| A choir performs holding the Taegeukgi, the Korean national flag, at the Korean YMCA building in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, during a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Feb. 8 Independence Declaration. The declaration was issued on Feb. 8, 1919 by Korean students studying in Japan to declare their aspiration for Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule. / Yonhap |
By Jung Hae-myoung
A declaration of Korea's independence from Japan, made by Korean students during colonial rule in February 1919, has been translated into four languages, according to Seoul Metropolitan Government and a civic group, Friday.
Seoul City, the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education worked on the translation of the Feb. 8 Independence Declaration and distributed it nationwide via online and offline channels in an effort to promote the declaration worldwide.
On Feb. 8 1919, nine years after Japan colonized Korea, about 600 Koreans who were studying in Tokyo issued the declaration, calling for Korea's independence and pledging to fight against Japanese colonial rule. They delivered the declaration to embassies of various countries in Tokyo, the Japanese media and the Japanese governor general of Korea.
This sparked the March 1 Independence Movement in Korea and the establishment of the provisional government in Shanghai.
“The Korean Young People's Independence Organization declares, on behalf of the 20 million Korean people, the independence of the Korean nation, in front of all the countries in the world, which have already secured the triumphs of justice and freedom,” the declaration begins.
Seoul City translated the declaration first into modern Korean, and then into four languages ― English, Japanese, Chinese and Esperanto.
VANK is sending the declaration to its 150,000 members online, and also to Korean schools and communities around the world. The education office will send it offline to elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul.
“We decided to translate the Feb. 8 Independence Declaration and distribute it to tell how important the declaration, which influenced the March 1 movement, was in the history of Korea's independence movement, and how legitimate the call for independence was,” said Hwang Chi-yeong, a city government official.
The various language versions are available on Seoul City's website to commemorate the centennial of the March 1 Independence Movement (seoul100.kr), or VANK's website introducing independence fighters (kkum.prkorea.com).
Apart from the translation, ceremonies commemorating the centennial of the declaration were held both in Seoul and in Tokyo.
The Tokyo ceremony was attended by about 300 people, including Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Pi Woo-jin. “For Korea and Japan to form a future-oriented relation, both should remember the past correctly and make joint efforts to heal the pain of victims,” Pi said.
“The spirit of the Feb. 8 Independent Declaration should be developed into the zeitgeist for another hundred years,” Rep. Lee Jong-kul of Democratic Party of Korea, said Thursday on the eve of the ceremony.
In the capital, a civic group also unveiled a statue that symbolizes women who participated in the independence movement, at a park in central Seoul.