Korean independence movement

The Korean independence movement was a series of diplomatic and militant efforts to liberate Korea from Japanese rule. The movement began around the late 19th or early 20th century, and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. As independence activism on the peninsula was largely suppressed by Japan, many significant efforts were conducted abroad by the Korean diaspora, as well as by a number of sympathetic non-Koreans.

In the mid-19th century, Japan and China were forced out of their policies of isolationism by the West. Japan then proceeded to rapidly modernize, forcefully open Korea, and establish its own hegemony over the peninsula. Eventually, it formally annexed Korea in 1910. The 1919 March First Movement protests are widely seen as a significant catalyst for the international independence movement, although domestically the protests were violently suppressed. In the aftermath of the protests, thousands of Korean independence activists fled abroad, mostly to China. In April 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (KPG) was founded as a self-proclaimed government in exile.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, China became one of the Allies of World War II. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, China attempted to use this influence to assert Allied recognition of the KPG. However, the United States was skeptical of Korean unity and readiness for independence, preferring an international trusteeship-like solution for the Korean Peninsula. Although China achieved agreement by the Allies on eventual Korean independence in the Cairo Declaration of 1943, continued disagreement and ambiguity about the postwar Korean government lasted until the Soviet–Japanese War of 1945 created a de facto division of Korea into Soviet and American zones.

August 15, the day that Japan surrendered in 1945, is celebrated as a holiday in both South Korea and North Korea.

Until the mid 19th century, Qing China, Japan, and Joseon Korea all maintained policies of relative isolationism. Around this time, Joseon was a tributary state of Qing. The Opium Wars during the mid-19th century between China and various Western powers led to the Qing government being forced to sign several unequal treaties, opening up Chinese territory to foreigners. Japan was also forced to open up by the United States via the 1853 to 1854 Perry Expedition. It then underwent the Meiji Restoration and experienced a period of rapid modernization. However, in 1866, Joseon was able to resist an American attempt to open it as well as a French attempt.

It was Japan that eventually succeeded in opening Korea, when it forced Joseon to sign the unequal Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. Japan then began a process of absorbing Korea into its own sphere of influence over the course of several decades. According to Kirk W. Larsen, by 1882, Japan appeared to be the preeminent power on the peninsula, even over Joseon's formal suzerain, Qing. Japan's hegemony over Korea was further cemented by the Japanese victory in the 1894 to 1895 First Sino–Japanese War. The Treaty of Shimonoseki that ended the war stipulated that Qing would relinquish Joseon from its influence. The Russian Empire then attempted to put Korea in its own sphere of influence, but was soundly defeated in the 1904 to 1905 Russo-Japanese War. By this point, Japan was the unquestioned hegemon over Korea. In 1905, it made Joseon its protectorate, and in 1910, it formally absorbed Korea into its empire.

Meanwhile, shortly after Korea's forced opening, Gojong, the king of Joseon, made efforts to reach out to the United States and various European powers via a number of treaties, foreign exchange student programs, and diplomatic missions. But these overtures often went ignored or forgotten, as the powers prioritized their own interests in Japan and China. Koreans requesting assistance from foreign governments and being ignored became a frequent occurrence even until the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945.

Following Joseon's forced opening, Japan continued to open more and more parts of Korea to exclusive Japanese trade, to the chagrin of the citizens of Joseon as well as Joseon and Qing officials. In some areas of Korea and especially near the port of Wonsan, "small roving bands of Koreans" attacked Japanese people who ventured outside at night.