Torture Murder of a Teenage Girl, Yu Kwan-soon (유관순 柳寬順)
Lee Wha Rang, Feb 14, 2004, Seattle
Yu was one of the 40,000 or so Koreans arrested by the Japanese in the aftermath of the failed March First Movement of 1919, wherein patriotic Koreans of all social spectrum joined in a nationwide march for Korea's independence. She was only 18 at the time and died from 20-month long barbaric tortures by the Japanese savages. Today, she is worshipped as Korea's Jean d'arc by the under-40 generations of Korea.
Yu was born in 1902 into a Christian family. Her father (Yu Jung-kwun 류중권) was an early convert and established a Christian school with his own money. Yu attended the Yi-wha Girls' School (called the Yi-wha Girls' High School today) and became an ardent nationalist and a Christian. When she prayed, she held the Korean flag close to her bosom.
On March 1, 1919, Yu joined the "March to Death" squad with five other students. When the Japanese closed down her school after the March, she returned to her home town of Chunahn (천안) and carried on her work for Korea's independence. She persuaded villagers to join her on a march on April 1, 1919. The Japanese security forces attacked the marchers with guns and swords. Her father and mother were among the victims of the Japanese atrocity.
Yu was fingered as the main instigator of the march and was arrested. She was tortured by the arresting police in Chunahn, by the prosecutors in Gongju, and by the Japanese interrogators in Seoul. She was defiant to her last moment. She shouted "Long Live Korea" while being transported from jail to jail. On one occasion, a Japanese police escort struck her with his sword to silence her. At her trial, she threw a chair at her prosecutor. Her torturers inserted a water hose into her vagina and forced cold water into her. Her torturers placed her outdoors in freezing cold and then dowsed her with icy water. When she was half frozen, they revived her by placing her next to a hot stove, They would repeat this process again and again.
After 20 months of non-stop torture, she died in October 1920.