경기·인천 지역 3·1운동 판결과 정치적 함의

Abstract

Gyeong’gi·Incheon area was where the highest number of protests as well as protestors were reported to be joining the entire March 1st movement, and was where the protests were the most fierce and active. The Anseong-gun’s Weon’gok-myeon and Yangseong-myeon counties, and Su’weon-gun’s Jang’anmyeon and Wujeong-myeon counties were even considered by the Governor General office as prime cases upon which it contemplated on applying high treason charges. Such charge was initially deemed necessary as it was believed to be a prudent move in justifying the Japanese colonial authorities’ bloody suppression of the March 1st movement, yet in the end such charge was never actually applied in court.BR In fact, the Japanese government and the Joseon Governor General office never really intended to charge March 1st movement protesters with high treason. Such charge, once applied, would immediately and automatically be interpreted as Japan acknowledging the Joseon public’s rejection and refusal of Japan’s colonial rule of Joseon (which Japan did not want to admit). It would also be construed as the Japanese authorities’ apparent admission of their own failure in colonial ruling on the Korean peninsula. Japanese authorities were not at all ready for that, and that was why the Joseon Governor General office and the Japanese government defined the March 1st movement basically and merely as “disorder by malcontents’ commotions(不逞·騷擾·妄動事件),” and never recognized it as an Independence movement.BR This kind of stance led the colonial authorities to punish people who attacked the military police, other police forces or administrative facilities actually much more harsher than people who conceived and also personally led the March 1st movement demanding Korean independence. This kind of ironic approach was to prevent similar challenges against Japanese colonial authorities from occurring again in the future, and maintain the authority of the colonial rulers, while not recognizing the Korean resistance as an action demanding liberation from the Japanese.