Yun Bong-gil

Yun Bong-gil (21 June 1908-19 December 1932) was a Korean independence activist who set off a bomb that killed several Japanese dignitaries in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1932. He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Korea Medal of Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1962 by the Korean government.

Early life

Yun Bong-gil was born in Yesan County in Japanese-controlled Korea in June 1908. He attended Deoksan Elementary School and also studied in Ochi Seosuk (a village school that taught Korean and Chinese). As Korea had been made a protectorate within the Japanese empire in 1905, Yun grew up in a troubled country. Local resistance grew considerably with the annexation of Korea in 1910. It culminated in the March 1st Movement in 1919 that was aggressively crushed by the Japanese authorities (hundreds of protesters were massacred by the Japanese police force and army). The brutal repression that followed made many activists flee into China.

By 1926 Yun had become an independence activist, starting evening classes in his home town to help educate people from rural communities about the issues. At the age of 20, he had organized a reading club and published several pamphlets. In 1930, after establishing two rural athletic associations for the nationalist movement, Yun decided to go to China because of the Japanese crackdown. On arrival in Shanghai he joined a nationalist group, the Korean Patriotic Corps (한인애국단; 韓人愛國團), that was organized and led by Kim Koo.