Yoon Bong-Gil
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Yun Bong-gil (21 June 1908 – 19 December 1932) was a
Korean independence activist The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which w ...
who set off a bomb that killed several Japanese dignitaries in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
's Hongkew Park (now
Lu Xun Park Lu Xun Park, formerly Hongkou (Hongkew) Park, is a municipal park in Hongkou District of Shanghai, China. It is located on 146 East Jiangwan Road, right behind Hongkou Football Stadium. It is bounded by Guangzhong Road to the north, Ouyang Road ...
) in 1932. He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Korea Medal of
Order of Merit for National Foundation The Order of Merit for National Foundation (Hangul: 건국훈장) is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for th ...
in 1962 by the South Korean government. Yun Bong-gil memorials were built in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
(
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
),
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
) and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
(
Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...
).


Early life

Yun Bong-gil was born in
Yesan County Yesan () is a county in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Famous people from Yesan include independence fighter Yoon Bong-Gil. Sudeoksa, a head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, is located on the southern slopes of Deoksung ...
in the twilight years of the
Korean Empire The Korean Empire () was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. The empire stood until Japan's annexation of Korea in August 1910. During the Korean Empire, Emperor Gojong oversaw the Gwa ...
in June 1908. He enrolled in Deoksan Elementary School in 1918, but the following year he dropped out after refusing colonial education. Also he studied in Ochi Seosuk (a village school that taught Korean and Chinese). As Korea had been made a protectorate within the
Japanese empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...
in 1905, Yun grew up in a troubled country. Local resistance grew considerably with the
annexation of Korea Annexation ( Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal ac ...
in 1910. It culminated in the 1 March Movement in 1919 that was aggressively crushed by the Japanese authorities (hundreds of protesters were massacred by the Japanese police force and army). The brutal repression that followed made many activists flee into China. In 1921, Yun began studying mathematics. By 1926 Yun had become an independence activist, starting evening classes in his home town to help educate people from rural communities about the issues. At the age of 20, he had organized a reading club and published several pamphlets. In 1928, he had become involved in several rural social movements, which were known as "farmers' enlightenment and reading societies". Yun wrote a textbook called ''Farmers Readers''. It was used at evening classes to teach literacy to poor young adults who could not attend school in rural areas. He also founded a group called "Re-invigoration" to promote the revival of farming villages. After successfully organizing a well-attended rural cultural festival in which he performed a sketch entitled "''The Rabbit and the Fox''", he came to the attention of the ''
Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu The , often abbreviated , was a Japanese policing organization, established within the Home Ministry in 1911, for the purpose of carrying out high policing, domestic criminal investigations, and control of political groups and ideologies deemed ...
'', the Japanese
Secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of ...
in Korea tasked with investigating people and political groups that might threaten the Empire of Japan. Despite the surveillance, Yun continued his activities and was appointed chairman of a Farmers' Association. Promoted through the Suam Sports Council to improve the health of farmers, he also created rural sports clubs because he believed that rural development and the spirit of national independence could be achieved through having a healthy mind and body. In the 1930s, Yun decided to enter the independence movement in earnest and moved to Manchuria. At first, he tried to become an independent army, but at that time, Manchuria's independence forces were divided into several branches and suffered a period of stagnation. In response, Yun went to Shanghai, where the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea is located.


China

After being briefly arrested and sent to prison, Yun fled to Manchuria. In a letter he left behind he wrote: "I will not return home alive with the belief that I must die for my country and do something big". In China he met fellow activists Kim Tae-sik and Han Il-jin from the
Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Empire of Japan, Japan. After the Japanese Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance pe ...
. Yun headed for Shanghai, judging that he would be able to push for a successful independence movement only if he went directly to the
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea The Korean Provisional Government (KPG), formally the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, was a partially recognized Korean government-in-exile based in Shanghai, China, and later in Chongqing, during the period of Japanese c ...
. He travelled alone through Dalian, south of the Liaodong Peninsula, to Qingdao, Shandong Province where he worked at a factory run by Park Jin, a Korean businessman, to save money. In August 1931, he finally arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the home of
An Jung-geun Ahn Jung-geun, sometimes spelled Ahn Joong-keun (; 2 September 1879 – 26 March 1910; baptismal name: Thomas Ahn ), was a Korean-independence activist, nationalist, and pan-Asianist. He is famous for assassination of Itō Hirobumi, the first ...
in the
French quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Sq ...
. Yun also studied English at the Shanghai English School. He visited
Kim Gu Kim Gu (, ; August 29, 1876 – June 26, 1949), also known by his pen name Baekbeom (백범; ), was a Korean statesman. He was the sixth, ninth, and president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea; a leader of the Korean indepen ...
, the leader of Korea's government-in-exile pledging to work for the independence of Korea.


