Yun Bong-gil (尹奉吉; June 21, 1908 – December 19, 1932) was a Korean independence activist, educator, poet, and writer of the Korean Empire. His clan seat was Papyeong (坡平). His childhood name was Yun Woo-ui (尹禹儀), and his pen name was Maeheon (梅軒). He was born in Deoksan (present-day Yesan County), S
Born~Died Jun 21, 1908 ~ Dec 19, 1932Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 2:51 PM
He was born on June 21, 1908, at Gwanghyeondang in Joryang-ri, Hyeonnae-myeon, Deoksan County, South Chungcheong Province (present-day Mokbari Village, lot 178, Siryang-ri, Deoksan-myeon, Yesan County). For a time in his early childhood he lived briefly in Yesan-ri, Yesan-eup, Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province. He was a descendant of Yun Gwan, a famous general of the Goryeo period. His father was Yun Hwang (尹墴), and his mother was Kim Won-sang (金元祥) of the Gyeongju Kim clan. In March 1911, at the age of four, he moved from Gwanghyeondang to Jeohandang, where he lived until the age of 23.2 In 1918 he enrolled at Deoksan Public School (present-day Deoksan Elementary School). However, he was strongly dissatisfied that Koreans were forced to avoid the Korean language and use Japanese, and that the principal was Japanese. The following year, when the March 1st Movement broke out, he was further stirred to action. Rejecting colonial slave education, in which students learned Japanese and were taught under a Japanese principal, he declared before his parents that he would of , and so he left school. Instead, he studied Chinese classics under Choi Byeong-dae (崔秉大), together with his younger brother Yun Seong-ui (尹聖儀). In 1921 he entered the private academy Ochi Seosook (烏峙書塾) of the Confucian scholar Sung Ju-rok (成周錄), known as Maegok, and became his student. At Ochi Seosook, Yun Bong-gil thoroughly studied Chinese classics such as the Four Books and Three Classics. In 1922, at the age of 15, he married Bae Yong-sun (裵用順) of the Seongju Bae clan. Because of his excellent academic record, in 1923, at the age of 16, he even won first place in the spring poetry contest at Ochi Seosook. In 1926 Yun Bong-gil received the pen name Maeheon (梅軒). In 1928, when he was 18, he published the poetry collections <Ochu> (嗚推), <Oksu> (玉睡), and <Imchu> (壬椎), among others. He graduated from Ochi Seosook in , completing his study of Chinese classics.
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In his youth he was deeply interested in the peasant movement. After graduating from Ochi Seosook in 1929, Yun Bong-gil began rural enlightenment activities, rural revitalization movements, night school activities, and reading club movements. In 1927 he wrote three volumes of a peasant primer. In 1928 he staged the fable "The Rabbit and the Fox" as a performance commemorating the establishment of Buheungwon, held monthly lecture meetings, and wrote <Diary of the Year Gisa> (己巳年 日記). He then organized the Wichin-gye (爲親契), Woljinhoe, Suam Athletic Association, and others.2
In 1930 he left home, leaving behind the phrase "A man who sets out from home with resolve does not return alive" (丈夫出家生不還), and crossed into China. Later, Japanese police obtained this information and tracked him down, and he was arrested in Seoncheon, Pyeongan Province, where he served 45 days in prison. After his release, he went into exile in Manchuria in China.
Bombing at Hongkou (Hongkou) Park (present-day Lu Xun Park)
In Shanghai, China, he sold vegetables to Chinese customers. In the winter of 1931, he sought out Kim Ku, then Premier of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and appealed for his determination to devote himself to the independence movement. He then joined the Korean Patriots' League led by Kim Ku. On April 29, 1932, Kim Ku planned to attack with bombs the celebration of the Emperor of Japan's birthday (the Tenchō Festival) and the commemoration of the victory in the capture of Shanghai, held at Hongkou Park (present-day Lu Xun Park) in Shanghai.3 After deliberation, they resolved to carry out the attack. At that time, more than 20,000 people gathered at Hongkou Park, including 10,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, 10,000 Japanese residents of Shanghai, and foreign envoys and invited guests from various fields.4
The bombs at that time were improvised explosives made in the shape of a bento lunchbox and a canteen, and their purpose was to disguise the bombs as a lunchbox and a canteen. At the Tenchō Festival and the Shanghai victory commemoration, no meals were provided, so the Japanese side had participants bring their own lunchboxes. It was exactly this gap that they exploited.
