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March 1, 1919Primary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The March First Movement Declares Independence

Thirty-three Koreans read a declaration in a Seoul park; two million join the protests that follow

On the timeline · around March 1, 1919 · The Opening of Korea and Japanese RuleThe Opening of Korea and Japanese RuleThe March First Movement Declares Independence190019051910191519201925193019351940

Quick facts

Date
March 1, 1919
Declaration signatories
33 Korean leaders
Reading location
Pagoda Park, Seoul
Lasting legacy
Korean Provisional Government founded in Shanghai

What happened

After a decade of harsh Japanese colonial rule, 33 Korean religious and cultural leaders secretly drafted a Declaration of Independence and, on March 1, 1919, read it aloud in Seoul's Pagoda Park. It opened by asserting Korean sovereignty in universal terms: "We hereby declare that Korea is an independent state and that Korean are a self governing people. We proclaim it to the nations of the world in affirmation of the principle of the equality of all nations... on the strength of five thousand years of history as an expression of the devotion and loyalty of twenty million people." Largely peaceful demonstrations spread nationwide over the following months, drawing more than a million participants by some estimates and up to two million by others. Japanese police and military responded with force, killing thousands and arresting tens of thousands before suppressing the movement, though colonial authorities afterward allowed somewhat greater Korean cultural and political expression, short of outright independence activity.

Why it matters

The March First Movement failed to win independence but became the foundational event of modern Korean nationalism, prompting the founding of the Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai and establishing March 1 as a day both Koreas still mark as a national holiday.

How we know

The text of the Declaration of Independence survives as a primary document, translated and reprinted in Sources of Korean Tradition (Columbia University Press) and made available with historical context by Columbia's Asia for Educators program; Japanese colonial police records independently document the scale of the suppression that followed.

Sources

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