Asia · East Asia

Korea

Korea was annexed by the Japanese Empire in 1910 and occupied until Japan's surrender in August 1945 — thirty-five years of colonial rule under which the Korean language was suppressed, Korean land and resources were extracted, and Koreans were mobilised as forced labour and military conscripts for the Japanese war machine. The fighters profiled here include the assassin who killed Japan's first Resident-General, the teenage girl who became the face of the March First Movement, the Provisional Government leaders in Shanghai and Chongqing, the activist-poets and anarchists of the diaspora, and the guerrilla commander who would become North Korea's founder.

10Profiles
1Colonial Power
1895–1945Period Covered
35Years of Occupation
An Jung-geun, Korean independence movement figure
Korea An Jung-geun Shot and killed Itō Hirobumi — Japan's first Resident-General of Korea and the principal architect of Japanese imperialism in East Asia — at Harbin Railway Station on 26 October 1909. Executed by the Japanese in 1910. Regarded in Korea and China as one of the greatest anti-Japanese heroes. 1879–1910
Yu Gwan-sun, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Yu Gwan-sun Seventeen-year-old student who organised demonstrations in her home village after the March First Movement of 1919, was arrested, tortured in Seodaemun Prison, and died in prison in 1920 — becoming the most celebrated martyr of the Korean independence movement. 1902–1920
Ahn Changho, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Ahn Changho The "Island of Pine Trees" — educator, reformist, and co-founder of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, who devoted his life to building the moral and organisational foundations of Korean independence. 1878–1938
Kim Ku, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Kim Ku President of the Korean Provisional Government in exile for much of its existence, organiser of the Korean Independence Army, and the man who sent the bombers of the Shanghai and Tokyo attacks — assassinated in 1949 after opposing the division of Korea. 1876–1949
Yun Bong-gil, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Yun Bong-gil Threw a bomb at a Japanese military celebration at Hongkou Park in Shanghai on 29 April 1932, killing Japanese commanders including General Yoshinori Shirakawa — an action that prompted Chiang Kai-shek to give the Korean Provisional Government Chinese state support. 1908–1932
Lee Bong-chang, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Lee Bong-chang Threw a grenade at Emperor Hirohito's imperial procession in Tokyo on 8 January 1932 — the bomb missed the Emperor's carriage. Arrested, tried, and hanged in October 1932. His willingness to attempt the assassination of the Emperor was unprecedented. 1900–1932
Shin Chae-ho, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Shin Chae-ho Historian, journalist, and anarchist revolutionary who rewrote Korean history as a story of national resistance rather than dynastic succession — his nationalist historiography shaped the intellectual framework of the independence movement and remains foundational to Korean historical consciousness. 1880–1936
Na Hye-sok, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Na Hye-sok Korea's first professional woman painter, feminist writer, and March First Movement participant — her art, essays, and public defiance of patriarchal norms made her a pioneer of Korean women's liberation whose life ended in poverty and neglect after her social ostracism. 1896–1948
Park Yeol, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Park Yeol Korean anarchist revolutionary who was arrested in Japan in 1923 on charges of plotting to assassinate the Emperor, sentenced to death (commuted to life), and imprisoned for twenty-two years — his case became an international cause célèbre of the anarchist movement. 1902–1974
Kim Il-sung, Korean independence movement figure
Korea Kim Il-sung Led Korean guerrilla resistance against the Japanese in Manchuria through the 1930s and early 1940s before becoming the founding leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948 — his resistance record was genuine; what he built with it was not. 1912–1994