Disguised as a Japanese, Yun Bong-gil passed through the strict security cordon and entered the park. At 11 a.m., Lieutenant General Yoshinori Shirakawa, commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces stationed in China (the Tianjin Army), appeared, and then diplomats and guests in Shanghai took their seats. Military music sounded and a parade followed. When the Tenchō Festival ended, the diplomats and guests left, and only the Japanese remained to hold a banquet prepared by the Japanese Shanghai residents' association.
At 11:50 a.m., as the Japanese national anthem Kimigayo played and the attendees bowed in silent prayer, Yun Bong-gil took advantage of the opening, activated the detonator of the canteen bomb, and threw it forcefully. It struck the reviewing stage accurately.5 Taking advantage of the moment, after confirming that the bomb had hit the ceremonial platform, Yun Bong-gil activated the detonator of the lunchbox bomb in order to kill himself, but it failed to explode. At the moment the lunchbox bomb failed, Japanese military police rushed at Yun Bong-gil, swinging their clubs, and subdued him. Even while being subdued, Yun Bong-gil took out the hidden Taegukgi and waved it, shouting, "Let us overthrow Japanese imperialism!"6
After carrying out the bombing at Hongkou Park, Yun Bong-gil killed Yoshinori Shirakawa, commander-in-chief of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army3, and Sadaji Kawabata, head of the Shanghai Japanese Residents' Association. Consul General Murai was seriously wounded; Vice Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura, commander of the Third Fleet, was rendered blind; Lieutenant General Kenkichi Ueda, commander of the 9th Division, suffered severe injuries requiring amputation of a leg; and Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese Minister to China, had one leg amputated and became a physically disabled person with a crippled leg. Senior Japanese military officers collapsed here and there, bleeding, and the commemorative ceremony site became a scene of utter chaos.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang in China, said, "Something that more than 40 million of China's great armies could not accomplish has been accomplished by the Korean youth Yun Bong-gil. It is indeed a miracle," and he praised Yun Bong-gil highly. This became the catalyst for supporting the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. In recognition of his support for the Provisional Government alongside Sun Yat-sen, on November 25, 1953, he was posthumously awarded the Order of National Foundation Grand Order (first class).7
On the other hand, there is a claim that Japanese military police and police officers indiscriminately carried out massacres of Koreans whenever they saw them, but this was merely Japanese revenge, and it is difficult to conclude that it was the fault of the patriot.
Yun Bong-gil was subdued on the spot by Japanese military police, beaten, and dragged away covered in blood. Afterward, on May 25, 1932, he was sentenced to death by a military court of the Japanese Army. Japan subjected Yun Bong-gil to severe torture in an attempt to capture Kim Ku.
However, Yun Bong-gil did not reveal Kim Ku's whereabouts to the end, even while being tortured. Six months later, on November 18, 1932, he was placed aboard a passenger ship named "Taiyō Maru," a Japanese steamship, and imprisoned at the Osaka Military Prison. On December 18, he was sent to the Kanazawa Army Detention Facility for execution.
Then, on December 19, 1932, Yun Bong-gil was brought to the engineering workshop of the Kanazawa Army Prison. It is said that even just before his execution he had no fear at all, and rather remained calm, smiling at the corners of his mouth, without the slightest wavering. Yun Bong-gil's arms were bound to a wooden cross frame and his eyes were covered with cloth. When the jailer asked whether he had any last words, he replied that he had already resolved himself to death and had nothing to say. At 7:27 a.m., a bullet struck his forehead, and thirteen minutes later he breathed his last.
Last will
On December 18, 2005, the Maehon Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society released a handwritten copy of his last will on the 73rd anniversary of his martyrdom. Yun Bong-gil wrote his will on April 27, 1932, two days before the attack, immediately after surveying the park. On this occasion, Yun wrote four poems in about two hours: a poem on the attack, a poem of exhortation to the Joseon Youth League, a poem of respect for Kim Ku, and a will for his two sons. "If you too have blood and bone, you must surely become brave fighters for Joseon. Raise the Taegukgi high and pour a cup of liquor before my empty grave. And do not grieve that you have no father. You have a beloved mother……"8 The poem left to his two sons, Jong and Dam, is evaluated as containing his solemn state of mind before the attack and his regret at parting from his children.
