The liberation of Korea from its 1910 annexation by the Japanese Empire is officially recognised as having taken place in 1945 upon Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces of the Second World War. However, Korean civilian activism against the regime had a long-standing history, culminating in the 1919 March 1st Independence Movement, which saw more than a thousand individual demonstrations nationwide. An understanding of the public connection to the symbols and martyrs of this movement is necessary to an analysis of modern Korean nationalism and identity, which has often been curated in fierce juxtaposition to ‘foreigners’. The participation of women in the independence movement is often at the forefront of Japan-South Korea relations due to the obscene sexual slavery and abuse Korean women were subjected to by the Imperial Japanese Army, and the refusal of the Japanese government to fully recognise these crimes. In this article, I will aim to highlight the positive contributions of women to Korean history which are often overlooked in favour of a narrative centred around the abuses they suffered at the hands of imperial forces.
The lack of merit awarded to the contributions of female independence activists to Korean history was identified by former president, Moon Jae-In (Hangul: 문재인), in a 2022 speech celebrating the 103rd anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement. He noted the ongoing struggle to identify these activists and commemorate them appropriately, saying that ‘it [is] our natural duty to identify by name those who made anonymous sacrifices… During the past five years, 2,243 independence activists have been identified and bestowed national merit awards. Included among them were 245 female independence activists who had not been properly recognised.’
Yu Gwan-sun (Hangul: 유관순), born in 1902, is one of the most recognisable martyrs of the Korean independence cause due to her involvement in the March 1st Independence Movement. Her initiation into political activity was in 1919, when Gwan-sun marched through Seoul, accompanied by fellow students in protest of the Japanese occupation of Korea. She returned to her hometown to organise and lead a grassroots demonstration at Aunae Marketplace of some 3000 people, which led to her arrest and brutal torture by Japanese military police. After being convicted of sedition, Gwan-sun was sentenced to five years in Seodaemun Prison, where she organised another inmate protest leading to her confinement in a solitary cell, in which she tragically died due to the injuries inflicted by the Japanese police, aged just 17. Her body remains lost due to the Japanese Empire’s destruction of the public cemetery where she was buried, but memorial services at Korean women’s universities continue to be held in her name.
Maria Kim, who was born Kim Jin-Sang (Hangul: 김마리아) in 1891, hailed from a family of independence activists highly involved in the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. An attendant of Yeondong Women’s School, she was exposed to activism not only through her family’s political connections but also through the students around her. Similarly to Yu Gwan-Sun, Kim was subjected to torture by the Japanese police (affecting her health for the rest of her life) due to her outspokenness against imperialism and the murder of King Kojong. Rather than allowing this treatment to subdue her activism, she was galvanised to mobilise the female students around her and eventually formed the Korean Patriotic Women’s Association, which published booklets and raised funds for the cause of independence. Maria was strongly motivated, as were many other Koreans, by her Christian faith, and organised prayer meetings amongst inmates during her time spent in prison.
The Korea Times has recently shone a light on the efforts of the first known female journalist in Korea, Choe Eun-Hui (최읂의) to create written record of her experience of the independence movement. Eun-Hui also spent time in prison for her organising work and participation in establishing Geunuhoe, a Korean women’s organisation which supported national independence. She has published several works on the topic, including Until the Homeland is Restored: The Secret Story of Korean Women’s Movement, 1905-1945.
Yu Gwan-Sun in particular continues to be upheld by the Korean public as the standard of a nationalist and activist, often being alluded to as the ‘Nation’s Sister’, or the ‘Korean Joan of Arc’. The refusal of Korean women to accept their subjugation by imperial forces is a fierce act of rebellion in the face of the policy of ‘Japanisation’. Women of all classes, not just students and educated women, showed their interest in this cause, with working class women referred to as ‘butcher’s wives’ also participating. Some records exist of Japanese police using these women’s own cooking knives to carve the character ‘eda’ into their skin, meaning ‘butchers’. This movement facilitated the movement of women, especially those belonging to lower classes, who are often excluded from education and debate, into a political sphere they had historically been alienated from, and therefore marks a significant point in not only Korean history, but also female history.
By Isobel Troni