충남 공주지역 3.1운동 전개와 참여자 분석

Abstract

This paper examined the March First Independence Movement in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do. The Movement in Gongju was triggered by the decease of Emperor Gwangmu, advocation of the principle of national self-determination by the U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, expansion of Protestant and Taoist forces in Gongju during the Daehan Empire, activation of the Patriotic Enlightenment Movement, and Koreans' complaints resulting from Japan's colonial rule. The first demonstration occurred in Yugu-ri, Shinsang-myeon on March 14 and the last one took place in Jeongan-myeon and Tancheon-myeon on April 3. A total of 16 demonstrations have been identified and the movement was most activated during the early April (from April 1 to 3) when 13 demonstrations happened. Such trend was consistent with the national trend. According to a record on prisoners put under sentence, the total number of participants in the Movement in Gongju was 99. Regarding their age, the number of those in their teens, in their 20s, in their 30s, in their 40s, in their 50s, and in their 60s was 7, 39, 30, 16, 2, and 4, respectively. The total number of those in their 20s and 30s amounted to 69. As for their job, the number of peasants was largest at 76 accounting for a third fourths of the total, followed by the number of students at 8 and the number of teachers at 4. All the participants were in violation of the National Security Law. Among them, 50 had committed the crime of sedition and 18 were in violation of the publication law. The longest prison sentence was 3 years of imprisonment and 5 persons received the sentence. Excluding Lee Gi-han who led the April 1 demonstration in Jeongan-myeon, the other four--Park Jun-bin, Lee Seung-hyeon, Whang Byeong-ju, and Whang Yeon-seong--were those who had participated in the March 14 demonstration that took place in the market of Yugu-ri, Shinsang-myeon. The most important characteristic of the March 1 Movement in Gongju is the fact that largely ordinary peasants planned and led the demonstration. Of course, transmission of the international situation and the news about the March 1 Movement by Oh Ik-py and Ahn Seong-ho and Park Jang-rae, who graduated from Yeongmyeong School and resided in Seoul, affected the occurrence of the April 1 demonstration in Gongju. However, even though the demonstration was an organized one to some extent in that the Declaration of Independence was printed in advance and distributed in the market on the demonstration day before the undertaking of the movement, it did not spread far. On the other hand, a majority of participants in the March 14 demonstration in Yugu-ri, Shinsang-myeon and the April 1 demonstrations in Jeongan-myeon and Uidangmyeon were peasants and in particular, the Shingsang-myeon and Uidangmyeon demonstrations were very progressive and active ones--for example, participants' attacking and destroying a military police outstation and a police substation of the Japanese imperialists. Given that most of Koreans during Japan's colonial rule of Korea were peasants, it can be said that the March 1 Movement in Gongju was pushed ahead with by the most universal Koreans.