Women of March 1st independence movement and decoloniality

Two months ago, I had a chance to present my research paper on Korean women activists and decoloniality in an international academic forum held in the Philippines.

I aimed to discuss the current significance of the March 1st independence movement and particularly the women activists who led resistance to Japanese colonial rule, a topic not much explored in modern Korean history. There have been some women researchers who attempted to shed light on these activists from the perspective of liberational theology. I tried to interpret these women and their activism from a decolonial and feminist perspective. I read many articles on these women and their role in the March 1st independence movement, and I want to share some of what I learned about them here. More information can be found in articles recently published in the Journal of Korean Feminist Theology.

“Korean female independence activist, Kwon Aera, and her comrades” introduces four women: Kwon Ae-ra, Eo Yoon-hee, Shin Kwan-bin and Shim Myung-cheol. These women took the lead in the 1919 March 1st independence movement in the Gaesung area, now North Korea.

Kwon was educated at a Christian school and not only worked as a teacher at a kindergarten but also gave many lectures on the enlightenment of women and patriotism. A brave and talented woman, she and her three comrades were called " Bible women," a unique Korean Christian title from the early modern history of Korea.

The article titled “Lim Myung-ae of the Salvation Army and Paju area independence movement” deals with Lim, who was apparently a Bible woman in the Salvation Army. She entered the public space despite the Confucian culture that demanded women be silent and obedient, and she took the lead in the independence movement with as many as 100 students in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The article of “Women independence fighters with flowers and bombs” discusses the activities of Yu Kwan-sun, a legendary teenage activist who graduated from Ewha Hakdang, the predecessor of the modern Ewha Womans University. Yu played a crucial role in a demonstration in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, where she delivered copies of the independence declaration and drawings of the national flag. She was later wounded, jailed, and tortured by the Japanese before dying in prison.

The March 1st independence movement took place as part of a broader set of movements that were anti-imperialism, anti-violence and promoting pacifism in the early 20th century. It embodied the yearnings of Korean women and men to live freely, liberated from Japan's cruel colonial rule.

It was not only an anti-imperialist, nationalist and decolonial movement but also a voluntary, peaceful movement in which men and women from all walks of society participated. The March 1st independence movement marked the beginning of the modern peasants’, workers’ and women’s movements. It also influenced independence movements in China, Vietnam, the Philippines and India.

Today's Koreans should remember that we need decolonial visions to resist not just foreign domination but all kinds of oppression and sexual discrimination in society, and to pursue dignified, egalitarian lives in the midst of the hegemony of superpowers and their self-centered egoism that prioritizes their own interests over that of the people of the Korean Peninsula.

Lee Nan-hee studied English in college and theology at Hanshin University.