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March 1st Movement
03/01/07
My Teeth!
03/02/07
Blue Belt Test
03/24/07
Jeju Loveland
03/28/07
       

Tomla Mok Sok Won
03/28/07		      

March 1st Movement
March 01, 2007

Today Jin told me a little bit about Korean history and why today was an important day.  During the Japanese occupation of Korea, March 1, 1919 marked a major step forward toward Korea's liberty from them.  It was on this day that Korean leaders made public their Proclamation of Korean Independence and numerous students and other people marched in Seoul to defy the Japanese occupiers.  The proclamation was read around the country where numerous other protests took place as well.  March 1st is now a national holiday.

The below excerpts were found here: March 1st Movement

According to reports issued by the Korean Yon-Hap news agency, the crowd was fired upon by the officers and "…more than 7,500 demonstrators were killed and about 16,000 wounded. Some 47,000 others were arrested by the Japanese police".

By the end of the months of protests, Japanese officials declared that 553 people were killed with over 12,000 arrested. However, Korean and most neutral sources counted 7,500 killed and 45,000 arrested.

Before the Japanese finally suppressed the movement twelve months later, approximately 2,000,000 Koreans had participated in the more than 1,500 demonstrations.

Here are a few more interesting links:

The Samil (March First) Independence Movement

Japanese Atrocities during the March First Movement (1919.3.1)

March 1st Independence Struggle

Proclamation of Korean Independence

What I learned today about Korea:  1) Japan was not very nice back in the day.