The quest for Korean Independence was the embodiment of the ideals that President Woodrow Wilson sought to promoted at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, but this sovereignty plea was ahead of its time and met with resistance on all fronts by the bigger nations at Paris.
I find this quote comes closest to expressing Korea’s struggle against Japan and the other big nations; “when they seek to oppress you and destroy you; rise and rise again and again like The Phoenix from the ashes; until the lambs have become lions and the rule of Darkness is no more.” (1)
In this exhibit you can experience this journey and the diplomats, protestors and entrepreneurs that argued, fought and financed this independence movement from around the world. From rejection at the foot of the Versailles Palace in Paris to the brutal suppression of passionate non-violent protestors on the streets of Seoul, Korea. From the establishment of the first provisional government of the Republic of Korea in the conference halls of Shanghai to the first Korean Congress in the churches of Philadelphia.
These men and women laid the foundations for their country’s future, with their blood, sweat and tears and paid for it with every single penny they owned, rising and rising again until Korea was set free and Japan’s influence was banished from its country.