Independence battlefields discovered

Four battlefields of the army for independence of Korea were located in Manchuria for the first time.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs of the Republic of Korea revealed Aug. 8 that they had confirmed for the first time in Korea four historical landmarks, including a battlefield at Gumaling in Jian city, Jilin Province, where 42 soldiers of the Korean independence army were killed. The discovery came amid a search for landmarks of the Korean independence movement against Japanese rule in the Manchuria region.

Forthy-two soldiers, including Choi Seok-Sun, head of the army, were attacked and killed by Japanese police March 16, 1925, while they were holding a strategy meeting at Gumaling. It is remembered as the most disastrous incident for the Korean independence army. The place has become a bean field, and only the site of the troops¡¯ quarters remains.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs also ascertained the shooting spot beside the Masitan River in North Pyongan Province, where eight soldiers of Chameubu, a Korean independence force, shot Saito Makoto, the Japanese governor general of Korea at the time. The exact spot of the assassination is revealed to be a hill beside the Yalu River in Jilin Province.

The ministry also confirmed the site of Buk-il school, a private school for Koreans erected by Lee Dong-Hui in Jilin Province.

In addition, the ministry ascertained the site of the church in Lungjing City in Jilin Province, which is called Jeamri in Manchuria, where residents of a Korean Christian village were massacred. The ministry revealed that the site has become an orchard.

The ministry formed an investigation team composed of Korean and Chinese scholars, and investigated the sites of the independence movement against Japanese rule in the Manchuria region from 27 June to the end of July last year.