Ahn Jung-geun
Righteous army leader who shot Itō Hirobumi at Harbin Station in 1909 and was executed at Lüshun while writing On Peace in the East
Born in Haeju, Hwanghae, he was baptized a Catholic (Thomas). After the Eulsa Treaty he ran schools at Jinnampo and joined the National Debt Repayment Movement. In 1907 he crossed to the Russian Maritime Province, became a lieutenant general in the Korean righteous army and in 1908 led a raid into Hamgyeong; he released Japanese prisoners under international law, which gave away his position and cost him a heavy defeat.
In 1909 he and eleven comrades each cut off the top of the left ring finger as a pledge to give their lives for the nation. On 26 October 1909 at Harbin station he shot dead Itō Hirobumi, architect of Japan's takeover of Korea, crying "Korea hurrah!". At his trial in Lüshun he listed fifteen crimes of Itō and argued that, as an officer of the righteous army, he should be treated as a prisoner of war.
In prison he began A Treatise on Peace in the East, arguing that Korea, China and Japan should keep one another's independence and cooperate, but was executed on 26 March 1910 before finishing it. His remains have never been found. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Republic of Korea Medal, in 1962.