Sam-il: Preface (P3)

Your Online Martial Arts Resource

HOMEPAGE - Email - Share - Interact

Sam-il
Preface

Despite the nationalists' concerns, massive crowds assembled in the Pagoda Park to hear a student, Chung Jae-yong, read the declaration publicly. Afterwards, the gathering formed into a procession, which the Japanese police attempted to suppress. Coinciding with these events, special delegates associated with the movement also read copies of the independence proclamation from appointed places throughout the country at 2 P.M. on that same day, but the nationwide uprisings that resulted were also brutally put down by the Japanese police and army. Protests nevertheless continued to spread, and as the Japanese national and military police could not contain the crowds, the army and even the navy were also called in. There were several reports of atrocities. In one notable instance, Japanese police in the village of Jeam-ri herded male protesters into a church, locked it, and burned it to the ground. Approximately 2,000,000 Koreans had participated in the more than 1,500 demonstrations, many who have been massacred by the Japanese police force and army.

According to the frequently referenced The Bloody History of the Korean Independence Movement by Park Eunsik, 7,509 were killed, 15,849 were wounded, and 46,303 were arrested. During March 1 to April 11, Japanese officials reported that 553 people were killed with over 12,000 arrested, while 8 policemen and military policemen were killed and 158 were wounded. Many of those arrested were taken to the infamous Seodaemun Prison in Seoul where they were imprisoned without trial and tortured. Several hundred people were murdered in extrajudicial killings in the "death house" at the rear of the site.[3] In 1920, the Battle of Chingshanli broke out in Manchuria between exiled Korean nationalists and the Japanese Army.

The March 1st movement resulted in a major change in Japanese imperial policy towards Korea. Japanese Governor-General Hasegawa Yoshimichi accepted responsibility for the loss of control (although most of the repressive measures leading to the uprising had been put into place by his predecessors) and was replaced by Saito Makoto. Some of the aspects of Japanese rule considered most objectionable to Koreans were removed. The military police were replaced by a civilian force, and limited press freedom was permitted under what was termed the "cultural policy'." Many of these lenient policies were reversed during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Women also found new opportunities after the movement to express their views for the first time in Korea. Ideas of female liberation were allowed to be printed after the rebellion. Such journals as the Sin yoja (New Woman) and Yoja kye (Women's World) were printed. The March 1 Movement was a catalyst for the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in April 1919. and it also gave influence on nonviolent resistance in India and many other countries.