국가보훈부

1919년 3월 12일 우리나라의 독립만세운동에 대한 뉴욕타임즈의 보도내용입니다.

 

 

KOREANS DECLARE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Thousands Who Engage in Demonstration Are Arrested by the Japanese.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

 

 

PEKING, March 12. Information has reached here that the Korean independence demonstrations were more general than has been officially admitted Japanese of all classes in every part of the country came within the scope of the movement.
The Japanese expected trouble to occur on March 3 on the occasion of the funeral of Prince Yi and called a large number of gendarmerie from the outlying stations into Seoul. The Korean Natlonalists, knowing this, staged their independence day–for 3 1, when every town and village in the country had its own parade and demonstration in favor of Korean independence.
The Japanese were unprepared. However, their authority regained its equilibrium and struck hard and quickly, thousands of demonstrators being arrested, though the Japanese reports speak of hundreds. The gendarmes arrested a number of students of the PingYang Presbyterian Theological School, who were not connected with the movement, stripped them, and tied them to rough, wooden crosses, exclaiming that as their Father had borne the cross they, too, should have the privilege of bearing it.
At present the Japanese seem to have the Korean Independence movement under control, but underneath the surface the whole country is seething. The Korean nation will accept only one solution. It is hoped that Japan, at the Paris conference, will offer Korea independence subject to Japan’s advisory control until such time as the League of Nations deems the Koreans fit for absolute self-government.

SEOUL, March 12, (Associated Press.) The declaration of Korea’s independence says that it represents the voice of 20,000.000 persons, speaking in the name of justice and humanity.
“We are no mean people,” the declaration continues. “We have fortythree centuries of history as a distinct self-governing nation. It is our solemn duty to secure the right of free and perpetual development of our own national character, adapting ourselves to the principles of the reconstruction of the world.”
The declaration continues that it is the duty of Koreans to obtain their independence, to wipe out injuries, get rid of our present sufferings and stir up the national spirit and vitality, so long suppressed by the unjust regime of Japan, and lease our children eternal freedom instead of bitter and shameful inheritance. We shall fight to the last drop of blood in the great cause of liberty.”
It is asserted that there is no intention on the part of the Koreans to avenge themselves against Japan, that their only desire is to right the wrongs done not by the Japanese nation but by the of her statesmen, led by the old aggressive policy.

 

 

원문출처 : nytimes.com (via capcold.net)