Week 4

There are two main things that stand out to me that prompted so many Koreans to fight against Japanese rule. Firstly, in the Korean Declaration of Independence it is said that Korea had not been ruled by an alien force for thousands of years (Declaration of Independence 1919) and in that time the Korean people most likely developed a sense of independence. It is in that sense of self-determination that once Japan enacted colonial rule in Korea, the natural reaction for Koreans would be to fight against this in order take back their independence that they held onto for so long. The second is mentioned by GW Shin where new ideologies were being learned by Koreans abroad so when they came back to their home country, they could use this knowledge to fight back against Japanese rule.

There are many times I have felt compelled to act in ways I would not usually do. A lot of the reasoning behind why I did those things is the thought of regret if I don’t take this opportunity to step out of my comfort zone. I think this feeling is inline with some of the Korean sentiment of “if we don’t act now who knows how long we will be under colonial rule.”