Early life and education
Yu Gwan-sun was born into the Goheung Ryu clan on December 16, 1902, near Cheonan, in South Chungcheong Province of Korea as the second child of three children. Her family was influenced by her grandfather Ryu Yoon-gi and her uncle Ryu Joong-moo, who were Protestants, and she also grew up in this atmosphere. She was considered an intelligent child and could memorize Bible passages after hearing them only once. She attended the school Ewha Hakdang, today known as Ewha Womans University, through a scholarship program that required recipients to work as a teacher after graduation. At the time, few women in the country attended university. In 1919 while a student at the Ewha Girls' High School, she witnessed the beginnings of thePolitical activism
On March 1, 1919, Seoul was overflowing with marches by people nationwide protesting Japanese occupation of Korea. After this protest, organizers arrived at Ewha Haktang and encouraged Yu and her friends to join a demonstration that would take place in three days on March 5th, 1919. Together with her classmates, Yu marched to Namdaemun in Central Seoul. There, they were detained by the police, but were shortly freed after missionaries from their school negotiated for their release. Yu left Seoul after the Japanese government ordered all Korean schools to close on March 10 in response to the protests. She returned to her village of Jiryeong-ri (now Yongdu-ri) and there, she took a more active role in the movement.Famous Koreans: Six Portraits -Ryu, Kwan-Sun (1904–20)Aunae Market demonstration and arrest
Along with her family, Yu went door to door and encouraged the public to join the independence movement, which was starting to take shape. She spread the word of an organized demonstration that she planned with Cho In-won and Kim Goo-Eung and rallied the people from neighboring towns, includingImprisonment and utterance
After her arrest, Yu was initially detained at Cheonan Japanese Military Police Station and later transferred to Gongju Police Station. At her trial, she argued that the proceedings were controlled by the Japanese colonial government, the law of the governor-general of Korea, and was overseen by an assigned Japanese judge. Despite her attempts to obtain a fair trial, she was found guilty of sedition and security law violations and received a five-year sentence at Seodaemun Prison in Seoul. During her imprisonment, Yu's continued support for the independence movement resulted in her being severely punished and tortured in prison. On March 1, 1920, Yu prepared a large-scale protest with her fellow inmates to mark the movement's first anniversary. Yu was imprisoned separately in an isolated cell. She died on September 28, 1920 from injuries sustained from torture and beatings in prison. According to records discovered in November 2011, 7,500 of the 45,000 arrested in relation to the protests during that period died at the hands of Japanese authorities. "Japan will fall", she wrote while in prison:After death
Japanese prison officials initially refused to release Yu's body in an attempt to hide evidence of torture. Authorities eventually released her body in a Saucony Vacuum Company oil crate due to threats made by Lulu Frey and Jeannette Walter, the principals of Yu's school, who voiced their suspicions of torture to the public. Walter, who dressed Yu for her funeral, later assured the public in 1959 that her body had not been cut into pieces as alleged. On October 14, 1920, Yu's funeral was held at Jung-dong Church by Reverend Kim Jong-wu and her body was buried in a public cemetery in Seoul's Itaewon district. The cemetery was later destroyed. After national liberation in 1945, a shrine was built in the township of Byeongcheon-myeon with the cooperation of Chungcheongnam-do Province and the Cheonan army. Since 1946, a memorial service organized by people from Ewha Womans University has honored Yu. Around this time, people who took Yu's coffin from Seodaemun Prison opened the box, and this triggered rumors that the body had been cut into pieces. Her body was buried in Itaewon Cemetery, but the body disappeared while the Japanese Empire was moving the tomb to make it a military base. Currently, her grave in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, has no body.Legacy
Yu became known as "Korea'sDeclaration of independence by the women of Korea
"Today, when the world claims peace (…), we must live under the rule of law, but we must live without fear and fear for our own children. It is our duty to become an active new nation under the rule of independence and to follow these teachers in the basement of Gucheon without any difficulties. With tears rising from the soy sauce and hard work coming from the music, we will lie down on our beloved fellow Koreans! Do not let the time be too early to do anything; let the work run fast."Award of Yu Gwan-sun
In South Chungcheong Province, a group of women (include students) or group that have contributed to the development of the nation and the community are selected from all over the country, honoring the patriot Yu Gwan-sun.Name spelling
Yu Gwan-sun was born into the Goheung Ryu clan. In the South Korean standard of the Korean language, the initial ㄹ at the start of words is dropped when spoken, and is called the "initial sound rule" (두음법칙). In Yu Gwan-sun's case, the pronunciation of the family name 柳 becomes 유 even if its canonical ("dictionary") pronunciation is 류. This convention is also understood in written Korean, and native readers will recognise both written 유 and 류 as references to the same underlyingPopular Culture
Film
* Portrayed by Go Chun-hee in the 1948 film ''Yu Gwan-sun'' * Portrayed by Do Geum-bong in the 1959 film ''Yu Gwan-sun'' * Portrayed byAnimation
* Portrayed by Jung Mi-sook in the 1993-1994 KBS animation series ''Cho-ryong's Old Travel''Art and Poetry
* Figures in the book ''Dictee'' by Theresa Hak Kyung ChaFurther reading
*Shin, Gi-Wook, and Rennie Moon. 2019. “1919 In Korea: National Resistance and Contending Legacies.” ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' 78 (2). Cambridge University Press: 399–408.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Gwansun 1902 births 1920 deaths 20th-century Korean people 20th-century Korean women People from Cheonan Korean Methodists Korean independence activists Prisoners who died in Japanese detention Korean children Korean people who died in prison custody Ewha Womans University alumni Korean torture victims Female murder victims 1920 murders in Asia