Posthumous
Kim Ku, vice chairman of the National Assembly, asked Park Yeol, who was in Japan, to excavate the remains of the Three Patriots (Yun Bong-gil, Lee Bong-chang, and Baek Jeong-gi). Park Yeol, who took the post of chairman of the committee to enshrine the remains, together with Korean residents in Japan, excavated Yun Bong-gil's remains on March 6, 1946, from a garbage dump on the north side of the Noda Hill Municipal Public Cemetery in Kanazawa (金沢) city, 3 km south of the execution ground. On June 16 of the same year, the remains arrived in Seoul, and on June 30 they were interred with a national funeral. The burial site was Hyochang Park. In 1962, the government of South Korea posthumously awarded Yun Bong-gil the Order of National Foundation Grand Order (first class).
Commemorative projects
In 1965 a preparatory committee for the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society was formed, and on June 29 of the same year the memorial society was established. On December 19, 1965, the preparatory committee of the Maehon Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society was launched at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul.9
In 2012, an incident occurred in which a stake bearing insulting words was driven into his martyrdom monument in Japan, causing controversy.10
Memorial halls
In 1987, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of Yun Bong-gil's attack, the government of South Korea raised donations and established the Maehon Citizens' Forest Memorial Hall, the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall, in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Currently, the sub-station name of Yangjae Citizens' Forest station is also "Maehon," named after his pen name.
In 1963, Chungui Shrine was built in Deoksan-myeon, Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, Yun Bong-gil's hometown. In 1972, the birthplace, the old house, and the grounds of Chungui Shrine were designated Historic Site No. 229. In 1978, the shrine and the gate were entirely expanded, and the purification project of Chungui Shrine was completed.
Chungui Shrine is divided into four areas. The main hall area includes the shrine enshrining the martyr's portrait, Chungui Gate, Hongsalmun (red-arrow gate), and others. The memorial hall area includes the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall, a stele of his sayings, and an exhibition hall on peddlers. The growth area includes Jeohandang, where Yun Bong-gil lived from age four until age 23 before going into exile, the monument commemorating the attack, and a statue of Yun Bong-gil. The birthplace area includes Dojungdo, Gwanghyeondang, Buheungwon, and others.11
At the time, Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China, who had suffered a great blow to national pride from the Wanpaoshan incident with the Empire of Japan, heard news of Yun Bong-gil's bombing at Hongkou Park and admired it, saying, "What more than a million of China's great armies could not accomplish has been accomplished by a Korean youth. It is truly remarkable." It is said that this became an occasion for him to fully support the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, which he had previously paid little attention to.12 However, this admiration by Chiang Kai-shek has not been confirmed as fact in Baekbeom Kim Ku's memoir, <Baekbeom Ilji>, where such a remark would most likely appear, or in Chiang Kai-shek's diary.13 In Chiang Kai-shek's diary, however, there is confirmation that he highly praised the attack, writing, "An ancient man said that one cannot live under the same sky as the enemy of one's nation. Would those who engage in aggression by relying on military force to build merit not come to some realization?"13
The first president, Syngman Rhee, also evaluated that the reason Chiang Kai-shek proposed Korean independence at the Cairo Conference in 1943 and codified it in the declaration lay in Yun Bong-gil's attack.14
According to testimony by Jang Geon-sang, an independence activist and politician, Yun Bong-gil's attack became an occasion that drew support for the Provisional Government. He recalled: "Since the Provisional Government is being discussed, I will say this. In 1932, the attacks by Lee Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil, especially Yun Bong-gil's, came before the Provisional Government had been very lonely. Chiang Kai-shek regarded the Provisional Government as nothing and did not give even a single coin, and only after Yun Bong-gil's attack did Chiang Kai-shek fully support it."12 On the other hand, Pak Heon-yeong and Syngman Rhee evaluated Yun Bong-gil's attack negatively and devalued it. Pak Heon-yeong evaluated the Yun Bong-gil attack negatively, calling it "an activity of an extremely small number without the awakening and solidarity of the masses by class."1516
Kim Ku said that, with the outbreak of the Mukden Incident, Koreans living in China had become even more intimidated, and that Yun Bong-gil's act was a bold decision based on political and situational judgment.13 Syngman Rhee, however, criticized it, saying: "Such actions (the attack) are foolish, and they will only strengthen Japan's propaganda and will not bring independence to Korea."17
Controversies
Controversy over manipulation of the photographs
In 1999, Kang Hyo-baek, a professor at the Graduate School of International Law at Kyung Hee University, claimed that the arrest photograph taken after the Hongkou attack (right photo), which is now widely known, was fake. It was pointed out that the figure in the right photo and the figure in the title photo looked clearly different, and that Yun Bong-gil had never worn a bowler hat and did not wear a trench coat.
