Korean independence movements

The nature of the search for Korean independence under the repressive Japanese occupation period (1890–1945) has a particularly complicated and diverse history. Preceded by almost 500 years of uninterrupted peace under Joseon dynasty rulers, and maintained by a largely benevolent administrative Confucianist bureaucracy, and nationalism within on an agrarian community, there was no real concern with western democracy or universal enfranchisement and independence. With the enslavement of Korea under Japan this changed dramatically. This article looks independence movements in general, as well as exploring the overlap between regaining Korean independence and the earlier Korean nationalism movements.

Introduction

When US President Theodore Roosevelt said sadly in 1905 that "Korea could not strike a blow in defense against Japan" and its continued genocide on the Korean peninsula, a series of historical errors continued that disregarded the Korean people's intense and constant fight for national sovereignty. Indeed, from the beginning of Japanese occupation, Koreans fought long and hard, and bitterly to regain freedom. In one two year period from 1907–1908, almost 2000 skirmishes were fought by Koreans against the Japanese invaders, after a long period of time, the nationalistic movements created a new Korea which led to both independence in 1945, then later partitioning and two political systems.

The continuous cautious development of the Joseon dynasty, which had reputiated gunpowder and war, and functioned under the "older brother" protection of China from Ming times, had a political system in which all participated, but with power and decision-making vested in a scholarly class, the yangban, the families of the old nobility, and the village-elders from the agrarian community. Throughout Korean history women had had inordinate powers of deciding political outcomes, and there were several queenly regencies from the 14th century onwards during which women's rights were advanced. Independence prior to the late 19th century rested on maintaining Confucian harmony, and a simple integrated state in which there was little interference in day to day life; and virtually no standing army. When piracy from Japan arose, or Manchurian threats, people's armies of scholars and farmers and hunters were formed, and then disbanded when the discord ceased. Within a paternal system of seniority, in a flexible hierarchical society, Koreans lived their daily lives without famines, riots, upsets, or civil discord for five centuries.

Two crises and one strong foreign influence precipitated the 19th century independence movements.

The strong foreign influence was aggressive missionary Christianity, first from jesuits and other missionary fathers imported from Beijing which challenged the Confucian system and attempted to institute tithing to Christian organizations away from established local charities, hospitals, and Korean temples.

The two crises were the collapse of the friendly Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) in Japan, its replacement by adventurists who had been excluded from the public purse by the Satsuma faction in the new Meiji restoration who were left to forage abroad after 1868 to recoup confiscation of their estates and power base within Japan.

As well, the desire of the west to play a larger role in Korea as Q'ing dynasty China ceased to have a viable navy and army capable of forming a protective umbrella over Korea, and maintaining historical treaty alliances that precluded onslaughts of uncontrolled western trade that would replace China as the largest import and export partner of Korea.

Against this late 19th century backdrop, with the continued infighting within the ruling and scholarly classes which is the nature of Korean politics, as individual factions competed for power, a vacuum emerged into which Japan entered boldly: first through subterfuge, then through confiscation of rice crops and imprisonment of Korean leaders, and then through overt brutality and mass genocide. Koreans responded finally to the last events with the creation of independence movements.

Leaders of the movements

• Legendary patriot, An Chung Kun (1879–1910) was historically one of the great martyred leaders of Korean independence from Japan;

Declension of the movements

There were in general at least three kinds of national independence groups: (a) the religious groups which grew out of the Confucianist and Christian communities, that saw their human rights violated; (b) the former military and the hunter-soldier irregular army groups; and (c) business and intellectual expatriates who formed the theoretical and political framework abroad to reinstill themselves back in power when Japan was over-thrown in Korea.

Religious Korean independence groups

Catholicism had been allowed in Korea since the 18th century with noteable Confucianists following this religion; missionaries later from France, America, and England began to have a larger influence as the late Joseon dynasty rulers knew the necessity of entertaining wider religious diversity, in a country which already had countless subgroups of Buddhism, Taoism, Seon buddhism, and shamanistic religions.

With the slow but decisive occupation long term occupation of Korea by Japan, religious groups, particularly Christians, were tempted by Japanese offers for more freedom, as well as encouraged by foreign missionaries who used Christianity as a wedge to bring down the Korean government through people who did not quite understand the politics of missionaries who brought with them inevitably backing by large foreign powers. Japanese financed Christian missionaries took a large foothold in what Japan knew would be a wedge into Korea, and later to be the means of a dangerous opposition: tight control was essential.

Thus the early Korean Christian missionaries both led to the destruction of Korean independence from 1890 through 1907, and later the creation of a Korean independence movement from 1907 to 1945, as Christianity was Koreanized and the mistakes of inserting an entirely unfamiliar mass religion were corrected by martyrdoms crucifixions, burnings to death, and massacres of Christians by the Japanese that made earlier Confucian errors og judment appear far less terrible than they were.

Amongst the major religious nationalist groups were:

• Korean Presbyterian church
• March first movement an underground movement made up largely of educated women, attempting to stop the rapine and oppression of women by Japanese occupation forces and coordinating alliances with foreign Christian groups;
• Korean YMCA

Military Korean independence groups

Amongst the major military nationalist groups were:

• Tonghak Peasant Revolution groups were spontaneous countryside uprisings against corruption in the late Joseon dynasty, and against as well Japanese confiscation of land, and Korean ricecrops;
• Righteous army a series of ad hoc armies of small sizes that fought Japanese military police, cavalry and infantry most intensely from 1907–1908, but which carried on til 1918;

International supporters of these groups included: French, Chinese and Russian arms merchants; as well as Chinese nationalist movements.

Expatriate Korean independence groups

The culmination of expatriate success was the Shanghai declaration of independence, however prior to that expatriate independence groups were active in these regions:

• Korean nationalists in Hawaii
• Korean nationalists in Shanghai
• Korean nationalists in San Francisco
• Korean nationalists in Manchuria
• Korean nationalists in Vladivostok and Russia

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was an early supporter of Korean struggles against Japanese invaders. By 1925, Korean expatriates began to cultivate two pronged support in Shanghai: from Chiang Kai-Shek's KMT, and from early communist supporters, who later branched into the CCP; as well as cultivating foreigners through Christian fellowships and church services. Little real support came through, but that which did developed long standing relationships that contributed to the dividing our Korea after 1949, and the polar positions between south and north.

Royalist influence on independence movements

The constant infighting within the Yi family, the nobles, and the confiscation of royal assets, the disbanding of the royal army by the Japanese, and the execution of seniors within Korea by Japan, and comprehensive assassinations of Korean royalty by Japanese mercenaries, led to great difficulties in royal descendents and their family groups in finding anything but a partial leadership within the independence movement. A good many of the Righteous army commanders were linked to the family but these generals and their Righteous army groups were largely eliminated by 1918; and cadet members of the families contributed towards establishing both republics post-1945.

See also

• List of Korea-related topics