and reflect on this occasion. May we look to this day as a reminder of our undying spirit for freedom and justice. May we never have our hands into shackles ever again to a foreign power again. To achieve this, we need you, the children of this Republic. Yu Gwansun was 16 when she rose to the streets to rally our people to the cause of our independence. Less we overlook the impact the children of this scared ancestral land have in altering the course of our nation.

We have removed the physical barriers that separate us as a people. We have achieved the reunification of our people. We promised a year ago, on this day, that we shall spend every resource we have to ensure that we can reunify the Korean people and that our families live in peace and harmony from Mount Paektu to Jeju-do, from Dokdo to Pyongyang, the Korean Peninsula shall be whole, the Korean people shall be reunified, and the Korean race under the sovereignty of none but their own. I thank Chairman Kim for his cooperation to that goal. I thank the Korean people for their support. Now. To my fellow Koreans and compatriots abroad. As the masters of your own destinies. Help us build a Korea that we may all live in with dignity, pride, and honor.

Fellow Koreans, decorated independence activists and bereaved families,

Our decorated independence activists remain by our side. They have embraced with heart and soul the destiny of the Korean people, and it is the unlimited responsibility of the Government to provide them with the means to live an honorable and comfortable life. The families and fighters for our independence deserve nothing but our thanks, we shall never forget their actions, and shall continue to provide for their assistance and needs as we can. I am honored to bring them with me to Pyongyang and Mt. Paektu so that we may see with our own eyes the ancestral homeland which they have all fought for. So that we may give them closure that their resistance was not in vain.

Fellow Koreans,

We inherited the spirit of seeking out reciprocal equality and peace with other countries from our forebears eighty years ago. Now, as we see the failures of global solidarity and cooperation, of multilateralism and inclusivity, we must never falter. International solidarity and the spirit of cooperation are indispensable for progressing humanity. We can never be free while our brothers and sisters of the colonized world are oppressed and shackled to chains in apartheid and racist regimes held up by fear and injustice. No people shall be disregarded like Korea was at the 1919 peace conference, no people shall suffer in pain alone, that the Korean people have felt. To our brothers and sisters of the global community of colonized and oppressed people, be reassured we stand behind you and with you."