The March 1st Movement
Inspired by talk of national self-determination, Koreans across the country peacefully demand independence; Japan crushes the protests.
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
On 1 March 1919, as crowds gathered for the funeral of the former emperor Gojong, thirty-three religious leaders, Christian, Cheondogyo and Buddhist, signed a Declaration of Independence that was read aloud in Seoul’s Pagoda Park. Students and townspeople poured into the streets shouting “Manse!” (“Long live Korean independence!”). Over the following months, perhaps a million or more people took part in demonstrations across the country.
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
The protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, but the colonial authorities answered with gunfire, mass arrests and torture; in the village of Jeam-ri, soldiers locked villagers in a church and set it alight. Independence did not come, but the movement led to the founding of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai in April 1919, forced Japan to soften its rule, and created martyrs such as the schoolgirl Yu Gwan-sun.
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
Korean nationalist counts compiled at the time put the dead at around 7,500 and the arrested at tens of thousands.
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
Official Japanese figures recorded several hundred protesters killed and about 12,500 jailed between March and the end of 1919. Historians generally regard these as undercounts.
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
Why it matters today
March 1st (Samiljeol) is a national holiday in South Korea, and its constitution names the Provisional Government founded after the movement as the root of the Republic. The movement is remembered as the moment ordinary Koreans of every class and religion stood up together.