Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Faces behind Korea's road to liberation in spotlight
A surveillance dossier on Korean independence activist Yu Gwan-sun, kept by the Japanese colonial authorities / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea
By Park Han-sol
Behind Korea’s decades-long struggle for independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule were countless names and faces — some etched into history, others faded with time.
To mark the 80th anniversary of liberation that falls on Aug. 15, a new exhibition titled “Faces We Meet Anew” brings these lives back into the light.
On view are 100 objects, drawn from the collections of the National Museum of Korea and the National Institute of Korean History. These include handwritten oaths by independence activists Yi Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil, as well as a poignant calligraphy piece penned by Ahn Jung-geun during his final days in prison, after he was sentenced to death for the 1909 assassination of Ito Hirobumi, Japan’s first resident-general of Korea.
Japanese authorities' 1925 document on Ahn Chang-ho / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea
Japanese authorities' 1937 dossier on Ahn Chang-ho / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea
But the true highlight of the show is the first-ever public display of surveillance dossiers compiled by the Japanese empire to identify and monitor individuals it deemed threats.
First produced in the wake of the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919, these documents were used by Japanese authorities to track Korean activists — their personal details, imprisonment records and wanted status. Each card bears a name, a photograph and occasionally a fingerprint number.
Among them are familiar names like Yu Gwan-sun, Ahn Chang-ho and Han Yong-un, but also some lesser-known fighters whose stories have long gone untold. The collection consists of 6,264 cards, discovered in bulk by chance in the early 1980s at what is now the Korean National Police Agency in Seoul.
Through rare images — such as the only surviving photograph of Yu during her imprisonment, or the visible decline in Ahn’s health across multiple incarceration records — these cards offer a stark glimpse into how colonial authorities sought to contain a growing resistance.
Also stealing the spotlight is a series of short, artificial intelligence-generated videos that reimagine five iconic activists — Yu, Ahn Jung-geun, Yi, Yun and Ahn Chang-ho — as brightly smiling figures. All five perished before they could witness Korea’s liberation in 1945.
Riding the wave of recent tributes to independence figures that have gone viral online, the National Museum of Korea has embraced this new form of digital storytelling to bring history closer to the public.
“Faces We Meet Anew” runs through Oct. 12.
The National Museum of Korea unveils a line of limited-edition merch inspired by the Denny Taegeukgi. Courtesy of National Museum Foundation of Korea
The museum has also unveiled a line of limited-edition merch inspired by the Denny Taegeukgi — the oldest and largest surviving prototype of Korea’s national flag.
The collection features the museum's iconic miniature Pensive Bodhisattva statue holding the flag, along with stickers, pens, fabric keychains and a paper bouquet of “mugunghwa” (Hibiscus syriacus) and butterflies adorned with taegeukgi motifs.
The Denny Taegeukgi was originally bestowed by King Gojong of the late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to Owen Nickerson Denny, an American lawyer who served as the king’s chief diplomatic adviser until his return to the U.S. in 1891. Nearly a century later, in 1981, Denny’s descendants returned the treasured artifact to its homeland.
As the oldest of its kind, the flag offers a window into the formative chapters of the nation’s identity and its earliest aspirations for sovereignty. In 2021, it was officially designated as a state treasure.