During the Japanese occupation of Korea, some groups participated in violent resistance against the Empire of Japan, as part of the Korean independence movement. They functioned as a big tent political movement that represented a wide array of ideologies, including democracy, socialism, nationalism, communism, and anarchism. Some of these groups were coordinated by or collaborated with political organizations such as the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government, as well as with various left-leaning parties. Many of them operated in the border region between Korea and China, particularly in Manchuria until roughly the end of World War II (1939–1945).
Background
Late Joseon dynasty period Korean nationalism outgrew the unplanned, spontaneous, and disorganized Donghak movement, and became more violent as Japanese colonizers began a brutal regime throughout the Korean peninsula and pursued repressive policies against the Korean people. For at least thirteen years after 1905, small irregular forces, often led by regular army commanders, fought skirmishes and battles throughout Korea against Japanese police, armies, and underworld mercenaries who functioned to support Japanese corporations in Korea, and as well-armed Japanese settlers who seized Korean farms and land. In one period, according to Japanese records in Boto Tobatsu-shi (Annals of the Subjugation of the Insurgent), between October 1907 and April 1908, over 1,908 attacks were made by the Korean people against the invaders.
The Righteous Army was formed by Yu In-seok and other Confucian scholars during the Peasant Wars. Its ranks swelled after the Queen's murder by the ronin. Under the leadership of Min Jeong-sik, Choe Ik-hyeon and Shin Dol-seok, the Righteous Army attacked the Japanese army, Japanese merchants and pro-Japanese bureaucrats in the provinces of Gangwon, Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang. Shin Dol-seok, an uneducated peasant commanded over 3,000 troops. Among the troops were former government soldiers, poor peasants, fishermen, tiger hunters, miners, merchants, and laborers.
The Imperial Korean Armed Forces was disbanded on August 1, 1907. The Army was led by 1st Battalion Commander Major Park Seung-hwan, who committed suicide after the disbandment, and led to the former soldiers of the Korean Army fighting against the Japanese occupying troops in Namdaemun Gate. Many members of the disbanded army joined the Righteous Armies.
In 1907, the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Incheon. The Righteous Army retreated from Seoul and the war went on for two more years. Over 17,000 Righteous Army soldiers were killed and more than 37,000 were wounded in combat. Unable to fight the Japanese army head-on, the Righteous Army split into small bands of partisans to carry on the War of Liberation from China, Siberia, and the Baekdu Mountains in Korea. The Japanese troops first quashed the Peasant Army and then disbanded the remained of the government army. Many of the surviving guerrilla and anti-Japanese government troops fled to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai to carry on their fight. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, starting the period of Japanese colonial rule.
Summary
The March 1st Movement provided a catalyst for the Korean Independence Movement, which was crucial to the spread of Korea's independence movement to other local governments, including Hoengseong. Given the ensuing suppression and hunting down of activists by the Japanese, many Korean leaders went into exile in Manchuria, Shanghai and other parts of China, where they continued their activities. The Movement was a catalyst for the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in April 1919 and several left-wing organizations.
They coordinated armed resistance such as the Northern Military Administration Office, the Korean Independence Army, and the Korean Patriotic Organization against the Imperial Japanese Army during the 1920s and 1930s, including at the Battle of Samdunja, Battle of Bongoh Town in June 1920 and the Battle of Chingshanli in October 1920. However, the Japanese sought revenge by massacring the Koreans at Gando, forcing the resistance forces to Mt. Milsan and form the Korean Independence Corps, then move to Free City, Russia. Their manpower diminished when the Bolsheviks believed them to be a liability to the Soviet Union during the Russian Civil War when the Japanese joined forces with the White Army and forced them disarm and join the Red Army. But they refused and the Red Army massacred them at Svobodny. Still, despite these losses, they executed the Hongkou Park Incident attack on Japanese military leadership in April 1932.
Although the Free City Incident depleted their manpower, many resistance forces advocated for an autonomous region for Koreans to replenish their military and promote their independence movement. The first attempt for self-governance was the Korean Unification Government, a military government formed to unify the resistance forces. However, infighting over political ideological leadership caused the government to fragment as the armies of this government established their own autonomous regions causing the government dissolve. The three self-governing Korean authorities that formed after the government's fall were the General Staff Headquarters on the Manchurian side of the Yalu River; the Righteous Government in the provinces of Jilin and Liaoning; and the Korean People's Association in Manchuria in northern Manchuria. Although initially driven by Korean nationalism, they increasingly began to take up anarchist principles and socialist principles, in order to counter the rising influence of Marxism–Leninism in the region.
