Private Education and the Korean Independance Movement


In 1883 the first modern private school, and one of Korea's first modern school, was opened in Wonsan. Some public schools (such as the Dongmunhak/동문학 established on the same year in Seoul for the teaching of foreign languages) had been established in an unsystematic manner by the government since 1881 and, following the Gabo Reform Movement of 1894-1896, several new public schools were created. But the growing Japanese influence over the Korean government was also palpable in this new education system. In contrast, the type of private education pioneered by the Wonsan Academy became a stronghold of nationalist and independent thought.

In 1894, taking advantage of the unrest of the Donghak Peasant Revolution and the inability of Qing China to help the Korean government, Japan invaded the peninsula and occupied the royal palace. The Japanese set up a new government, whose aims were to foster the modernization and industrialization of the country, all the while ensuring Japanese interests. The Gabo Reforms enacted by the new government paved the way for a modern schooling system but the education offered in the newly founded schools was under strict Japanese control, something that only became worse after Korea was turned into a Japanese protectorate in 1905.

In this context, the Wonsan Academy (원산학사) was a pioneering institution in a sector that would soon become a symbol of patriotic and nationalist action against Japanese rule. Founded in Wonsan in 1883 at the request of local residents and of the Wonsan Traders Association (원산상회소). Wonsan was then a relatively new city, having started its activity as a trade port in 1880 following the opening of Korea to foreign trade in 1876 with the Treaty of Kanghwa. As such, it is worth noting that the small merchant town was probably one of the first cities in Korea to feel the influence of the external world.

Following the footsteps of Wonsan Academy, several other private schools opened such as the Paejae Boys School, the Ewha Girls School, the Cheongsin Girls School... Most of these establishments being operated by foreign Christian missionaries. The Japanese occupant did not take kindly to this and enacted a law to make these schools to be government sanctioned and to use authorized textbooks. If this forced many establishments to close, a great deal of new ones kept opening. This activity only intensified as Japan turned Korea into a protectorate in 1905, and into a full colony in 1910. These private institutions helped to deliver a non-Japanese education to the sons and daughters of the Korean intelligentsia, contributing to the resistance against the Colonial rule.

A good example of the importance of these private schools in the independance movement is illustrated by the activity of nationalist and independance activist An Jung-geun (안중근). A fellow blogger, who was kind enough to talk about my blog in a rather laudatory manner, wrote an article on this incredible man. I invite you to find out more about him on the Generic Korean blog, where you'll also find plenty of wonderful information on Korean Drama, TV, Food, etc, etc... Quoting the words of Generic Korean, An Jung-geun can be described as "a scholar/revolutionary/murderer/writer who was executed by the Japanese after Ahn assassinated a Japanese general during Japan’s occupation of Korea" and who "signed all his works with a print of his left hand which was missing part of his ring finger".

This hero of the Korean independance movement actually started his nationalist activities by opening private schools in his native Hwanghae region in the North West of Korea. After he assassinated Resident-General of Korea Ito Hirobumi in 1909, An listed the 15 crimes committed by Ito which convinced him to kill the man. Among these crimes "Obstructing the Education of Koreans" was listed as number 9, showing the stranglehold of the Japanese on Korean public education.

On a side note, there is a North Korean film about the assassination carried out by An Jung-geun entitled, quite appropriately, An Jung gun Shoots Ito Hirobumi. You can purchase it on DVD here. I was unfortunately unable to find a trailer but you can see short bits of the movie that were broadcasted in South Korean news on this page (at 00:13).

Poster of the North Korean film An Jung Gun Shoots Ito Hirobumi

The Wonsan Haksa in 1894