By Anna Cappella and Nina McCambridge
On March 1, the Korean Student Association took to the Cut to educate Carnegie Mellon students about Korean Independence. Surrounded by posters and grain and honey snacks, they explained the significance of March 1, 1919 — Korean Independence Movement Day — in their country’s history. Japan began colonizing Korea in 1910. “It started with physical oppression, where armed Japanese forces entered Korea and they occupied Korea and in the markets, the Korean schools, there were police everywhere,” said Lauren Oh, a second-year civil and environmental engineering major and member of the Korean Student Association.
Korean independence utilized a form of peaceful protest employed by over two million people. “The teachers were armed and so they were basically occupying and then because of that, there were movements — which we’re celebrating today — in 1919,” Oh said. As the Japanese moved from “physical oppression to cultural oppression, where they changed the style of ruling,” the Korean people continued to stand up and protest.
“This movement was actually inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s ‘national sovereignty.’ Back then, nobody knew it, but people who heard this information were like, ‘Oh, yeah, that makes sense. We have the right to govern ourselves,’” said Lauren. Protesters in this movement were shot for doing as little as carrying flags; there was a strong counter-protest response from Japan. The growing violence and tensions made their way into U.S. news, alerting people to the colonization occuring in Korea. Public attention helped to ease the brutality of colonization, though it still continued for about 25 years. “They were only liberated after the world war,” Lauren said.
“My grandparents actually went through this, but this history isn’t really emphasized enough right now, in America or even in Asian countries,” said Lauren. We discussed the difference between education around the Holocaust — and the reparations Germany has offered — and the historical treatment of Japan’s colonization of Korea. “There wasn’t enough of an apology to the people who suffered through this. We would like to tell the student body to be aware of these events and just learn that this history happened. … The government is telling the Korean people to move on because it’s in the past, but you have to learn the history to prepare for the future.”
The Korean Student Association celebrates Korean Independence every year on March 1 by tabling on the Cut.
Leave a Reply