What's UP, Korea?) Independence Movement: March 1st, 1919 + Seodaemun Prison

 
 
Hello ST People~
 
How are you all?
 
Yesterday (according to Korea time) was one of the most important days of South Korea which was March 1st, the day of Independence Movement against Japanese colonialism.
 
March 1st, 1919, was the biggest public movement seen throughout the country based on our people's resistance against Japan's tyrannical colonialism. Every single one of people waved Korean flag on the streets yelling for Korean independence. To commemorate this historical day, March 1st was designated as a national holiday and Korean honor the day by hanging Korean flags in their homes.
 
 
 
 
If you have seen the flat of South Korea, you could find it quite unique compared to other many flags. But did you know what kinds of meaning the design of the flag has?
 
To my shame, many Korean especially younger generation are not much aware of the meaning of Korean flag and I think it is a perfect day to know more about it.
 
 
 
 
Flag of the Republic of Korea;
Taegukgi (Taegeukgi)
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 The flag of the Republic of Korea (we are known as South Korea too, but use The Republic of Korea on official events) is known as Taegukgi (or Taegeukgi meaning 'supreme ultimate flag') has three parts; a white rectangular background, a red&blue round symbol in the center, and four black trigrams one toward each corner.
 
 
1. White rectangular background
I don't think many people know about it but white is the traditional color in Korean culture. We call ourselves Back-ey-min-jok (meaning 'the white-clad folk') and white color represents peace and purity. White was common attire of 19th-century Koreans and is still used in contemporary version of traditional Korean garments such as Hanbok.
 
 
2. Red & blue round symbol in the center
The circle in the center represents the philosophy of um-yang (yin-yang in Chinese) and the balance of the universe. The red half on the top represents positive cosmic forces and the blue half at the bottom represents the opposing negative cosmic forces.
 
3. Four black trigrams
The trigrams around the circle represents movement and harmony as fundamental principles. They all have special meanings (I roughly knew about them but I'm learning too!) as you could find more below;
 
TrigramKorean NameCelestial BodySeasonCardinal DirectionVirtueFamilyNatural ElementMeaning
☰geon
(건 / 乾)
heaven
(천 / 天)
spring
(춘 / 春)
east
(동 / 東)
humanity
(인 / 仁)
father
(부 / 父)
heaven
(천 / 天)
justice
(정의 / 正義)
☲ri
(리 / 離)
sun
(일 / 日)
autumn
(추 / 秋)
south
(남 / 南)
justice
(의 / 義)
daughter
(녀 / 女)
fire
(화 / 火)
fruition
(결실 / 結實)
☵gam
(감 / 坎)
moon
(월 / 月)
winter
(동 / 冬)
north
(북 / 北)
intelligence
(지 / 智)
son
(자 / 子)
water
(수 / 水)
wisdom
(지혜 / 智慧)
☷gon
(곤 / 坤)
earth
(지 / 地)
summer
(하 / 夏)
west
(서 / 西)
courtesy
(례 / 禮)
mother
(모 / 母)
earth
(토 / 土)
vitality
(생명력 / 生
 
 
 
 
 
 
North Korea
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As you know, Korea is a historical country in East Asia; since 1945, it has been divided into two distinct sovereign states and only one existing country that is divided; North Korea (officially the 'Democratic People's Republick or Korea') and South Korea (officially the 'Republic or Kroea'). We speak Korean but in different styles (the way North Koreans speak Korean is very very different from South Koreans which we almost find very difficult to understand each other.) since we have been seperated over 60 years.
 

 
 
 
Korean Unification Flag
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The Korean Unification Flag is a flag designed to represent all of Korea where North and South Korea participate as one team in sporting events.
 
 
 
 
 
March 1st Movement; Independence Movement
The March 1st Movement is commonly known and called as Sam-il (3-1) Movement and one of the most historical event that Korea resisted during the rule of Korea by Japan from 1910 into 1945. The name refers to an event that occured on March 1, 1919 or sometimes referred to as the Manse Undong (Man-se Demonstrations).
 
 
 
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"Korean spectators viewing the Korean flag on the Independence Memorial Arch. The flat which was invisible before March first of 1919 is now very clear."
 
The structure is called Dongnimmun Gate which still exists in the present time and was the main area of the Independence movement on Mar 1st.
 
 
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"Thousands of enthusiastic Koreans, including women and girls, shouting "Mansei" with hands in the air outside the palace in Seoul."
 
