Korean liberation movement encyclopedia topics

Background

During the nearly five centuries of the Joseon dynasty, Korea kept its independence through careful diplomacy with China. Joseon scholars, because of their belief in Confucianism and the idea of China as the "Big Brother", paid tribute to China to effectively prevent conflicts.

In the late nineteenth century, Joseon became vulnerable to Japan's expansionism, resulting in the Eulsa Annexation Treaty. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, leading to a Korean independence movement that culminated in a Korean Declaration of Independence during March 1 Movement. In large part the declaration was stimulated by the statements of American President Woodrow Wilson on self determination.

Leaders of the movements

Before annexation to Japan

Choe Ik-hyeon
Sin Dol-seok
Min Yeong-hwan
Jang In-hwan
Jeon Myeong-un
An Jung-geun (1879-1910) was one of the best known leaders of Korean liberation, having assassinated the Japanese colonial administrator of Korea, Ito Hirobumi, in 1909.
Hwang Hyeon

Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea

Edification movement leaders

Patriotic assassins

Military leaders

Historians

Poets

Han Yong-un
Yun Tong-ju
Yi Wonnok byname Yi Yuk-sa

Popular leaders

Communist leaders

Pak Hon-yong, a noted Communist leader

Gyopo leaders

Syngman Rhee

Types of movements

There were broadly three kinds of national liberation groups: (a) the religious groups which grew out of the Confucianist and Christian communities; (b) the former military and the irregular army groups; and (c) business and intellectual expatriates who formed the theoretical and political framework abroad.

Religious groups

Catholicism had been introduced to Korea towards the end of the 18th century and faced intense persecution. . Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries followed in the 19th century starting off a renaissance with more liberal thoughts on issues of equality and woman's rights, which the strict Confucian tradition would not permit.

The early Korean Christian missionaries both led the Korean independence from 1890 through 1907, and later the creation of a Korean liberation movement from 1907 to 1945. Korean Christians suffered martyrdoms, crucifixions, burnings to death, police interrogations and massacres by the Japanese.

Amongst the major religious nationalist groups were:

Military groups

Amongst the major military nationalist groups were:

Donghak Peasant Revolution Groups were spontaneous countryside uprisings, originally against corruption in the late Joseon dynasty, and later, against Japanese confiscation of land and rice crops.
Righteous army Small ad hoc armies that fought Japanese military police, cavalry and infantry most intensely from 1907-1918, but which carried on till the end of World War II.
Korean Liberation Army The Armed Forces of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia such as Burma.
Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army A politically Socialist group which was largely active in Manchuria and China.
Greater Korea Liberation Corps The result of regrouping dozens of smaller independent armies. Largely active in Siberia, Irkutsk and Manchuria, led by General Yi Tong Whi.
Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army Had some 30,000 partisans at its peak in mid-1930's. Kim Il Sung was commander of the 6th Division, 2nd Army, and 1st Route Army, Chu Chin was commander of the 2nd Army when he was killed by a traitor. Choe Hyon commanded the 4th Division of the same Army. The 7th Army of the 2nd Route Army was commanded by Yi Hak Man and Choe Yong Gun (later to become Defense Minister of North Korea). Kim Chaek was political commissar of the 3rd Army of the 3rd Route Army.

Supporters of these groups included French, Czech, Chinese and Russian arms merchants, as well as Chinese nationalist movements.

Expatriate groups

Expatriate liberation groups were active in Shanghai, Manchuria, parts of Russia, Hawaii, and San Francisco. Groups were even organised in areas without many expatriate Koreans, such as the one established in 1906 in Colorado by Park Hee Byung. The culmination of expatriate success was the Shanghai declaration of independence.

Korean National Army Corps- founded in June 1914. (Hawaii)
The Korean National Association
Hungsadan
Korean Youth Army
Korean Liberation League

Sun Yat-Sen was an early supporter of Korean struggles against Japanese invaders. By 1925, Korean expatriates began to cultivate two-pronged support in Shanghai: from Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang, and from early communist supporters, who later branched into the Communist Party of China.

Little real support came through, but that which did developed long standing relationships that contributed to the dividing of Korea after 1949, and the polar positions between south and north.

Royalist influence

The constant infighting within the Yi family, the nobles, and the confiscation of royal assets, the disbanding of the royal army by the Japanese, and the execution of seniors within Korea by Japan, and comprehensive assassinations of Korean royalty by Japanese mercenaries, led to great difficulties in royal descendants and their family groups in finding anything but a partial leadership within the liberation movement. A good many of the Righteous army commanders were linked to the family but these generals and their Righteous army groups were largely eliminated by 1918; and cadet members of the families contributed towards establishing both republics post-1945.