In 1911, Sun Yat Sen, the Father of Modern China, was elected president of the Chinese Republic and director of the Kuomingtang. This was the end of the long Dark Age of China and the start of China's long arduous march to democracy and economic recovery.
In 1912, Rhee Syngman, the Father of the Republic of Korea (ROK), emigrated to Hawaii as headmaster of a Methodist school. The Japanese Army defeated the last surviving band of the Righteous Army in Korea. Remnants of the Army fled to Manchuria and joined forces with the guerrillas already in existence there.
Earlier, Korean nationalists had established military bases and conducted small-scale hit-and-run operations into Korea. There were millions of Chinese of Korean ancestry by 1900's, and new immigrants from Korea swelled the Korean population in China by 400,000. The new immigrants settled mostly along the Yalu and Tuman borders.
Photo: Kim Sun Ju, alias Kim Il Sung, circa 1922
On April 15, 1912 - Kim Sun Ju (alias Kim Il Sung), the Father of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was born in N. Korea, the eldest of three sons by a poor peasant couple, Mr. Kim Hyon Jik and Mrs. Kang Pan Sok (Korean women retain their maiden name. In North Korea today, Kang Pan Sok is worshipped as the Mother of Korea).
On Aug. 23, 1914, Japan declared war on Germany and occupied the German colonies in China and in the Pacific. Japan proved that the Asians could beat the white race in modern warfare.
On Oct. 1, 1917, the Russian Bolshevik Revolution succeeded in Russia proper, but in Siberia, chaos ensued. The Whites (Mensheviks), Czarists, Czechs, Japanese and Americans had armed men fighting against the Bolsheviks in Siberia - all trying to undo the Revolution.
Lenin saw an opportunity to form a Russo-Korean united front to expel the Japanese invaders from Siberia. On the other hand, the Korean nationalists needed Lenin for Russian arms and men to liberate Korea militarily. Lenin deeply hated Japan and provided much help to the Korean independence fighters in Siberia.
Lenin sent Alexandra Kim, the first Korean to join the Soviet Communist Party, to Siberia to organize the Korean resistance against the Japanese. The first Korean migration to Siberia predated as early as to the time of Jesus Christ, if not earlier. By the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, some 300,000 first-generation Koreans lived in Siberia. Poor Korean farmers saw an opportunity to own a farm in the Virgin Siberia and Korean nationalists found a refuge and an eager ally there. There rose Korean towns in Vladvostok, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Chita and other major towns in Siberia. Korean farms were scattered all over Siberia.
On June 28, 1918, Yi Tong Whi organized the Korean People's Socialist Party in Khabarovk (Siberia). Yi tried to mobilize Korean and Chinese nationalists in Siberia against the Japanese and Czarists in Siberia.
In August 1918, Gen. Yi Tong Whi met Lenin in Moscow to discuss the Korean situation. Lenin said to his close associates that: "We must help Comrade Yi here. He has hot blood for Korean independence but no method. This is a natural Oriental condition. They have no revolutionary base but only a background of terrorism and military action."
Gen. Yi had organized the Siberian Korean People's Association, consisting of over 100,000 members. Yi's Independence Army was incorporated into the Soviet Army in 1921. In 1924, Gen. Yi died in bed at his home near Vladivostok.
On Sept. 4, 1918, the Japanese troops and the White Russians took over Khabarovsk and executed scores of Korean communists including Alexandra Kim. Many non-communist Koreans sided with the White Russians. During the next six months, Vladivostok and its surrounding towns would change hands more than six times and both sides killed thousands of Koreans. Terror stricken Koreans poured into Manchuria.
On Jan. 22, 1919, the first Korean Communist Party was formed in Irkutsk, Siberia (Maritime Province).
On March 1, 1919, the Samil Anti-Japanese marches led by young students and Christians in Korea were crushed brutally by the Japanese. On this day, 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 poor Koreans were not aware that the American President Wilson was not quite the good guy he claimed to be: America had already 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.
Photo: Japanese police execute Korean Christians "on the cross".
The Japanese suppressed the movement with brutal force. They fired into groups of Korean Christians singing hymns; Christian leaders were nailed to wooden crossed 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 many churches. The official Japanese count of casualties included 553 killed, 1,409 injured, and 12,522 arrested, but the Korean estimates were much higher - over 7,500 deaths, about 15,000 injured, and 45,000 arrested.
The Korean people, in particular Christians, came to realize the international fact of life - so-called self-determination of the Wilson Doctrine was only a deception used by the Western imperialists to consolidate their colonies. Young Korean patriots were forced to join the camps of the Soviets and China for material and ideological supports.
On April 8, 1919, the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) was established in the French Concession of Shanghai. Rhee Syngman (in absentia) was elected premier, Yi Tong Whi defense minister (later, premier) and Kim Kyu Sik foreign minister. The KPG had its own parliament, press, and a military school in Shanghai. The original founders of KPG represented a broad spectrum of the Korean political ideologies united in the common cause of Korean independence, but this coalition did not last long. Soon after its formation, the KPG would split into numerous factions.
Photo: Kim Ku, middle, 1st row with eyeglasses in Western suit.
On April 25, 1919, Gen. Yi Tong Whi organized a central command for all partisans in Siberia. The organization was to be based in Vladivostok. Yi's command published newspapers; conducted propaganda in Siberia, Manchuria and Korea; established contacts with partisans in Manchuria and Korea; and formal ties with Moscow and the Third International.