The government of South Korea did not state its position on this for a long time. Then, on October 8, 2008, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs answered, based on the claims of the Independence Hall of Korea, that the person in the photograph was certainly Yun Bong-gil. Professor Kang Hyo-baek responded with a rebuttal, and SBS Special also announced that it was producing a documentary on the matter.18
Among Yun Bong-gil's relatives, his cousin Yun Myeong-ui pointed out that the photo was not like the real Yun Bong-gil, saying, "He is wearing a Burberry coat that Mr. Yun never wore while alive." Meanwhile, Yun Bong-gil's wife Bae Yong-sun and his younger brother Yun Nam-ui testified in 1976 that the person in the photo was indeed Yun Bong-gil.19
Confirmation of manipulation
On March 1, 2011, the SBS Special documentary "Is the Man in the Arrest Photo Taken by the Japanese Yun Bong-gil?" revealed that the photograph of Yun Bong-gil had been manipulated. The Japanese Foreign Ministry police records of the Shanghai Consulate General state, "Yun Bong-gil was beaten unconscious and dragged away by soldiers and military police." Meanwhile, the two photographs published in an Asahi Shimbun article were also determined, through computer graphic analysis, not to show the same person.20
In July 1932, Pak Heon-yeong dealt with this incident under the title "What Does the Shanghai Bomb Incident Mean?" In it he stated, while premising that "Yun Bong-gil's attack was by no means murder, and it is truly satisfying that the representatives of Japan were killed and made 'cripples,'" that "individual terrorism has nothing to do with communism." In other words, Pak Heon-yeong held that "individual terrorism hinders the organized and mass struggle of the masses and implants in them the illusion of unorganized, individual struggle, which in the end becomes a weapon favorable to the enemy." ↩
He was born on June 21, 1908, at Gwanghyeondang in Joryang-ri, Hyeonnae-myeon, Deoksan County, South Chungcheong Province (present-day Mokbari Village, lot 178, Siryang-ri, Deoksan-myeon, Yesan County). For a time in his early childhood he lived briefly in Yesan-ri, Yesan-eup, Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province. He was a descendant of Yun Gwan, a famous general of the Goryeo period. His father was Yun Hwang (尹墴), and his mother was Kim Won-sang (金元祥) of the Gyeongju Kim clan. In March 1911, at the age of four, he moved from Gwanghyeondang to Jeohandang, where he lived until the age of 23.2 In 1918 he enrolled at Deoksan Public School (present-day ). However, he was strongly dissatisfied that Koreans were forced to avoid the Korean language and use Japanese, and that the principal was Japanese. The following year, when the broke out, he was further stirred to action. Rejecting colonial slave education, in which students learned Japanese and were taught under a Japanese principal, he declared before his parents that he would of , and so he left school. Instead, he studied Chinese classics under Choi Byeong-dae (崔秉大), together with his younger brother Yun Seong-ui (尹聖儀). In 1921 he entered the private academy Ochi Seosook (烏峙書塾) of the Confucian scholar Sung Ju-rok (成周錄), known as Maegok, and became his student. At Ochi Seosook, Yun Bong-gil thoroughly studied Chinese classics such as the Four Books and Three Classics. In 1922, at the age of 15, he married Bae Yong-sun (裵用順) of the Seongju Bae clan. Because of his excellent academic record, in 1923, at the age of 16, he even won first place in the spring poetry contest at Ochi Seosook. In 1926 Yun Bong-gil received the pen name Maeheon (梅軒). In 1928, when he was 18, he published the poetry collections <Ochu> (嗚推), <Oksu> (玉睡), and <Imchu> (壬椎), among others. He graduated from Ochi Seosook in , completing his study of Chinese classics.
