안명근의 생애와 독립운동

Abstract

Myeong-Geun Ahn was born in Haeju, Hwanghae Province in 1879 and studied there. In 1897 he entered the Roman Catholic Church with his father in Cheonggye-dong, Shincheon. He was a younger cousin of Jung-Geun Ahn, and he who had influenced by him took part in an anti-Japanese independence movement. He participated in a save-the-nation drive by education as a member of Anakmyeonhakhoi (Anak study group) and Haeseo educational meeting. As imperialist Japan occupied Korea by force, he raised war funds with 18 persons including Gyeong-Jin Bae, Haeng-Seob Won, Man-Jun Park and Soon-Jik Han for the establishment of a school to train military officers for an independence war and was arrested by the Japanese police. And then he languished in Kyeongseong prison for 15 years. After he was released from prison in 1924, he went into exile in China and continued the independence movement. he died of illness for his country in Palho-ri, Euiran-hyeon, Jilin Province in 1927. Imperialist Japan kept a sharp lookout for the organizations for the independence movement and their leaders in order to strengthen its military rule right after the Japanese occupation of Korea by force. Especially, the reason why imperialist Japan manipulated 3 big events including Anak event and oppressed them on a large scale was to raise awareness on the northwest area and to get rid of anti-Japanese Christian influence. Myeong-Woon Jeon and In-Hwan Jang's heroic deed to kill Stevens (March, 1908), and Jung-Geun Ahn's heroic deed to shoot Ito Hirobumi to death (October, 1909) and Jae-Myeong Lee's case to shoot at Wan-Yong Lee (December, 1909) and others which happened just before National Humiliation Day in 1910 were performed by figures from the northwest area, and all of them were Christians. As Anak area became the center of the movement for patriotism and enlightenment in Hwanghae Province and its influence expanded to the northwest area, Japanese imperialism tightened supervision of leading figures in this area. First of all, imperialist Japan fabricated Anak event and Yang Gi-Tak event in order to oppress the leaders of the independence movement in Hwanghae Province and tried to block emigration for the independence movement and the plan to establish a school for training military officers. Imperialist Japan connected Anak event with Yang Gi-Tak event and the event of 105 persons, and exaggerated and fabricated these events, and oppressed the people engaged in the racial movement. As Japanese imperialism detected the orgnization of Sinminhoi (a secret society for an independence movement) in the course of investigation, it fabricated that Sinminhoi had tried to assassinate Terauchi, the governor-general of Korea, and manipulated and enlarged it into the event of 105 persons, and widened its oppression to the area of Pyeongan Province in a large scale. Especially, it seems that imperialist Japan regarded the event of Myeong-Geun Ahn as the event of the second righteous person Ahn and oppressed the people. Also imperialist Japan considered foreign Christian missionaries as the wirepuller of the anti-Japanese Christian influence and tried to expel them from Korea. Therefore Japanese imperialism treated the foreign Christian missionaries as the rear power, however, it failed to expel them from Korea and on the contrary, such a behaviour brought about the result that disclosed the full reality of cruel and brutal Japanese colonial rule to the whole world.