Hongkew Park Bombing

On 29 April 1932, Yun took a bomb disguised as a water bottle to a celebration arranged by the
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
(IJA) in honor of Emperor Hirohito's birthday at Hongkew Park, Shanghai (one contemporary news report states Yun threw a hand grenade but they also say he was killed at the scene). The bomb killed the government minister for Japanese residents in Shanghai, , and mortally wounded General
Yoshinori Shirakawa was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. Biography Early life and education Shirakawa was born as the third son of an ex-''samurai'' of Matsuyama Domain in Iyo, Ehime, Shikoku. He attended Matsuyama Middle School, but was forced to leave w ...
, who died of his injuries on 26 May 1932. Among the seriously injured were Lieutenant General
Kenkichi Ueda was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He played an active role in the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars of the late 1930s. Biography Born in Osaka prefecture, Ueda attended the predecessor of Hitotsubashi U ...
, the commander of the 9th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, and
Mamoru Shigemitsu was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs three times during and after World War II as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Japan. As civilian plenipotentiary representing the J ...
, Japanese Envoy in Shanghai, who each lost a leg, and IJN Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura who lost an eye. The Japanese Consul-General in Shanghai, , was seriously injured in the head and body. Yun then tried to kill himself by detonating a second bomb disguised in a
bento box A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, as r ...
. It did not explode and he was arrested at the scene. ''
The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...
'' reported that:
The Japanese National Anthem was being played, when a youth was seen to step forward and place a cylinder on the front of the dais and then dart backwards. A dull explosion immediately followed, but it attracted so little attention that the music continued playing. ..others were seen to collapse wounded and bleeding, while soldiers seized the youth and battered him. Subsequently, another bomb of the same pattern was found near the dais unexploded."
After being convicted by a Japanese military court in Shanghai on 25 May, he was transferred to
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
prison on 18 November. He was then moved to
Kanazawa, Ishikawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...
: the headquarters of the IJA's 9th Division. Yun was executed by
firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...
on 19 December. His body was buried i
Nodayama cemetery
in Kanazawa. The then-President of the Chinese Republic,
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
of the
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
government, praised Yun's actions, stating he was "a young Korean patriot who has accomplished something tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers could not do". However the future
South Korean president The president of the Republic of Korea (), also known as the president of South Korea (often abbreviated to POTROK or POSK; ), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Korea. The president leads the State Council, and is ...
,
Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...
, disapproved of the incident and Kim Gu's strategy of assassinations as a means to achieve independence because the Japanese could use such attacks to justify their oppression in Korea.


Legacy


Funeral and honours

In May 1946, Korean residents in Japan exhumed Yun's remains from Nodayama cemetery. After being transferred to
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, they were given Korean funeral rites and reburied in the
Korean National Cemetery The Seoul National Cemetery () is located in Dongjak-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea. The cemetery is reserved for Korean veterans, including those who died in the Korean independence movement, Korean War, and Vietnam War. Four South Korea ...
. On 1 March 1962, the
South Korean government The Government of South Korea is the union government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and is the ...
posthumously bestowed on him the Republic of Korea Cordon (the highest honor) of the
Order of Merit for National Foundation The Order of Merit for National Foundation (Hangul: 건국훈장) is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for th ...
. On 27 March 1968, Chiang Kai-shek, the president of
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
in exile in Taiwan, wrote a prose to applaud Yun's action at the request of Yun's biographer, which was not revealed until 18 Dec 2013.