In his youth he was deeply interested in the peasant movement. After graduating from Ochi Seosook in 1929, Yun Bong-gil began rural enlightenment activities, rural revitalization movements, night school activities, and reading club movements. In 1927 he wrote three volumes of a peasant primer. In 1928 he staged the fable "The Rabbit and the Fox" as a performance commemorating the establishment of Buheungwon, held monthly lecture meetings, and wrote <Diary of the Year Gisa> (己巳年 日記). He then organized the Wichin-gye (爲親契), Woljinhoe, Suam Athletic Association, and others.2
In 1930 he left home, leaving behind the phrase "A man who sets out from home with resolve does not return alive" (丈夫出家生不還), and crossed into China. Later, Japanese police obtained this information and tracked him down, and he was arrested in Seoncheon, Pyeongan Province, where he served 45 days in prison. After his release, he went into exile in Manchuria in China.
Bombing at Hongkou (Hongkou) Park (present-day Lu Xun Park)
In Shanghai, China, he sold vegetables to Chinese customers. In the winter of 1931, he sought out Kim Ku, then Premier of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and appealed for his determination to devote himself to the independence movement. He then joined the Korean Patriots' League led by Kim Ku. On April 29, 1932, Kim Ku planned to attack with bombs the celebration of the Emperor of Japan's birthday (the Tenchō Festival) and the commemoration of the victory in the capture of Shanghai, held at Hongkou Park (present-day Lu Xun Park) in Shanghai.3 After deliberation, they resolved to carry out the attack. At that time, more than 20,000 people gathered at Hongkou Park, including 10,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, 10,000 Japanese residents of Shanghai, and foreign envoys and invited guests from various fields.4
The bombs at that time were improvised explosives made in the shape of a bento lunchbox and a canteen, and their purpose was to disguise the bombs as a lunchbox and a canteen. At the Tenchō Festival and the Shanghai victory commemoration, no meals were provided, so the Japanese side had participants bring their own lunchboxes. It was exactly this gap that they exploited.
Disguised as a Japanese, Yun Bong-gil passed through the strict security cordon and entered the park. At 11 a.m., Lieutenant General Yoshinori Shirakawa, commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces stationed in China (the Tianjin Army), appeared, and then diplomats and guests in Shanghai took their seats. Military music sounded and a parade followed. When the Tenchō Festival ended, the diplomats and guests left, and only the Japanese remained to hold a banquet prepared by the Japanese Shanghai residents' association.
At 11:50 a.m., as the Japanese national anthem Kimigayo played and the attendees bowed in silent prayer, Yun Bong-gil took advantage of the opening, activated the detonator of the canteen bomb, and threw it forcefully. It struck the reviewing stage accurately.5 Taking advantage of the moment, after confirming that the bomb had hit the ceremonial platform, Yun Bong-gil activated the detonator of the lunchbox bomb in order to kill himself, but it failed to explode. At the moment the lunchbox bomb failed, Japanese military police rushed at Yun Bong-gil, swinging their clubs, and subdued him. Even while being subdued, Yun Bong-gil took out the hidden Taegukgi and waved it, shouting, "Let us overthrow Japanese imperialism!"6
After carrying out the bombing at Hongkou Park, Yun Bong-gil killed Yoshinori Shirakawa, commander-in-chief of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army3, and Sadaji Kawabata, head of the Shanghai Japanese Residents' Association. Consul General Murai was seriously wounded; Vice Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura, commander of the Third Fleet, was rendered blind; Lieutenant General Kenkichi Ueda, commander of the 9th Division, suffered severe injuries requiring amputation of a leg; and Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese Minister to China, had one leg amputated and became a physically disabled person with a crippled leg. Senior Japanese military officers collapsed here and there, bleeding, and the commemorative ceremony site became a scene of utter chaos.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang in China, said, "Something that more than 40 million of China's great armies could not accomplish has been accomplished by the Korean youth Yun Bong-gil. It is indeed a miracle," and he praised Yun Bong-gil highly. This became the catalyst for supporting the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. In recognition of his support for the Provisional Government alongside Sun Yat-sen, on November 25, 1953, he was posthumously awarded the Order of National Foundation Grand Order (first class).7
On the other hand, there is a claim that Japanese military police and police officers indiscriminately carried out massacres of Koreans whenever they saw them, but this was merely Japanese revenge, and it is difficult to conclude that it was the fault of the patriot.
