“This Month’s Independence Activists” in 2014 to Include Four Christians
2014-01-10 09:01
Four Christians are among the 12 persons selected by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs for “This Month’s Independence Activists” in 2014. Following the Christian spirit, Ku Yeon-yeong (February), Jeon Deok-gi (March), Yeon Byeong-ho (April) and Ernest Beddell (August) all played leading roles in the anti-Japan movement.
Martyr Ku Yeon-yeong (1864~1907) grew up in a family that valued Confucian culture, but as a young man, received the Gospel through the Scranton missionary family of Sangdong Church. Together with Jeon Deok-gi, he organized the Ebwit Youth Association and was a leader in the youth movement. He studied theology, became an evangelist, and while preaching the Gospel at a church in Echeon, he was active in the movement against the pro-Japanese Iljin Association. Caught by the Japanese police, he underwent severe torture and was shot dead. In 1963 he was conferred with the Independence Decoration.
Following his appointment as pastor of Sangdong Church in 1907, Rev. Jeon Deok-gi (1875~1914) organized the Shinminhoe together with Ahn Chang-ho and others, and worked at the forefront of the Independence Movement. As one of the 105 independence activists imprisoned by the Japanese Governor-General’s Office in the “105 Persons Incident,” he was brutally tortured. He was released from prison but died from the aftereffects of the torture. In 1962 he received the Independence Decoration posthumously.
Yeon Byeong-ho (1894~1963) was active in the independence movement in Manchuria, Shanghai and other places. In May 1919 he organized the Youth Diplomacy Team, a secret anti-Japan group composed mainly of Christian youth in Seoul. In the process of collecting funds for the independence movement, he was captured by the Japanese police and underwent the hardships of prison life. Upon release he continued his anti-Japan movement in Shanghai, but was arrested for alleged participation in the pro-Japan Lee Kab-nyeong shooting incident and spent 8 more years in prison. He was conferred with the Independence Decoration in 1963.
Englishman Earnest Bedell (1872~1909), whose Korean name was Bae Seol-in, founded the Daehan Maeil Shinbo (newspaper) together with Yang Gi-Tak. As his mother was the daughter of a church evangelist, he grew up in a family of faith. In 1904, he entered Korea with the status of correspondent for the English press. After becoming publisher of Daehan Maeil Shinbo, he stated that the infamous Ulsa Treaty was invalid, and had King Kojong’s signed letter printed in the foreign press. After his death by heart disease, he was buried in Seoul’s Yanghwajin Foreign Missionaries Cemetery.
Reporter Kim Kyungtaek (ptyx@kmib.co.kr), Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Click here for the original article in Korean
