March 1st Movement

The March 1st Movement, also known as the Sam-il (3-1) Movement (Korean: 3·1 운동), was a significant protest movement in early 1919 by Korean people that called for independence from Imperial Japan and a stop to the forced assimilation into Japanese culture. It is also sometimes referred to as the Man-se Demonstrations (Korean: 만세운동; Hanja: 萬歲運動; lit. Ten-thousand Year Movement). It is remembered as one of the earliest and largest protest movements for Korean independence, and remembered as a catalyst for future independence activities. Thirty-three Korean cultural and religious leaders issued a proclamation, supported by thousands of students and civilians in Seoul. There were over 1,000 demonstrations in many other cities. These were brutally suppressed, with Korean historian Park Eun-sik reporting about 7,500 killed and 16,000 wounded, and 46,000 arrested.

March 1st Movement

March 1st Movement
Samil Movement

Man-se Demonstrations

Marks one of the first public displays of Korean resistance during the Japanese occupation of Korea

March 1, national holiday in South Korea since 1949

March 1, 1919

3·1 운동

三一運動

Samil Undong

Korea eventually achieved independence decades later after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II. Today, March 1st is celebrated as a national holiday in South Korea, but not in North Korea.^[1]

Discrimination by the government when employing Koreans versus Japanese people; they claimed that no Koreans held important positions in the government.

A disparity in the quality of education being offered to Korean and Japanese people.

Mistreatment and open disregard of Koreans by the Japanese occupiers.

Political officials, both Korean and Japanese, were arrogant.

No special treatment for the Korean upper class or scholars.

The administrative processes were too complicated and new laws were passed too frequently for the general public to follow.

Too much forced labor that was not desired by the public.

Taxes were too heavy and the Korean people were paying more than before, while getting the same amount of services.

Land continued to be confiscated by the Japanese people for personal reasons.

Korean village teachers were being forced out of their jobs because the Japanese were trying to suppress Korean culture and teachings.

Korea's resources and labor had been exploited for the benefit for the Japanese. They argued that while Koreans were working towards development, they did not reap the benefits of their own work.

At 2 p.m. on March 1, 1919, 33 activists who formed the core of the Samil Movement convened at the Taehwagwan restaurant in Seoul. There, they read out loud the Korean Declaration of Independence, which had been written up by historian Choe Nam-seon. The activists initially planned to assemble at Tapgol Park in downtown Seoul, but chose a more private location out of fear that the gathering might turn into a riot. The leaders of the movement signed the document and sent a copy to the Governor General.

The movement leaders telephoned the central police station to inform them of their actions and were publicly arrested afterwards.

Before the formal declaration, Korea also published and broadcast the following complaints, in order to be heard by the Japanese people through papers and media:

These grievances were highly influenced by Wilson's declaration of the principle of self determination as outlined in his "Fourteen Points" speech.^[5]

Native name

3ㆍ1운동 및 대한민국임시정부 수립 100주년 기념사업

February 6, 2018 – June 30, 2020 (2018-02-06 – 2020-06-30)

South Korea

100th Anniversary of the March 1st Movement and the establishment of Korean Provisional Government

Government of South Korea
The Presidential Commission on Centennial Anniversary of March 1st Independence Movement and Korean Provisional Government(2018-2020)

History of Korea

Korean independence movement

in China

May Fourth Movement

Yu Gwan-sun

Refrain club

National Liberation Day of Korea

Baldwin, Frank (1972). The March First Movement: Korean Challenge and Japanese Response. Columbia University Press.

Cumings, Bruce (1997). Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New York: W.N. Norton and Company.

Han, Woo-keun (1988). The History of Korea. U of Hawaii Press.

Hart, Dennis. "Remembering the nation: construction of the March First movement in North and South Korean history textbooks" Review of Korean Studies (Seoul) 4, no. 1 (June 2001) pp. 35–59, historiography

Kim, Juhea (2021). Beasts of a Little Land. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 117–131. 9780063093577.

ISBN

Ko, Seung Kyun. The March First Movement: A Study of the Rise of Korean Nationalism under the Japanese Colonialism Koreana Quarterly: A Korean Affairs Review (Seoul) 14, no. 1–2 (1972) pp. 14–33.

Ku, Dae-yeol. Korea Under Colonialism: The March First Movement and Anglo-Japanese Relations (Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul, 1985)

online review

Kwon, Tae-eok. "Imperial Japan's 'civilization' rule in the 1910s and Korean sentiments: the causes of the national-scale dissemination of the March First Movement" Journal of Northeast Asian History 15#1 (Win 2018) pp. 113–142.

Lee, Timothy S. "A political factor in the rise of Protestantism in Korea: Protestantism and the 1919 March First Movement." Church History 69.1 (2000): 116–142.

online

Palmer, Brandon. "The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support." Korea Journal (2020), 60#4 pp 194–216

Shin, Michael (2018). Korean national identity under Japanese colonial rule: Yi Gwangsu and the March First Movement of 1919. Routledge.

Wells, Kenneth M. "Background to the March First Movement: Koreans in Japan, 1905–1919." Korean Studies 13.1 (1989): 5–21.

March 1st Movement