Yun Bong-gil was subdued on the spot by Japanese military police, beaten, and dragged away covered in blood. Afterward, on May 25, 1932, he was sentenced to death by a military court of the Japanese Army. Japan subjected Yun Bong-gil to severe torture in an attempt to capture Kim Ku.
However, Yun Bong-gil did not reveal Kim Ku's whereabouts to the end, even while being tortured. Six months later, on November 18, 1932, he was placed aboard a passenger ship named "Taiyō Maru," a Japanese steamship, and imprisoned at the Osaka Military Prison. On December 18, he was sent to the Kanazawa Army Detention Facility for execution.
Then, on December 19, 1932, Yun Bong-gil was brought to the engineering workshop of the Kanazawa Army Prison. It is said that even just before his execution he had no fear at all, and rather remained calm, smiling at the corners of his mouth, without the slightest wavering. Yun Bong-gil's arms were bound to a wooden cross frame and his eyes were covered with cloth. When the jailer asked whether he had any last words, he replied that he had already resolved himself to death and had nothing to say. At 7:27 a.m., a bullet struck his forehead, and thirteen minutes later he breathed his last.
Last will
On December 18, 2005, the Maehon Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society released a handwritten copy of his last will on the 73rd anniversary of his martyrdom. Yun Bong-gil wrote his will on April 27, 1932, two days before the attack, immediately after surveying the park. On this occasion, Yun wrote four poems in about two hours: a poem on the attack, a poem of exhortation to the Joseon Youth League, a poem of respect for Kim Ku, and a will for his two sons. "If you too have blood and bone, you must surely become brave fighters for Joseon. Raise the Taegukgi high and pour a cup of liquor before my empty grave. And do not grieve that you have no father. You have a beloved mother……"8 The poem left to his two sons, Jong and Dam, is evaluated as containing his solemn state of mind before the attack and his regret at parting from his children.
Posthumous
Kim Ku, vice chairman of the National Assembly, asked Park Yeol, who was in Japan, to excavate the remains of the Three Patriots (Yun Bong-gil, Lee Bong-chang, and Baek Jeong-gi). Park Yeol, who took the post of chairman of the committee to enshrine the remains, together with Korean residents in Japan, excavated Yun Bong-gil's remains on March 6, 1946, from a garbage dump on the north side of the Noda Hill Municipal Public Cemetery in Kanazawa (金沢) city, 3 km south of the execution ground. On June 16 of the same year, the remains arrived in Seoul, and on June 30 they were interred with a national funeral. The burial site was Hyochang Park. In 1962, the government of South Korea posthumously awarded Yun Bong-gil the Order of National Foundation Grand Order (first class).
Commemorative projects
In 1965 a preparatory committee for the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society was formed, and on June 29 of the same year the memorial society was established. On December 19, 1965, the preparatory committee of the Maehon Yun Bong-gil Memorial Society was launched at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul.9
In 2012, an incident occurred in which a stake bearing insulting words was driven into his martyrdom monument in Japan, causing controversy.10
Memorial halls
In 1987, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of Yun Bong-gil's attack, the government of South Korea raised donations and established the Maehon Citizens' Forest Memorial Hall, the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall, in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Currently, the sub-station name of Yangjae Citizens' Forest station is also "Maehon," named after his pen name.
In 1963, Chungui Shrine was built in Deoksan-myeon, Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, Yun Bong-gil's hometown. In 1972, the birthplace, the old house, and the grounds of Chungui Shrine were designated Historic Site No. 229. In 1978, the shrine and the gate were entirely expanded, and the purification project of Chungui Shrine was completed.
