history

The Japanese imperialists enforced a harsh colonial rule and inflicted untold misfortune and sufferings on the Korean people after occupying Korea militarily in the last century. Saying that the Koreans should obey the Japanese law or die, they fabricated different kinds of repressive apparatuses and evil laws and deprived the Korean people of even their elementary right to existence.

Their pent-up grudge and rage against the Japanese imperialists erupted as a nationwide anti-Japanese resistance.

In Pyongyang thousands of young people, students and citizens gathered in the playground of Sungdok Girls’ School on Jangdae Hill on March 1, with the sound of a bell at 12:00 summoning them there. There they read aloud the “declaration of independence” and solemnly proclaimed that Korea was an independent state before holding a massive street demonstration shouting the slogans “Long live the independence of Korea!” and “Japanese and Japanese troops, go home!” As the ranks of demonstrators thronged into the street, tens of thousands of people joined them.

The March First Popular Uprising that started in Pyongyang swept across the country and rapidly spread to Northeast China, the Maritime Territory of Russia, Japan, Hawaii and other regions of the world where the Korean people lived.

In ten days from the beginning of the uprising alone, more than 3 million workers, peasants, youth and students turned out in the demonstration.

The “declaration of independence” read out across the country and the shouts of “Long live the independence of Korea!” demonstrated the will and mettle to achieve independence and the indomitable spirit of the Korean people who fought bravely in defiance of the atrocities committed by the Japanese imperialists.

Taken aback by the situation, the Japanese imperialists arrested and mercilessly killed the bare-handed demonstrators by mobilizing all the repressive forces including military police, police and fire brigades.

The cavalrymen of the Japanese aggressor forces wielded the swords to cut down the right arm of a girl student who joined a demonstration holding a flag in her right hand and cut her left arm when she held up the flag again in her left hand. But she got up again and undauntedly shouted “Long live the independence of Korea!” Then they hacked her to death by mercilessly chopping her body to pieces.

The Japanese imperialists even quartered the Korean people or cut their throats, arms and legs to death with straw cutters, saying that shooting was not “interesting” and it was too good to use swords.

Their atrocities continued even after they put down the uprising. Arguing for the elimination of the source of anti-Japanese elements from the Korean people, they arrested and killed persons related to the demonstrators. In the whole period of the uprising the number of Koreans killed by the Japanese imperialists reached over 100 000 and about 46 900 people were arrested and imprisoned from March 1 to May 31 at home alone.

The March First Popular Uprising was a historic event which demonstrated to the world the indomitable spirit of the Korean people who do not yield to others even in the face of death. At the same time it was an occasion for showing the brutal and cold-blooded nature of Japanese imperialism in the raw.