Memorials

Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall was built in commemoration of the 55th anniversary of his death. It is located in Yangjae Citizen's Forest,
Seocho-gu Seocho District () is one of the 25 '' gu'' (local government districts) which make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Seocho is generally referred to as a part of Greater Gangnam Area, along with Gangnam District. As of 2022, Seocho District ...
,
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
Yangjaedong. Second name of
Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station Yangjae Citizen's Forest (Maeheon) Station is a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Seoul Metropolitan Subway's Shinbundang Line. It opened on October 28, 2011. The subway station appears in episode 1 of the Netflix TV show Squid Game where t ...
is 'Maeheon' which is named after his pen name. There is also a memorial hall called the Plum Pavilion in
Lu Xun Park Lu Xun Park, formerly Hongkou (Hongkew) Park, is a municipal park in Hongkou District of Shanghai, China. It is located on 146 East Jiangwan Road, right behind Hongkou Football Stadium. It is bounded by Guangzhong Road to the north, Ouyang Road ...
,
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
where the bomb throwing incident happened. In
Kanazawa, Ishikawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...
, Japan, a monument was built on the site where Yun Bong-gil was buried after being executed by the Imperial Japanese Army.


Modern re-evaluation

Today it is a sensitive issue in South Korea to discuss whether Yun's bombing attack in 1932 would be have been considered as terrorism in the modern context. In 2007, Anders Karlsson, a visiting Swedish scholar from
SOAS, University of London SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
, compared Yun Bong-gil and Kim Gu to terrorists in his lecture on Korean history. His comparison provoked strong criticism from the newspaper ''
JoongAng Ilbo ''The JoongAng'', formally known as ''JoongAng Ilbo'', is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also pub ...
''. Prof. Jeong Byeong-jun, interviewed by ''JoongAng Ilbo'', dismissed Karlsson's description as the "view of Westerners". Later, he explained his purpose was to highlight "how the implications of the 'terrorism' have changed over the course of the past century". In 2013,
Tessa Morris-Suzuki Tessa Morris-Suzuki (born 29 October 1951 in England), born as Tessa Morris, is a historian of modern Japan and North Korea. She is Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian Nation ...
, an English historian and professor at
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
, concurred with Karlsson's explanation and wrote in her academic article, "If we accept the literal dictionary definition of the term terrorists as partisan, member of a resistance organization or guerrilla force using acts of violence then Yoo was self-evidently a terrorist." On the other hand, at the "International Research Conference in Memory of the 70th Anniversary of Yun Bong-gil & Lee Bong-chang's Patriotic Acts", held on 29 April 2002 in Shanghai, some scholars present pointed out that Yun's patriotic acts have distinct differences from modern day terrorism, which targets civilians. Yun only attacked the Japanese top military and political officials attending the event, and no other civilians were hurt by the bombing. To protect civilians, Yun waited until all the diplomats had left the scene.


In popular culture

Yun is played by Lee Kang-min in the 2019 television series ''
Different Dreams ''Different Dreams '' () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Lee Yo-won, Yoo Ji-tae, Lim Ju-hwan and Nam Gyu-ri. It aired four episodes every Saturday on MBC TV from 20:45 to 23:10 ( KST), from May 4 to July 13, 2019. The series ...
''.


See also

*
Korea under Japanese rule Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...
*
Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Empire of Japan, Japan. After the Japanese Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance pe ...
*
Lee Bong-chang Lee Bong-chang (August 10, 1900 – October 10, 1932) was a Korean independence activist during the Japanese occupation of Korea. In 1932, he attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate Japanese emperor Hirohito with a hand grenade, which became known ...
* Sakuradamon Incident (1932) *
Assassination attempts on Hirohito During the 1920s and 1930s, there were three known assassination attempts on Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan. The assailants were all either Korean or Japanese. Assassination attempts on Hirohito took place throughout his reign as Prince regent, a ...


References


External links


Website devoted to Yun Bong-gilYun Bong-gil SiteExecution of Yun Bong-gil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yun, Bong-gil 1908 births 1932 deaths Korean assassins Korean independence activists Nationalist assassins Executed assassins 20th-century executions by Japan People executed by Japan by firing squad Recipients of the Order of Merit for National Foundation Papyeong Yun clan