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Sept. 23, 1919 - Shanghai. Gen. Yi Tong Whi takes over the premiership of the Korean Provisional Government. Gen. Yi fills high KPG positions with his fellow members of the Korean People's Socialist Party. Yi's effort to regroup KPG into a united front fails. The exiles split into two primary groups: Yi's group who favors military actions with Soviet backing and Rhee Syngman's group which favors diplomatic channels working closely America. (Map: camp sites of anti-Japanese partisans.) |
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| Oct. 1920 - A Korean partisan unit occupies Nikolayevsk, a Czarist town, after a bloody battle, and murders several hundred Japanese prisoners and civilians. Japan is furious and threatens to expand her forces in Siberia and demands removal of all Korean military from Siberia.. Lenin has been trying to negotiate Japanese withdrawal from Siberia. Lenin tells Japan that there are no Korean military units in Siberia - only Soviet-Koreans in the Red Army; and tells Koreans to cool off. | |
| June 27, 1921 - The Soviet Red Army and Soviet-Koreans surround an
Independence Army corps of 7,000 men at Alekseyevsk (Siberia) and demand that they
surrender. A battle ensues and several hundred Koreans are killed and many escape. Some
1,700 captured Koreans are pressed into the Red Army and many officers are jailed. This
battle is known as the Free City Incident. March 28, 1922 - Shanghai: The Uiyoldan mounts a terrorist attack on Gen. Tanaka, the main architect of the Japanese Imperialism in China and Korea. The plot involves three assassins; (1) O Song Yun with a pistol, (2) Kim Ik Sang with a bomb, and (3) Yi Chong Am with a sword. O shoots at Tanaka at which moment a fat American woman who happened to be next to Tanaka grabs him in terror and is hit, thus saving Tanaka's life. O runs away believing that Tanaka is dead. Sept. 3, 1923 - Tokyo: Anti-Korean riots erupt and some 800 Korean students are killed by mobs and police. Over 100,000 Koreans are expelled from Japan. Kim Yak San (real name Kim Won Bong), a Uiyoldan, walks into Gen. Sato's (the top Japanese in Korea) and throws seven grenades. Sato escapes and so does Kim Yak San. Kim Won Bong returned to S Korea in 1945 and went north in 1946 where he held several high positions. |
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1925 - Shanghai: The Korean Provisional Government KPG expels its president Rhee Syngman for embezzlement and Kim Ku takes over the presidency. Rhee returns to Hawaii in disgrace. KPG splits into two factions: Pro-American Christians led by Rhee and pro-military group led by Kim Ku and communists. Gen. Yi parts company with Kim Ku and returns to his home in Siberia, where he dies in peace. |
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May 1925 - The Manchurian warlord, Chang Tso-lin, signs an agreement with the governor-general of Korea concerning Korean nationalists in Manchuria. Chang considers more than 90% of the Korean immigrants in Manchuria working for the Japanese and 10% hostile to Japan. The Japanese consider Koreans as Japanese citizens and so do many Chinese. Chang agrees to arrest and turn over Korean nationalists to the Japanese police, Japan would pay Chang so many dollars per head. Chang's bandits would use this as a pretext to attack and plunder Korean farms throughout Manchuria. Japan is forced to station a large number of police to protect Koreans. In addition, Korean militias are formed. |
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April 12, 1927 - Chiang Kai Sek takes over Kuomingtang. Chiang sheds his wife and a concubine and marries Soon Mei Ling on Dec. 15, 1927. Chiang Kai Sek purges communists from his army. Several thousands Korean communists are killed. China's civil war begins - Chiang sets up a nationalist government in Nanking and the leftists set up their own government in Wuhan. Most of the surviving Koreans join the Wuhan faction, but the Wuhan faction disintegrates within a few months. |
| Dec. 10, 1927 - The Canton Commune Uprising attempts to overthrow Chiang Kai Sek. Korean students from Sun Yatsen University and the old Yiyoldan terrorists led by O Song Yun form the spearhead. There are some 67 Koreans in the planning group. The leaders proclaim - "Comrades, tonight we put an end to the old history. Tonight we conquer the last icy mountain on our path forward." Gen. Yeh Yung (Chinese) is elected commander and Li Ying (Korean) political commissar of the rebel army (later to be called Red Army.) The Red Army takes over Canton but is crushed in a few days; some 7,000 rebels are killed by Chiang's troops. The survivors (including 15 Koreans) flee to Hailufeng, the first Soviet area (created in China on Sept. 9, 1927). Hailufeng had only 800 troops before the Uprising, but now, there are 2,000 men of the Fourth Division (Yeh Yung commanding), 800 men of the 2nd Division and several thousands Red Guards of Mao Zedung's peasants army. | |
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May 10, 1929 - Kim Il Sung is jailed for political activism while attending Yuwen Middle School in Jilin, Manchuria. Earlier he joined the South Manchurian Communist Youth Association. |