How touching it is to have the photos of the day...so that Korean would not forget how our people devoted themselves to Korea's freedom.
 
 
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To memorize the historical day, we still preserve the place and visit there on our special days. Where Dongnimmun Gate stands at, there is Seodaemun Prison where thousands of Koreans were imprisoned, tortured, and killed.

 
 
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Seodaemun Prison
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I remember I once visited Seodaemun Prison with my classmates when I was in junior high school. At that moment, I was not much aware of Korean history just like other younger generations and did not know much about what and why the place was made for.


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Address:  251, Tongil-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Subway: Dongnimmun station, line no.3
Open: from 9:30am to 17:00pm
(closed on every Monday)
 
 
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When you visit there first, you could be overwhelmed by the scale of the place.
It is not just one single building but consisted of multiple huge structures on different purposes.
 

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The structures are surrounded by grass and bright colors, however people could never be much excited about visiting the place since we all know so many people were prisoned, tortured, and died for doing right thing to find out country back.
 
 
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As the explanation at the entrance says, the original capacity of the prison was about 500 people however Japanese arrested too many Koreans for independence movement around March 1st that the number reached up to 3,000 people.
 
In a small room, for example, there were more than 50 people were imprisoned together where originally about 10 people should be at so that not everyone could get to sleep together but alternately.
 
 
(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)
 
 
(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)
 
It was my first time visiting a prison and it even made me depressed about the place since all innocent Koreans were captured to fight back Japan's colonialism. Not only the way how they were prisoned was not right, but how Japanese treated them inside of the prison was ruthless and inhuman.


(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)

Recently in one of the most rising popular South Korea TV program 'Welcome, First Time in Korea?', German friends visited some historical places in Korea on their first day of trip such as DMZ (the border between South and North Korea) and Seodaemun Prison.
 
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Since Germany has very similar history to Korea, they wanted to visit the places where they could experience Korean history apart from other traveling spots and did visit to the prison.


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I really loved their attitude how they tried to learn the history of the country where they are visiting to. They were very serious, learning, and sympathized with the pain of the place.
 
 
 
 
Ryu Gwansun (December 16, 1902 - September 28, 1920)
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Ryu Gwansun, also known as Yu Gwan-sun, was an organizer of March 1st Movement against Imperial Japanese colonial rule of Kroea in South Chungcheong.
She was only 16-year-old when she joined the movement, captured and went through all the tortures by Japanese. She is definitely the one most of Korean come up with when thinking about Korea Independence and became the great model of patriotism. (In the photo above, she looks bruised and swollen due to Japanese police's tortures.)



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She continued protesting activities, and was prisoned to a different, underground, and finally died three months before her release on September 28th, 1920, the result of complications due to the torture and beating she received.
 
 

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Several photos of Ryu Gwansun are exhibited in the prison as well as other people who did the protesting together.



Ahn Changho (November 9, 1876 - March 10, 1938)

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Ahn Changho (commonly called by 'Dosan Ahn Changho' which Dosan refers to his pen name) is also one of the early leaders of the fighters for independence and early leaders of the Korean-American immigrant community in the United States. Several photos of himself in different time are also exhibited in the prison.



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This is only a little part of photo walls which all the Koreans who protested for independence. They do not look afraid of something but rather confident of what they were doing.
 

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If visit to the prison, what would make you shocked the most is the way how Japanese tortured prisoners (Koreans). They are unimaginable, ruthless, and inhuman.
 
I did not bring the photos of exhibitions but they are like;
 
Water Torture: a torture in which a prisoner's head was forced into water making them believe that they were being drowned.
Box Torture: a torture by putting an individual inside a box stubbed with sharp nais and shaking the box to torture him or her.
Narrow Room Torture: a torture in which a person was put in between narrow walls so that they could not sit down or stand up properly.
Fingernail Torture: a torture to induce pain by piercing a needle-like, sharp skewer beneath a prisoner's fingernails.
 
There are so many more, but could not bring all of them here.
 
 
 
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This is the way to a place of execution. I did not get the total number of execution but so many people did not get back alive after being prisoned.


(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)

(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)

It was like let the prisoner stand on the table, hang his or her neck into the rope, and clear the table under. I cannot imagine how afraid it was like which was so unfair..
 

(ST Plastic Surgery Clinic, Korea)

 
If you plan to visit to Korea and have sometime to know more about Korea, I would like to recommend to visit Seodaemun Prison. It is very valuable to experience the history of different country especially when you can actually see and feel it instead of learning from a book.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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