The Korean Independence Movement A Movement Unfulfilled A IV Dan Thesis by Jonathan Kirk Lusty A Pattern in the Taekwon-Do Patterns “At the age of twelve1, [Choi Hong Hi] was expelled from school for agitating against the Japanese authorities who were in control of Korea. This was the beginning of what would be a long association with the Kwang Ju Students’ Independence Movement . With the outbreak of World War II, [he] was forced to enlist with the Japanese army through no volition of his own. While at his post in Pyongyang, North Korea, [he] was implicated as the planner of the Korean Independence Movement known as the Pyongyang Student Soldiers’ Movement, and interned at a Japanese prison . .”2 These two quotes, though brief, demonstrate the powerful patriotism which motivated General and Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi even through his youth—a dedication to work for his nation’s independence. Despite the threat of state-sanctioned torture, hard labor, and even death, he was a steadfast partisan of the larger Korean Independence Movement. Little wonder then that, of the twenty-five patterns which the Yom-Chi Taekwon-Do Association practices (consisting of the twenty-four traditional Chang-Hon style patterns, in addition to the “revered” pattern Ko-Dang originally taught by General and Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi), four make explicit reference to the Korean Independence Movement in their pattern histories, and three make implicit reference to it. The third Chang-Hon pattern, Do-San, is the first pattern to make this explicit reference. In the Yom-Chi Taekwon-Do Association Gup Handbook (page 29), the history is given thusly: “Do-San is the pseudonym of the patriot Ahn Chang-Ho (1876-1938). The 24 movements represent his entire life, which he devoted to furthering the education of Korea and its independence movement.”3 The significance of this chronology should be further underlined; the first pattern (Chon-Ji) symbolizes the creation of the world, the second (Dan-Gun) alludes to the legendary founding of Korea, and then the third pattern which a student of Taekwon-Do learns commemorates a patriot of Korea’s struggle for independence from Japan. This suggests that, in the mind of the General, only the creation of the world and the birth of the Korean people precede the Independence Movement in terms of importance to the history of Korea. 1 This would be in the year 1930. 2 Park Sung Hwa so informs us in his brief biography of General and Grandmaster Choi Hong Hi on page 747 of the latter’s encyclopedia: Taekwon-Do (The Korean Art of Self-Defense). 3 This also serves to underscore the importance of education to the General, implying by the order of the words that the independence of Korea follows after its education. Page 1 Similarly, in the Yom-Chi Taekwon-Do Association Black Belt Handbook (page 19), pattern Ui-Am’s history is given thusly: “Ui-Am is the pseudonym of Son Byong-Hi, leader of the Korean Independence Movement on March 1, 1919 . .”. This is, incidentally, corroborated by the English translation of “The Proclamation of Korean Independence” which F.A. McKenzie includes in his contemporaneous account of events, Korea’s Fight for Freedom (Against Japan) Part 3, which he published in 1920; the very first of the 33 “representatives of the people” to sign the document is listed as “Son Pyung-hi”, an alternate Anglicized rendering of Son Byong-Hi. The Pattern Ko-Dang is similarly commemorative. The Black Belt Handbook (page 30) declares that “Ko-Dang is the pseudonym of the patriot Cho Man-Sik, who dedicated his life to the Independence Movement and the education of his people . .” Finally, the history of Sam-Il makes the most explicit of these historical references. On page 38, one reads that “Sam-Il denotes the historical date of the Independence Movement of Korea, which began throughout the country on March 1, 1919. The 33 movements in this pattern represent the 33 patriots who planned the movement.” Its name, therefore, literally signifies the date (“third [month] first [day]”) on which “The Proclamation of Korean Independence” was signed and circulated among the people. The Fourth of July presents an easy cultural equivalent for Americans, as the very words “Fourth of July” have come to signify much the same concept in the United States as do the words “Sam-Il” in Korea: freedom and national independence. Regarding the implicit references to the Korean Independence Movement, “The pattern Jung-Gun,” (according to the Gup Handbook, page 54) , “is named after the patriot Ahn Jung- Gun, who assassinated Hiro-Bumi Ito, the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea. Ito was known as the man who played the leading part in the Korea-Japanese merger . .” The historical importance of “Hiro-Bumi Ito” (also rendered as “Ito Hirobumi”) will be discussed in greater detail later in