Person1892 – 1950

Yi Gwang-su

Also called: Chunwon

Drafted the February Eighth Declaration and wrote the novel "Mujeong"; argued for home rule in "National Policy" and later collaborated with the Japanese authorities (listed in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators)

While studying in Tokyo he serialised the novel Mujeong (The Heartless) in the Maeil sinbo in 1917, opening the way for the modern Korean novel. In 1919 he drafted the February Eighth Declaration and then went to Shanghai to head the Provisional Government's Dongnip sinmun. Back in Korea, his "On National Reconstruction" (1922) and "National Policy" in the Dong-A Ilbo (1924) urged self-strengthening and home rule under Japanese rule, drawing criticism. From the late 1930s he took the Japanese name Kayama Mitsurō and urged students to volunteer for the army, collaborating with the colonial authorities. He was designated a pro-Japanese collaborator by the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborations for Japanese Imperialism and is listed in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. He was taken to the North during the Korean War.

Where they went

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

2 related events

  1. 1

    Korean students in Tokyo formed the Korean Youth Independence Corps and read a declaration of independence at the Korean YMCA hall, lighting the spark of the March First Movement.

  2. 2
    1927 – 1931Singanhoerelated figure

    Uncompromising nationalists and socialists joined to found the Singanhoe, the largest legal national organization of the colonial period.

People who appear alongside

  • Yeo Un-hyeong1886 – 1947

    Founded the New Korea Youth Party in Shanghai and in 1944 the underground Korean Founding League at home

  • Kim Maria1892 – 1944

    Student in Tokyo who took part in the February Eighth Declaration and after 1919 led the Korean Patriotic Women’s Association

  • Yi Sang-jae1850 – 1927

    Independence Club veteran who led the national university campaign and was first president of the Singanhoe

  • An Jae-hong1891 – 1965

    General secretary of the Singanhoe who led the Joseon Studies movement with Jeong In-bo and others, and after liberation was vice-chairman of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence

  • Han Yong-un1879 – 1944

    Buddhist monk and poet, one of the 33 representatives who signed the Declaration of Independence; author of "The Silence of Love"

Themes this person appears in

  • Republican China and Imperial Japan1912 – 1949

    The age when the Republic of China, born of the 1911 Revolution, passed through warlord division, the May Fourth Movement, the United Front and the Northern Expedition, fought Japan’s invasion and split in civil war — as Japan moved from Taishō democracy through the Manchurian Incident and military coups to the war in China and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and colonized Korea resisted through the March First Movement and armed struggle