The Birth of the Republic of Korea — 4-part series

• Part 1: Losing a Nation, Building a Nation (1897–1945) (current)
• Part 2: The Joy of Liberation and the Shadow of Division (1945–1947)
• Part 3: The Establishment of Government and the Tragedy of Jeju 4.3 (1948)
• Part 4: Success and Forgotten Voices

The Birth of the Republic of Korea, Part 1: Losing a Nation, Building a Nation (1897–1945)

On the night of November 17, 1905, a meeting was held at Jungmyeongjeon Hall in Deoksugung Palace, Seoul. Japanese envoy Itō Hirobumi placed a draft treaty before the ministers of the Korean Empire — a document that would hand over Korea’s diplomatic sovereignty to Japan. Emperor Gojong refused to the very end. But outside the meeting room, Japanese troops stood ready with artillery. Only after 1 a.m. was the seal affixed by force. This treaty would later be known as the Eulsa Treaty, or the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905. It was a treaty made at gunpoint, without the emperor’s ratification.^[1]

Forty years later, on August 15, 1945, the voice of the Japanese Emperor crackled over the radio — a declaration of unconditional surrender. On the streets of the Korean Peninsula, people poured out of their homes. It was liberation, thirty-six years in the making.

Yet this liberation was not simply the result of Japan losing a war. From the day the nation was lost to the day it was recovered, there were those who never stopped calling for independence — across the plains of Manchuria, in the alleyways of Shanghai, inside torture chambers and prison cells. Their stories form the true roots of the birth of the Republic of Korea.

The Proclamation of an Empire, and a Solitary Struggle (1897–1905)

On October 12, 1897, a ceremony was held at Hwangudan Altar, south of Seoul. Emperor Gojong offered sacrifices to heaven and ascended the imperial throne. He renamed the country the Korean Empire and proclaimed the era name Gwangmu. It was an announcement to the world that Joseon was an independent imperial state.^[2]

This proclamation carried within it a desperate awareness of reality. In 1894, China’s defeat by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War had transformed the balance of power in East Asia. The Chinese-centered order that had long governed the region collapsed, and Japan expanded rapidly in its wake. In 1895, Japan assassinated Queen Myeongseong, and Gojong sought refuge in the Russian legation the following year. The proclamation of the Korean Empire was, amid this crisis, a declaration of intent to build a sovereign modern state.^[2]

During the Gwangmu era, a number of genuine modernizing reforms were carried out: a national land survey, the establishment of modern schools and hospitals, and the construction of railways. But the imbalance of power had already grown too wide. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and the Korean Peninsula became both a battlefield and a supply route for Japan. With Japan’s victory, the fate of the Korean Empire was effectively sealed.

When the Eulsa Treaty of 1905 stripped Korea of its diplomatic rights, the Korean Empire became a state in name only. Japan’s Residency-General seized actual governing authority.^[1]

A Final Plea: The Hague Secret Emissaries (1907)

Emperor Gojong did not give up. In 1907, he learned that the Second International Peace Conference was to be held in The Hague, Netherlands — a gathering of diplomats from around the world. He secretly dispatched three emissaries: Yi Sang-seol, Yi Jun, and Yi Wi-jong. Their mission was to expose the illegality of the Eulsa Treaty to the world and seek the support of the great powers for Korea’s restoration of sovereignty.^[3]

But the doors of the conference hall did not open. Japan’s pressure resulted in the emissaries being refused entry to the proceedings. Emissary Yi Jun died in The Hague. Yi Wi-jong read aloud “Korea’s Appeal” before assembled journalists and pleaded desperately — but the great powers did not respond.^[3]

The outcome of the Hague mission was paradoxical. Japan used the incident as a pretext to force Emperor Gojong to abdicate. Japan then dissolved the Korean military as well. An attempt to make one last appeal to the international community had instead hastened the dismantling of the state. At the same time, the incident became a turning point that showed which direction the independence movement needed to go when diplomatic efforts had been utterly exhausted.

The Annexation: The Day the Nation Disappeared (1910)

On August 22, 1910, the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty was signed. It was promulgated on August 29. On that day, the Korean Empire formally ceased to exist. This date is known as Gyeongsuljukchi — the day of national humiliation, the day the country was lost.^[4]

From the day after the treaty was signed, the Japanese Government-General of Korea was established. The first Governor-General, Terauchi Masatake, implemented rule by military police and force. Newspapers were shuttered and public assembly was banned. Korean subjects had no right to receive equal treatment before the courts as Japanese nationals. In education, the use of the Korean language began to be restricted.^[4]

Yet even though the nation had disappeared, resistance did not.

