Father said

Father said that one of the main reasons why Kim Ok Gyun's reform failed was his reformists did not

trust the people's power, relying instead upon palace cliques. He said I should learn from Kim's error. I

assume that my father went to Shanghai from Kan-do to see for himself our much rumored independence

movements in China. He most likely wanted to coordinate his activities in Korea with those working

abroad. Anti-colonial wars of liberation had not reached any degree of maturity at the time and there was

no accumulated expertise on the subject.

When my father went to China, the Chinese revolution was fighting for its very survival. The Chinese

revolutionaries had to fight military factions and warlords as well as foreign intervention forces from

America, Great Britain and Japan. In spite of this state, many of our independence fighters were living

under the illusion that some foreign imperial power would come to their assistance. My father returned

home convinced that the Korean people must liberate themselves on their own, by themselves. After his

trip to China, Father began to work more feverishly, often skipping meals and sleeps, to educate more

youth and recruite more patriots. Our house was at Bongwha-ri at the time; my father taught school

children during the day and taught adults during the evening and went to bed at late hours.

Once I read an anti-Japan article written by my father at a school event. Father wrote many revolutionary

and anti-Japanese poems and essays for his students. Many independence fighters came to see my father

at Bongwha-ri and he went to see them at various location of Pyongahn and Hwanghae provinces. He

firmed up core cadres and laid foundation for mass movements. On March 23, 1917, my father together

with Jang Il Whan, Bai Min Su, Baik Seh Bin and other comrades formally established the Korean

People's Association at the home of Lee Bo Sik, located at Hak-dang-gol, Pyongyang. The charter

members wrote letters of their allegiance in their own blood - "Korean independence and fight to the

end."

The main theme of the Association was that the Korean people must unite and achieve independence on

their own, and develop Korea into a strong advanced nation. It was a secret organization, about the

largest of anti-Japan organizations in Korea around the time of the March First Movement. There were

hardly any secret organization in 1917 in Korea. Organizations such as the Righteous Army, the Korean

Independence Army and the Korea Restoration Society, which sprang up after the annexation, were gone

by this time. They could not withstand the savage attacks by the Japanese security forces, which were

quite effective in detecting and arresting anti-Japan activists. Consequently, few Koreans dared to even

ponder doing anti-Japanese work. Even those who had the courage to oppose Japan could do little in

Korea and some went abroad and formed secret organizations. Some people set up organizations,

sanctioned by the Governor General of Korea and did what they could legally under the Japanese rule.

The Korean People's Association came into being in this kind of vacuum in Korea. It was an anti-

imperialism organization. Its platform asserted that the US and Western powers would soon get into

conflict with Japan, already entrenched in Asia, over hegemony in Asia. This would be an opportune

moment for the Korean people to rise up and drive out the Japanese, and so, the Association members

 must work in unison and prepare for the moment. As is clear from this statement of its purpose, the

Association believed that Korean independence could not be achieved by external forces and so, it should

be accomplished by the Koreans themselves. (PAGE 21-22)