Today is 삼일절 (“samiljeol”), which is Independence Movement Day or March 1st Movement Day in English! It is a national holiday commemorating the collective peaceful protest by Koreans against Japanese colonial rule on March 1st, 1919. On this day, 민족대표 33인 (think of our “Founding Fathers”…except they’re Korean and there’s 33 of them) signed and read out 독립선언서, the Korean version of the Declaration of Independence which proclaimed that Korea was an independent country. 

Same as how America was not actually physically freed from British rule on Independence Day (the Revolutionary War is won 7 years later), Samiljeol is *not* the day Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. That’s 광복절 (gwangbokjeol)! 

But there is historical and cultural significance in remembering the March 1st Movement Day. Ordinary Koreans flooded the streets chanting for freedom, and many died at the hands of Japanese police for doing so (up to 7,500 killed at the movements, not counting those captured, sent to prison, etc. and died or got executed later). The movements directly inspired the creation of Korean Provisional Government which later established the official government of Korea when it was freed from Japan. Even the *Constitution* notes the importance of this movement in the Preamble!

“We, the people of Korea, proud of a resplendent history and traditions dating from time immemorial, upholding the cause of the Provisional Republic of Korea Government born of the March First Independence Movement of 1919…”