The March First Movement: Two Million Voices Breaking the Silence (1919)

On March 1, 1919, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud at Tapgol Park in Seoul. The declaration bore the signatures of thirty-three national representatives. From that day, rallies and protests calling for independence spread across the country.^[5]

The movement spread organically — from cities to rural areas, from students to farmers, from men to women. Over three months, approximately 2.02 million people took part. Records indicate 7,509 dead, 15,961 injured, and 46,948 arrested.^[5]

This was not simply a demonstration. It was an eruption of accumulated rage and longing after nearly ten years of rule by military force. Yu Gwan-sun, in particular, led independence rallies at Aunae Marketplace, was arrested, and died in Seodaemun Prison under torture. She was sixteen years old when she was arrested.^[5]

The March First Movement might appear to outside observers as a “failed movement” — after all, independence was not achieved. Yet it produced two decisive outcomes. First, Japan was compelled to shift from outright military rule to the so-called “Cultural Policy.” Second, the independence movement now needed a new organizing center, and that need gave rise to the Provisional Government.

A Republic in Shanghai: The Establishment of the Provisional Government (1919)

On April 11, 1919, roughly a month after the March First Movement, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established in the French Concession of Shanghai, China.^[6]

The first article of the Provisional Charter adopted that day was brief but revolutionary: “The Republic of Korea shall be governed as a democratic republic.” It was a repudiation of centuries of dynastic rule and a proclamation of a republic in which the people are sovereign. In that moment, the subjects of the Joseon dynasty were reborn as citizens of the Republic of Korea.^[6]

The Provisional Government operated with an office in Shanghai, but faced difficulties from the outset. The yeontongie — the network of communications with the homeland — was dismantled by Japanese police, and funding was always precarious. Personnel were limited as well. Yet the Provisional Government endured for twenty-six years, serving as the symbolic center that affirmed Korea’s status as an independent state.

Independence on the Battlefield: Bongodong and Cheongsan-ri (1920)

While the Provisional Government served as the axis of diplomacy and governance, armed struggle was underway in Manchuria and Siberia.

In June 1920, the Korean Independence Army led by Hong Beom-do won a major victory against regular Japanese forces at Bongodong, Manchuria. In October of the same year, the Northern Route Military Command led by Kim Jwa-jin and Hong Beom-do’s forces joined together in the Cheongsan-ri area and fought a series of more than ten battles over six days against the Japanese military. This is known as the Battle of Cheongsan-ri — recorded as the most notable engagement in which independence fighters defeated regular Japanese forces on a large scale.^[7]

Japan, however, retaliated by conducting a mass massacre of Korean civilians in the Gando region. In this incident — known as the Gyeongsin Massacre — thousands of civilians were killed. The price of the war for independence was not paid by soldiers alone.^[7]

The Heroic Corps and Direct Action (1919–1930s)

During the same period, resistance continued through other means at home and abroad. In November 1919, the Heroic Corps (Uiyeoldan) was formed, centered on Kim Won-bong. The Heroic Corps chose to directly attack key institutions and figures of Japanese colonial rule — the Government-General of Korea, police stations, and the Oriental Development Company were among their targets.^[8]

In 1932, bold acts of resistance also came from the Korean Patriots’ Corps under the Provisional Government. In January, Lee Bong-chang hurled a bomb at the Japanese Emperor in Tokyo. In April, Yun Bong-gil threw a bomb into a Japanese military victory celebration at Hongkou Park in Shanghai, killing the Japanese commander and several senior officials.^[9]

Yun Bong-gil’s act greatly elevated the standing of the Provisional Government. There is a record of Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek saying, “What one million Chinese troops could not accomplish, a single young Korean achieved.” Following this, concrete support from the Chinese Nationalist government for the Provisional Government began to materialize.^[9]

Resistance at Home: Preserving Language and Culture

Battlefields and places of exile were not the only arenas of the independence movement. Within Korea, resistance was carried out through language and culture.

The Korean Language Society (Joseoneo Hakhoe) was founded in 1921. The society worked to research and promote Hangul. In 1933, it established the Unified Korean Orthography, and began work on compiling a Korean dictionary. As Japan moved to reduce and ultimately ban Korean-language education, preserving the language was tantamount to preserving the identity of the Korean people.^[10]

In 1942, the Japanese colonial authorities designated these activities as “a national independence movement” and arrested a large number of the society’s members. This was the Korean Language Society Incident. Many scholars were tortured, and two — Yi Yun-jae and Han Jing — died in prison.^[10]

Writing, and compiling a dictionary, was also an act of independence.

The Provisional Government in Chongqing and the Korean Liberation Army (1940–1945)

As Japan’s invasion of China intensified, the Provisional Government was forced to leave Shanghai and move from city to city: Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Changsha, Guangzhou, Liuzhou — before finally settling in Chongqing in 1940.