A few years earlier, Gen. Yi had established the Korean Military Academy at Mishan (Manchuria) staffed with former Yi Army officers. Yi had been receiving arms and funds from the Soviets. Yi formally issued army draft orders to all 18-year old Korean boys and a 20 yen tax on all Korean households. Gen. Yi had training centers in operation at Chita (under Gen. Yi Kang), Nikolayevsk (under Gen. Mun Chang Bum and Ahn Myong Gun), Vladivostok (Gen. Om In Sup) and Ssucheng (Gen. Yi Tong Whi). Gen. Yi had some 3,700 Koreans fighting the Japanese in Siberia as members of the Soviet Army. In addition, several hundreds of Korean guerrillas were fighting the Japanese in Siberia.
In May 1919, Kirin (Manchuria), Kim Wong Bom (alias Kim Ik San) formed 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 carried out some 300 acts of terrorism against the Japanese from 1919 to 1924. More than 300 Uiyoldan members were captured and executed by the Japanese. One of the most prominent members was Chon Kwang (alias O Song Yun) who later joined Kim Il Sung's partisans in Manchuria. Another was Kim Won Bong (alias Kim Yak San not to be confused with Kim Yak San aka Kim Wong Bom) whose feats are described in a later section.
Among the Uiyoldan's notable actions were:
Photo: Chinese and Korean nationalists are being buried alive by the Japanese.
In Sept. 1920, a Korean Independence Army detachment attacked Hunchun (China) and killed the Japanese residents of the town. In response, the Japanese Army dispatched two full divisions to crush the Independence Army once for all. After a fierce and bitter battle, some 3,000 survivors fled to Siberia. More than 2,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. The enraged Japanese killed over 6,000 Korean civilians; Korean women and babies were bayoneted; village elders were buried alive; Christian pastors were crucified; and captured soldiers were quartered or skinned alive.
On Aug. 28, 1919, a Czarist guerrilla unit captured and executed the key leaders of Soviet-Koreans in Siberia. Gen. Yi managed to escape to Shanghai to join the Korean Provisional Government as its defense minister. This put an end to the Korean People's Socialist Party. The survivors joined the Soviet Communist Party - Korean Chapter (commonly known as the Irkutsk Group).
On Sept. 23, 1919, Gen. Yi Tong Whi took over the premiership of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai. Gen. Yi filled high positions in the KGP with his fellow members of the Korean People's Socialist Party. Yi's effort to regroup KPG into a united front would fail, however. The exiles split into two primary groups: Yi's group who favored military actions with Soviet backing and Rhee Syngman's group which favored diplomatic channels working closely with America.
On July 19, 1920 - The Second Comintern Congress opened with a Korean Communist (Park Chin Sun) delivering a keynote speech:
"Admitting that the first stage of the revolution in the East will be the victory of the liberal bourgeoisie and the nationalistic intelligentsia, we should nevertheless now prepare our forces for the next stage, drawing from the depths of the peasant masses enslaved by the feudal regime organized forces for an agrarian-social revolution in Asia as soon as possible."
"The industrial proletariat, if Japan is not taken into consideration, is too weak in Asia for us to cherish serious hopes of an early Communist revolution; but there is no doubt of the success of an agrarian revolution if we are able to grasp the immediate problems of the great bloody struggle.
The Russian proletariat, standing as the vanguard of the world social revolution, could withstand a desperate three-year onslaught of the bourgeoisie of the whole world only because it knew how to attract the poorest and middle classes of peasantry to its side."
In Aug. 1920, Lenin met in Moscow a Korean delegation led by Han Hyong Gwon (a member of Gen. Yi's staff) and authorized 2 million rubles (1 ruble = 50 cents) for the Korean Provisional Government. Since Russian paper rubles were not negotiable in China, Han was handed 400,000 gold rubles in seven boxes, each box contained 20 sacks of gold rubles and weighed 700 pounds. Han was promised the balance after he had delivered the first payment to Gen. Yi. Han handed over the boxes to Kim Rip (Gen. Yi's secretary) at the border town of Omsk and went back to Moscow for the rest of Lenin's money.
To his surprise, Han was told on his return to Moscow that the Soviet-Koreans (Irkutsk's) had told Lenin that the Soviets were backing the wrong horse; that KPG was made of impure reactionaries; that Han himself was a capitalist. Lenin cooled off quite a bit and refused to honor his prior commitment. However, Han managed to squeeze out 200,000 more rubles from Lenin. Gen. Yi kept Lenin's gold rubles away from the non-Communist members of the KPG, which was to contribute to the final split of the KPG in 1921.
In Oct. 1920, a Korean partisan unit took over Nikolayevsk, a Czarist town, after a bloody battle, and murdered several hundred Japanese prisoners and civilians. Japan was enraged and threatened retaliation against the Soviets. Japan demanded the removal of all Korean military from Siberia. At the time, Lenin was trying to negotiate Japanese withdrawal from Siberia. Lenin told Japan that there were no Korean military units in Siberia; that all Korean armed men belonged to the Soviet Red Army. Lenin then told the warring Koreans to cool off or else.
On Dec. 8, 1920, Rhee Syngman arrived in Shanghai. Rhee was elected president of the KPG in 1919, in absentia, but this was the first time Rhee set foot in the KPG office. Unfortunately for the KGP, Rhee was to ferment dissension in the ranks and was finally expelled by Kim Ku from the KPG in 1924 for embezzlements.