this paper, but, in brief, his administration (1906-1909) as “Governor-General” (or “Residency General” as it is sometimes rendered) served to cement Japanese political and military control of the Korean government by 1907. According to Professor Kyung Moon Hwang in A History of Korea (page 154) “for all intents and purposes, the 1910 annexation treaty merely formalized the Japanese political control over Korea that had been completed [by Ito Hirobumi] in 1907.” For this reason, though the 1909 assassination of Ito may have preceded the inaugural “Sam-Il” date by a decade, it was a symbolic strike against Japanese imperialism— a strike for the developing movement for Korean independence. Pattern Juch’e, in the Black Belt Handbook on page 27, represents “a philosophical idea” defined by the General as meaning “that man is the master of everything and decides everything. In other words, it is the idea that man is the master of the world and his own destiny. It is said that this idea was rooted in Baekdu Mountain, which symbolizes the spirit of the Korean people.” As this “philosophical idea” of self-determination is “rooted” in a mountain which symbolizes “the spirit of the Korean people”, it can be inferred that the General views this self-determination as inherent to the spirit of the Korean people. How can such be actualized, however, if the Page 2 Korean people are not free from—are not independent of—a foreign power such as Japan (or any other foreign power)? The very idea necessitates national autonomy, and therefore alludes to the Korean Independence Movement which sought to actualize that very self-determination on a national scale. The last pattern to make an implicit reference to the Korean Independence Movement is Tong-Il, the final pattern authored by the General. On page 56 of the Black Belt Handbook, one reads that “Tong-Il denotes the resolution of the unification of Korea, which has been divided since 1945. The diagram for this pattern symbolizes the homogenous race.” One might well wonder how a pattern which specifically mentions the year that Japanese colonial rule ended could refer to its independence movement, for is that not the realization of independence? The tone of the pattern history—a resolution to unify a country divided—suggests otherwise, however. One must remember that 1945 also marks the beginning of “Soviet occupation in the north and American occupation in the south” of Korea (A History of Korea, page 194), and that “freedom from Japan did not mean freedom from foreign rule” (page 196). Though the American occupation has since ended, leaving the Republic of Korea (or “South Korea”) a prosperous and finally independent nation founded on democratic-republican principles, the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“North Korea”) is figuratively still subject to the oppressive communistic principles of Soviet rule. A fascist, militarized system of government perpetuates the autocratic rule of dictator Kim Jung-Un to this day (in 2014), meaning that half the Korean peninsula remains to be liberated. Doubtless, the General was resolved that his Taekwon-Do movement serve to unify the people of North and South Korea (both equally Korean—both equally members of “the homogenous race”) together in a single, liberated, and finally independent nation. In essence, therefore, Tong-Il’s existence implicitly asserts that the Korean Independence Movement remains unfulfilled. To summarize, fully seven out of twenty-five patterns (or more than one in four) concern the Korean Independence Movement; the General clearly considers it of the utmost importance. Yet relatively little has been written about it in a Taekwon-Do context. Though the subject could (and perhaps should) fill multiple academic volumes, this brief composition will attempt to outline the major events which defined it, and to summarize their ramifications. From Kingdom, to Empire, to Japanese Province Prior to the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, the Korean peninsula played a key geopolitical role between two larger and militarily more powerful nations: China and Japan. McKenzie summarizes this role (in the section “Opening the Oyster” of Korea’s Fight for Freedom (against Japan) Part 1) by saying “Unhappily, it was placed as a buffer zone between two states: China, ready to absorb it, and Japan, keen to conquer its people as a preliminary triumph over China.” After an attempted invasion in 1582, Korea “appealed to China for aid, and Page 3 after terrible fighting, the Japanese were driven back.” From this point forward, for over three centuries, a tenuous protectorate status existed between China and Korea—a protection for the smaller kingdom (sometimes called the Joseon Dynasty, ruled over by the House of Yi) against further Japanese incursions. However, it also served to largely sever trade and contact with the outside world.