The Chongqing period saw the Provisional Government’s most important military organization take shape. On September 17, 1940, the Korean Liberation Army (Han’guk Gwangbokgun) was established, providing a formal military structure with the cooperation of the Chinese Nationalist government. When the Pacific War began in December 1941, the Provisional Government immediately issued a declaration of war against Japan.^[11]

The Korean Liberation Army conducted joint operations with the Allied forces. Units were dispatched to the India–Burma front to operate alongside British forces, and collaboration with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) led to preparations for an operation to advance into Korea. Though Japan’s August 1945 surrender prevented the plan from being carried out, the Liberation Army demonstrated that the Provisional Government was not merely a government-in-exile but a resistance force with genuine military capacity.^[11]

Global Context: Other Independence Movements of the Same Era

While Korea’s independence movement continued, similar struggles were unfolding around the world.

In India, Gandhi was leading the non-violent non-cooperation movement. In 1919 — the same year as the March First Movement — the Amritsar Massacre occurred in India, as British troops shot and killed hundreds of civilians gathered at a public assembly. The incident ignited the Indian independence movement. Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam also submitted a petition calling for national self-determination to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, only to be ignored. In Indonesia, the independence movement led by Sukarno began in earnest in the 1920s.^[12]

The distinctive quality of Korea’s independence movement lay in the form of the Provisional Government. The fact that the political forces fighting for independence maintained not merely a resistance organization but a governmental structure with legislative, executive, and judicial functions sets it apart from other colonial independence movements. This would later become the legal foundation linking the Provisional Government to the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea.

Liberation: An External Opportunity, an Internal Readiness (1945)

After 1944, Japan’s military situation deteriorated rapidly. The firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 killed tens of thousands of civilians. In June, Okinawa fell. Japan faced imminent invasion of the home islands.

On August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, a second atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki. On the same day, the Soviet Union voided the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, declared war on Japan, and invaded Manchuria. These two shocks determined Japan’s surrender.^[13]

At noon on August 15, the voice of Emperor Shōwa was broadcast over the radio — an acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, in effect an unconditional surrender.

Yet one thing must be stated clearly here. The explanation that the atomic bomb brought Japan to its knees, and that this alone brought liberation, is only half the truth.

After losing the country in 1910, some gave up hope of independence. But others did not. Those who were shot and imprisoned during the March First Movement, the independence fighters who endured bitter cold on the plains of Manchuria, those who kept the doors of the Provisional Government open while being driven from Shanghai to Chongqing, scholars who died in prison while compiling a Korean dictionary, those who perished without recognition inside prisons in Seoul and Pyongyang.

Because they, for twenty-six years, unceasingly asserted that “the Republic of Korea is an independent nation and sovereignty belongs to the people,” when the opportunity of 1945 came, there existed the historical foundation and political forces capable of seizing that opportunity.^[14]

Had the Provisional Government not existed — had those twenty-six years not existed — the liberation of 1945 would simply have been “a vacuum on the territory Japan was defeated in, with no history of sovereignty.” The struggle of the independence fighters was precisely the act of refusing to allow that vacuum to form.

The Lineage of Legitimacy: From the Provisional Government to the Republic of Korea

The preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea contains this passage: “…continuing the traditions of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea founded through the March First Independence Movement, and the democratic ideals of the April Nineteenth Uprising against injustice…” This provision was first explicitly enshrined in the constitution during the ninth amendment of 1987.^[15]

What does this passage mean? It is a declaration that the roots of the Republic of Korea lie not in the date of the government’s establishment on August 15, 1948, but in the March First Movement of 1919 and the Provisional Government. It means that the thirty-five years during which the country was lost were not, legally or historically, a “void” — that throughout that time, the Republic of Korea continued to exist.

Of course, scholars hold differing interpretations regarding the Provisional Government’s claim to legal succession. The limitation that the Provisional Government did not actually exercise governing authority within Korea is also clear. But regardless of interpretation, it is difficult to deny that the independence movement from 1919 to 1945 was an indispensable foundation for the birth of the Republic of Korea in 1948.^[15]

On the Threshold of Liberation

On August 15, 1945, people flooded the streets of Seoul. Some wept; some waved the Taegukgi. They were people who had been born after 1910 and had never once lived in an independent country.

Yet the joy of liberation did not last long. Already, the United States was preparing to occupy the south and the Soviet Union the north, divided along the 38th parallel. The Provisional Government had not yet returned home. It appeared as though the country had been reclaimed — but the shape that country would take had not yet been determined.

The liberation that arrived after thirty-five years of struggle was, at the same time, the beginning of a new struggle. That story continues in Part 2.

Next: Part 2: The Joy of Liberation and the Shadow of Division (1945–1947)