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Feb. 10, 1904 - Japan goes to war with Russia. Japanese troops land on Korea and move into Manchuria. Czar's troops had occupied northern regions of Korea and the Japanese are welcomed as liberators. The Russians raped and robbed poor Koreans whereas the Japanese treat them as their "brothers". |
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Sept. 5, 1905 - The Treaty of Portmouth (New Hampshire, USA) is signed; US recognizes Japanese interests in Korea and southern Manchuria; and Japan recognizes American interests in the Philippines. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt lets Japan have Korea and Manchuria (photo: Teddy with Baron Komura after signing the Treaty.) |
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Japan disbands the Korean Army (Yi Army) using a clever deception. The cream of the Yi Army is gathered in Seoul for an exhibition. Some 3,000 of the top military fall for the trap. A massacre of the unarmed men occurs and the survivors flee from Seoul and organize ant-Japanese guerrillas. |
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1907 - The Korean Righteous Army (Ui Byong Dae) is joined by elements of the Yi Army and anti-Japanese yangban (Korean aristocrats). The Army conducts guerrilla actions against the Japanese. Koreans migrate to Manchuria and Siberia in large numbers. |
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Oct. 1909 - Ahn Chung Gun kills Ito Hirobumi - the Japanese architect of the Korean colonization. Ahn was born in 1879 in Haeju. In 1905, he went to Manchuria and formed a guerrilla army. Ahn kills Ito at Harbin as Ito was getting off a train. Ahn is arrested and after months of torture, was executed on March 26, 1910. |
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1910 - Japan annexes Korea. The majority of the Yi government officials, including "Emperor" Kojong (photo: King Kojong with his cabinet members), go along with the Japanese. Korean rich and intelligentsia embrace the Japanese language and culture as their own. Japanese colonists and Korean collaborators believe that Korea and Japan have deep historical and cultural ties and that a "big-little" brother relationship exists between Korea and Japan. Their goal is the complete assimilation of Koreans int o the Japanese Empire. |
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The Righteous Army is crushed. The survivors flee to Manchuria and form the Korean Independence Army led by Gen. Yi Tong Hwi. Gen. Yi establishes training centers for his Army and conducts cross-border raids into Korea. Some one million Koreans live in Manchuria (Kirin) and support Yi's Independence Army, some 5,000 strong. |
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March 1, 1919 - Samil Anti-Japanese marches by students in Korea are crushed by force. A Declaration of Independence (patterned after the American version) is read by teachers and civic leaders in tens of thousands of villages throughout Korea - "Today marks the declaration of Korean independence. There will be peaceful demonstration all over Korea. If our meetings are orderly and peaceful, we shall receive the help of President Wilson and the great powers at Versailles, and Korea will be a free nation.." Nearly two million students, patriots and Christians respond and join the march. The poor Koreans are not aware that Wilson is not quite the good guy he claims to be: America has agreed to Japan's annexation of Korea. The 33 organizers of the movement are mostly Christian idealists. |
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The Japanese suppress the movement with brutal force. They fire into groups of Korean Christians singing hymns; Christian leaders are nailed to wooden crosses and left to die a slow death - "so that they can go to heaven" as the Japanese say. Young school children are beheaded by mounted policemen. Many churches are burned down by the police. The official Japanese count of casualties includes 553 killed, 1,409 injured, and 12,522 arrested. Korean estimates are much higher - over 7,500 deaths, about 15,000 injured, and 45,000 arrests. |
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April 8, 1919 - The Korean Provisional Government KPG (photo: Kim Ku and his cabinet in Shanghai, China) is established in the French Concession of Shanghai. Rhee Syngman (in absentia) is elected premier, Yi Tong Whi defense minister (later, premier) and Kim Kyu Sik foreign minister. KPG has its own parliament, press, and a military school in Shanghai. The original founders of KPG represent a broad spectrum of political ideologies united in a common cause for Korean independence, but this coalition does not last long. KPG splits into numerous factions. |
| April 25, 1919 - Gen. Yi Tong Whi organizes a central command for all partisans in Siberia. The organization is to be based in Vladivostok. Yi's command is to publish news papers; conduct propaganda in Siberia, Manchuria and Korea; establish contacts with partisans in Manchuria and Korea; and establish formal ties with Moscow and the Third International. Yi has already established a Korean Military Academy at Mishan (Manchuria) staffed with former Yi Army officers. Yi has been receiving arms and funds from the Soviets. Yi has issued army draft orders to all 18-year old Korean boys and a 20 yen tax on all Korean households. Gen. Yi has training centers in operation at Chita (under Gen. Yi Kang), Nikolsk (under Gen. Mun Chang Bum and Gen. Ahn Myong Gun), Vladivostok (Gen. Om In Sup) and Ssucheng (Gen. Yi Tong Whi). Some 3,700 Koreans are fighting the Japanese in Siberia as members of the Soviet Army. In addition, several hundreds Koreans are in guerrilla units in Siberia. | |
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May 1919 - Kirin (Manchuria): Kim Wong Bom (alias Kim Yak San) organizes the Uiyoldan
(Practice Justice Bravely Society), a secret terrorist group with members in Korea,
Japan and China - and a number of foreigners including a German (Martin) specialist on
making bombs. The Society is to commit some 300 acts of terrorism against the Japanese
from 1919 to 1924; and more than 300 Uiyoldan members are to be captured and executed. One
of the most prominent members is Chon Kwang (alias O So ng Yun); another is Kim Won Bong. Among Uiyoldan's notable actions are: (1) bombing of Gov. Gen. Saito's office in Seoul on Sept. 12, 1921, (2) Shooting of Gen. Tanaka on March 28, 1922, (3) Attempted assassination of the Japanese Emperor on Jan. 4 , 1924, and (4) Bombing of the Tokyo Tak ushoku on Dec. 28, 1926. |
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Sept. 1920 - Manchuria: A Korean Independence Army detachment occupies Hunchun and kills all Japanese in the town. Two Japanese Army divisions are sent to crush the Independence Army once for all. Some 3,000 survivors flee to Siberia. More than 2,000 Japanese soldiers are killed. In revenge, the Japanese kill over 6,000 Korean civilians; women and babies are bayoneted; village elders are buried alive; Christian pastors are crucified; captured soldiers are quartered or skinned alive. |
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Aug. 28, 1919 - A Czarist guerrilla unit captures and executes key leaders of Soviet-Koreans. Gen. Yi escapes to Shanghai where he joins the Korean Provisional Government as defense minister. This puts an end to the Korean People's Socialist Party. The survivors join the Russian Communist Party - Korean Chapter (commonly known as the Irkutsk group). |