Chungui Shrine is divided into four areas. The main hall area includes the shrine enshrining the martyr's portrait, Chungui Gate, Hongsalmun (red-arrow gate), and others. The memorial hall area includes the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall, a stele of his sayings, and an exhibition hall on peddlers. The growth area includes Jeohandang, where Yun Bong-gil lived from age four until age 23 before going into exile, the monument commemorating the attack, and a statue of Yun Bong-gil. The birthplace area includes Dojungdo, Gwanghyeondang, Buheungwon, and others.11
At the time, Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China, who had suffered a great blow to national pride from the Wanpaoshan incident with the Empire of Japan, heard news of Yun Bong-gil's bombing at Hongkou Park and admired it, saying, "What more than a million of China's great armies could not accomplish has been accomplished by a Korean youth. It is truly remarkable." It is said that this became an occasion for him to fully support the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, which he had previously paid little attention to.12 However, this admiration by Chiang Kai-shek has not been confirmed as fact in Baekbeom Kim Ku's memoir, <Baekbeom Ilji>, where such a remark would most likely appear, or in Chiang Kai-shek's diary.13 In Chiang Kai-shek's diary, however, there is confirmation that he highly praised the attack, writing, "An ancient man said that one cannot live under the same sky as the enemy of one's nation. Would those who engage in aggression by relying on military force to build merit not come to some realization?"13
The first president, Syngman Rhee, also evaluated that the reason Chiang Kai-shek proposed Korean independence at the Cairo Conference in 1943 and codified it in the declaration lay in Yun Bong-gil's attack.14
According to testimony by Jang Geon-sang, an independence activist and politician, Yun Bong-gil's attack became an occasion that drew support for the Provisional Government. He recalled: "Since the Provisional Government is being discussed, I will say this. In 1932, the attacks by Lee Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil, especially Yun Bong-gil's, came before the Provisional Government had been very lonely. Chiang Kai-shek regarded the Provisional Government as nothing and did not give even a single coin, and only after Yun Bong-gil's attack did Chiang Kai-shek fully support it."12 On the other hand, Pak Heon-yeong and Syngman Rhee evaluated Yun Bong-gil's attack negatively and devalued it. Pak Heon-yeong evaluated the Yun Bong-gil attack negatively, calling it "an activity of an extremely small number without the awakening and solidarity of the masses by class."1516
Kim Ku said that, with the outbreak of the Mukden Incident, Koreans living in China had become even more intimidated, and that Yun Bong-gil's act was a bold decision based on political and situational judgment.13 Syngman Rhee, however, criticized it, saying: "Such actions (the attack) are foolish, and they will only strengthen Japan's propaganda and will not bring independence to Korea."17
Controversies
Controversy over manipulation of the photographs
In 1999, Kang Hyo-baek, a professor at the Graduate School of International Law at Kyung Hee University, claimed that the arrest photograph taken after the Hongkou attack (right photo), which is now widely known, was fake. It was pointed out that the figure in the right photo and the figure in the title photo looked clearly different, and that Yun Bong-gil had never worn a bowler hat and did not wear a trench coat.
The government of South Korea did not state its position on this for a long time. Then, on October 8, 2008, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs answered, based on the claims of the Independence Hall of Korea, that the person in the photograph was certainly Yun Bong-gil. Professor Kang Hyo-baek responded with a rebuttal, and SBS Special also announced that it was producing a documentary on the matter.18
Among Yun Bong-gil's relatives, his cousin Yun Myeong-ui pointed out that the photo was not like the real Yun Bong-gil, saying, "He is wearing a Burberry coat that Mr. Yun never wore while alive." Meanwhile, Yun Bong-gil's wife Bae Yong-sun and his younger brother Yun Nam-ui testified in 1976 that the person in the photo was indeed Yun Bong-gil.19
Confirmation of manipulation
On March 1, 2011, the SBS Special documentary "Is the Man in the Arrest Photo Taken by the Japanese Yun Bong-gil?" revealed that the photograph of Yun Bong-gil had been manipulated. The Japanese Foreign Ministry police records of the Shanghai Consulate General state, "Yun Bong-gil was beaten unconscious and dragged away by soldiers and military police." Meanwhile, the two photographs published in an Asahi Shimbun article were also determined, through computer graphic analysis, not to show the same person.20
In July 1932, Pak Heon-yeong dealt with this incident under the title "What Does the Shanghai Bomb Incident Mean?" In it he stated, while premising that "Yun Bong-gil's attack was by no means murder, and it is truly satisfying that the representatives of Japan were killed and made 'cripples,'" that "individual terrorism has nothing to do with communism." In other words, Pak Heon-yeong held that "individual terrorism hinders the organized and mass struggle of the masses and implants in them the illusion of unorganized, individual struggle, which in the end becomes a weapon favorable to the enemy." ↩