I would like to thank the organizers of this event for allowing me to apply to this scholarship, and in the process, learn more about the Korean movement for independence which is relevant not only to my family’s history but also to people all over the world.
The March 1, 1919 Independence Movement of Korea was a large-scale uprising against imperialist Japanese control. Ordinary citizens united to organize a non-violent demonstration which coincided with the funeral of the Korean King. Students drafted and put up posters of a Korean Declaration of Independence, which was read in public and followed by street demonstrations. Although the students had planned the movement to a certain degree, the popularity of the demonstration was due largely to the spontaneous participation by the largely uneducated poor.
33 people of multiple religious sects, including Christianity, Cheondoism, and Buddhism, united to sign the original work. Though Japan violently suppressed the movement with both police and military force, killing and wounding thousands, protests continued for up to 12 months after.
Those living in the direct aftermath of the movement might not have considered their uprising a victory. The March First Movement, which is referred to by Koreans as the Samil Undong, failed to immediately secure Korean independence. More than 500,000 were arrested and the inciters were severely punished. However, it was not a failure, because it inspired positive change Korean society and beyond. The movement catalyzed widespread strikes and public rallies, despite the ensuing Japanese crackdown on free speech and demonstration of a unique Korean identity.
The text was inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s idealistic ‘14 Points’ for peace, and focused specifically on the idea of self-determination, or the ability for Korea to make autonomous choices. Just as Mr. Wilson called for the “removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions”, the writers of the Korean Declaration of Independence rallied against “unjust discrimination in salaries...uncontrolled child labor and the practical enslavement of women operatives.” Furthermore, the writing of the Korean Declaration of Independence mirrors that of its American counterpart. Where Thomas Jefferson writes, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” the writers of the Korean Declaration of Independence offer, “Our action today represents the demand of our people for justice, humanity, survival, and dignity.” The writers of the Korean Declaration of Independence didn’t have access to the same meticulous institutional system of education that Wilson and Jefferson had been privy to, yet they expressed the same universal desire to better their living conditions and the conditions of those around them.
Let’s look at the revolution from a more widespread lens, starting by looking at historical cases of suffering in other cultures. It is possible to go through 12 years of public education from excellent teachers in a well-funded area and never have heard the words “Rwandan genocide” mentioned in school. I know because I have. How many of us in this room know about the Herero and Namaqua genocides in Africa, which the German government only formally apologized for in 2004? I’m not trying to put us all through a massive guilt trip; instead, I’m trying to point out that we - both as individuals and as members of a culture - have attention deficit disorder.

Specifically, my point is that suffering is nothing new; it is written in the story of human history. There is so much tragedy out there, back there, that we don’t remember and that we as society choose not to. As a direct beneficiary of the March 1st Independence Movement with the blessing of a 100 years’ foresight, I do not believe that the significance of the Samil Independence Movement lies solely in the fate and actions of the courageous men and women who risked their lives to free their country. I also do not believe that the movement’s importance lies solely in its influence on Korean history. Rather, I believe that the movement is ultimately significant because it is a testimony to the human belief that any repressed peoples will eventually find a way, seemingly against all odds, to rise. The creators of the Korean Declaration of Independence wrote, “We have arisen now.. Once started we shall surely succeed. With this hope we march forward… This we proclaim to our descendants so that they may enjoy in perpetuity their inherent right to nationhood.” They could not possibly have known that the freedom they hoped for would be delayed for another grueling 26 years, or that freedom, when it arrived, would come with its own set of problems, fracturing Korea in two and bringing a veritable Pandora’s Box of political corruption, military oversight, and class disparity which both nations, North and South, still struggle with.

To that end, however, the similarities between Wilson’s 14 Points, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, and the Korean Declaration of Independence show that although suffering is indelible in human history, so is triumph over it. Remembering history is important because only by learning from the past will we avoid making the same mistakes as our ancestors. The March 1st Movement was in part made possible because Korean patriots were inspired by historical schools of thinking from countries such as the United States. Referencing the American ideas of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, the French ideal of “liberty, equality and brotherhood”, and the international theory of self-determination of nations, the Koreans created a model uprising in the sense that the March 1st Movement united people across barriers of socioeconomic status, religion, age, and gender on the nonviolent concept of human rights.

<Madeldine Song 12th Grade Northern Valley Regional HS>