The Japanese invaded Manchuria forced members of these authorities to defect and form the National People's Prefecture under a political party and their army, the Korean Revolutionary Party and the Korean Revolutionary Army. Some however formed political parties in the provisional government such as the Korean Independence Party and the Korean National Revolutionary Party with their own armed wings. They coordinated with the Chinese Nationalist and Communist armies such as the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army against the Japanese armies to continue their fight for independence.
As they enter World War 2, their struggles culminated in the formation of the Korean Volunteer Army, and the Korean Liberation Army in 1940s, bringing together all Korean resistance groups in exile once more.
1910s Korea Liberation Corps
The Korea Liberation Corps () was a Korean association formed in 1913 to fight against Japanese rule. At its height its members numbered about 200. The corps was initially organized in Punggi by Kim Byeong-yeol, Kang Byeong-su, Yu Chang-sun, Jang Du-hwan, Yi Gak, Han Hun, Yu Jang-yeol, Jeong Jin-hwa, Chae Gi-jung, Jeong Man-gyo, Hwang Sang-gyu, Kim Sang-ok, and Jeong Un-hong. This group is sometimes called the "Punggi Gwangbokdan," or Punggi Liberation Corps. In 1915 this group united with a group of independence leaders in Daegu at an assembly in Dalseong Park, to officially form the Korea Liberation Corps. Its first commander-in-chief was Park Sang-jin. This anti-Japanese independence group sourced money for the training of troops, trained troops, planned assassinations of pro-Japanese Koreans (and other pro-Japanese in Korea), formed a provisional government, and worked with domestic and foreign organizations (to increase foreign understanding of Korea under Japanese occupation and get foreign funding) in the 1910s.
1920s Heroic Corps
The Heroic Corps was an organization founded in Korea in 1919, during the Japanese colonial period. Its activists believed in revolutionary uprising as well as egalitarianism.
After the March 1st Movement was crushed in 1919, many independence activists moved their bases to foreign countries. However, members of the Heroic Corps thought that those organizations were too moderate and would not contribute to independence in Korea, and instead took a more radical approach by opposing compromising solutions such as culturalism. The Heroic Corps wished for a violent revolution, reflected by the Manifesto of the Korean Revolution () by independence activist Shin Chae-ho. The Corps struggled for independence by assassinating high-ranking Japanese officials and committing acts of terrorism against government offices. The Heroic Corps moved their base to Beijing, China and brought members to Shanghai where they had about 70 members in 1924. Kim Gu, Kim Kyu-sik, Kim Chang-suk, and Shin Chae-ho were engaged as advisers and Chiang Kai-shek, President of the Republic of China, supported the Heroic Corps. However, as time passed, their movement evolved with the spirit of the times.
Korean Independence Army
In 1919, Hong Beom-do (1868 ~ 1943) created relations with Koreans residing in Yeonggae, Primorsky Krai, and Gando (Jiandao). The army crossed the Yalu River and wiped out a Japanese military unit. This was the first domestic military operation to take place in Korea following the March 1st Movement. In October, Hong's forces once again moved into Korea, occupied Ganggye and Manpojin, fighting a fierce battle with the Japanese army in Jaseong county, northern Korea. However, due to difficulties in supplying his weapons and logistics, in the winter of 1919, he went under the Korean National Association in Gando and received financial support. The number of soldiers increased to 600.
By March 1920, Hong was allied with the Military Affairs Command to provided a boost to the national spirit of Koreans everywhere and prompted further armed resistance struggles in Manchuria. 2,000 Korean independence fighters in the Jilin area attacked the camp of the Japanese army at night, killing 300 people and routing 400 while developing an independence movement while maintaining organic contact with the other independence groups. The army had moved its base from Antuhyun to Fengwudong, Wang Qinghyun, China and received financial support from the Korean People's Association for a larger domestic resistance operation. Hong also joined forces with the National Liberation Army, which was under the leadership of the Korean People's Association. The military's finances and administration were managed by the Korean Minjok Association and the Korean Independence Army was directed by Hong Beom-do. Around 200 old righteous soldiers and old farmers and laborers from Gando, centering on Hongbeom-do, purchased weapons from various places to train the independence army.
In the Battle of Baegunpyeong on the 21st of October, the Battle of Wanlugu, Battle of Cheonsupyung, Battle of Eorangchon on the 22nd, and the Battle of Cheonbosan on the 24th, the enemy lost 1,254 dead and over 2,000 wounded. Among them, the 1st Regiment under Hong Beom-do killed 1,200 enemy soldiers. After that, in fear of retaliation from the Japanese Empire, 600 members of the Korean Independence Army moved to Noryeong under the command of Commander Hong Beom-do and joined the Korean Independence Corps.
Cheonmasan Army