US
President Wilson's 14-point proclamation and the 1919 Paris Peace conference
that proclaimed ending of colonial rules.
Lee Wha Rang
March 1st (3.1 - sam-il in Korean) is a
national day of remembrance of those patriots who stood up against the armed
savages from Japan on March 1, 1919. Every citizen of Korea knows what 'samil
jul' means and samil is the most significant national even in our history.
Unfortunately, it is perhaps the most misunderstood event. The samil
movement was inspired by US
President Wilson's 14-point proclamation and the 1919 Paris Peace conference
that proclaimed ending of colonial rules.
Photo. Korean women marching for Korea's independence on March 1, 1919. The marchers were inspired by President Wilson's 14-point proclamation and the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.
As such it was the first major event in Korea that was rooted in a foreign origin. President Woodrow Wilson's '14-point' proclamation on January 1, 1918, that, amongst others, proclaimed - "A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined."
President Wilson's apparent intention was to carve out the booties of World War I (1914-1918) among the victors that included Japan. The devastation of the war caused social upheavals in Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and other nations. The Tsar of Russia was kicked out of Moscow and killed in Siberia, and socialism and fascism vied for power in Europe. Former colonies of Germany and Austria did indeed attain independence in accordance with Wilson's lofty proclamation.
However,
not all colonies were freed, for the Wilson Doctrine did not apply to Korea,
India, Tibet, Persia, Libya, Morocco, Vietnam, and some other colonies of
the WWI victors. The oppressed people of these colonies desired
independence and mounted more intense struggle to expel colonial powers. Korean
nationalists erroneously took Wilson's words at face value and believed Korea
would be freed per Wilson's proclamation.
Photo: Japanese killed Koreans in many ways, beheading being their favorite 'sport'. Top: the moment of death of an unnamed Korean patriot. Bottom: severed heads on display.
A Korean delegation headed by Kim Gyu-sik attended the Paris Peace Conference (February 1919), which refused to seat the Koreans as voting delegates. The Koreans were totally unaware of the secret pact of the US, Japan, and France to exclude Korea and Indochina from the Paris Conference.
The Samil
Anti-Japanese March was led by young students and Christians in Korea on March
1, 1919. It was crushed brutally by the
Japanese. A Declaration of Independence, patterned after the American version,
was 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 demonstrations 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 responded and joined the march.
The naive Koreans were not aware that the American President Wilson was not
quite the good guy he claimed to be: America had years earlier agreed to Japan's
annexation of Korea. The 33 organizers of the movement were mostly Christian
idealists and had no experience in mass movement and so the March failed
disastrously.
Photo: Hundreds of Korean nationalists were executed on a cross.
The Japanese suppressed the movement with brutal force. They fired into groups of Korean Christians singing hymns. Christian leaders were nailed to wooden crosses and were left to die a slow death – “so that they can go to heaven”. Mounted police beheaded young school children. The police burned down churches. The official Japanese count of casualties include 553 killed, 1,409 injured, and 12,522 arrested, but the Korean estimates are much higher, over 7,500 killed, about 15,000 injured, and 45,000 arrested.
Documented cases of Japanese crimes in connection with the March First Movement will be presented below in a series of short articles.
The full text of the declaration in Korean and English
The Second Samil Movement - Korea needs a Second Samil Movement to break the yoke of foreign powers.