Kim Gu: Terrorist Freedom Fighter

Andrei Lankov’s latest, in his ongoing series of interesting columns about Korean history in The Korea Times, is about the assassination and historical status of Korean terrorist “freedom fighter” Kim Gu.

One of the things that Lankov fails to mention, though, is that Kim Gu himself  - who looks more like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland - had quite a record of political assassinations, and old-fashioned murder, not all of the victims of which were ostensible Japanese colonialist oppressors of Korea.

In fact, his first victim was an ordinary Japanese civilian, a traveling salesman of a Nagasaki trading company on a business trip to Chemulpo (Incheon), whom Kim killed in an effort to make a name for himself as an avenger of the brutal and senseless murder of Korea’s Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min). She was assassinated in the so-called Eulmi Incident, of October 8, 1895, by a group of Japanese ruffians and Japanese and Korean troops organized by the rogue Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Goro.

He also excelled at the elimination of rival Korean politicians, such as Song Chin-U, editor of the Tonga Ilbo and leader of the Korea Democratic Party in 1945 [Eckert, Lee, Lew, Robinson & Wagner, Korea Old and New: A History (351)], and he is likely to also have been involved in the elimination of the moderate leftist leader Yo Un-hyong.

More perspective on Kim can be gained from three more or less mainstream histories picked of the shelf at random:

The Korean Independence Party [of Kim Ku) carried out terrorist activities against the Japanese. Yi Pong-ch’ang, one of its members, attempted to assassinate the Japanese emperor at the Sakurada Gate in Tokyo, and another member, Yun Pong-gil, threw bombs at the Japanese attending a celebration of the Japanese emperor’s birthday at Hungk’ou Park in Shanghai on April 29, 1932, wounding many prominent Japanese such as Shigemitsu Mamoru, General Shirakawa Yoshinori, and Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo. Shirakawa and another Japanese died of wounds. Andrew Nahm, Korea: Tradition and Transformation (315).

Whereas the independence movement in Manchuria was carried on mainly through armed resistance, there were those Korean exiles in China who adopted terrorist tactics in their fight against Japan. The best known organizations of this sort were Kim Won-Bong’s Uiyoltan (Righteous Brotherhood) and Kim Ku’s Aeguktan ( Patriots Corps). The bombing and assassination plots carried out by these groups were almost too numerous to count, but the best known are the terrorist attacks on the offices of the Oriental Development Company and other targets in Seoul in 1926 by Na Sok-chu of the Uiyoltan, the attempt to assassinate the Japanese emperor by hand grenade in 1932 by Yi Pong-ch’ang (1908-1932) of the Aeguktan, and the bomb set off by Yun Pong-gil, also a member of the Aeguktan, in Shanghai’s Hung-kuo Park in 1932, killing or wounding a number of high-ranking Japanese military and civil officials.  Ki-Baik Lee, A New History of Korea (365-66).

The Korean exile movement in China had remained factionalized through the 1930s. Kim Ku trained military forces and organized assassinations and bombings in China and Korea proper. Eckert, Lee, Lew, Robinson & Wagner, Korea Old and New: A History (324).

After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the Provisional Government entrusted Kim Gu with the authority to carry out "special operations" [emphasis added] against Japan.  Kim Gu organized the Korean Patriot Corps (Aegukdan) in Shanghai in 1926.  In January 1932, Yi Bong-chang, a member of Kim Gu’s Patriot COrps, attaempted to assassinate the Japanese Emperor with a hand grenade, but failed.  However,, on April 29 of the same year, Yun Bong-gil, also a member of Kim Gu’s Patriot Corps, successfully detonated a bomb in Shanghai’s Hung-kou Park, killing or wounding a number of high-ranking Japanese and civil officials.  Lee Hyun-hee, Park Sung-soo and Yoon Nae-hyun, New History of Korea (557-558).

All of which leaves one feeling less than sympathetic for Kim when he was killed by An Du-hui, probably at the instigation of Syngman Rhee (although, as Lankov observes, that probably will never be proven).

The interesting aspect of Kim’s historical status mentioned by Lankov is the approbation in which he is held by all segments of South Korean society, including the Left, notwithstanding that he was a staunch anti-communist and anti-leftist — a fact that could be a hook for an interesting exploration of the strange political permutations resulting from the growth and development of modern nationalism in Korea since the late 19th century.

Addendum:  The question of Kim Gu’s status as a terrorist caused something of a stir not long ago when a visiting English professor of Korean Studies called him such in a summer session at Korea University, as reported here and here and commented on at legnth by the usual suspects (including yours truly) at The Marmot’s Hole here and here.

Cross Reference:  Gusts of Popular Feeling has an interesting picture of Kim Gu’s funeral on July 5, 1949, along with the New York Times article about him on the occasion, here.   One of his commenters reminds us that Kim was one of the Presidents of the Provisional Government of Korea in exile in China, in which capacity he declared war against Germany and Japan in December 1941.