March 1, 1919
The March 1st Movement began, one of the earliest public displays of Korean resistance during the occupation of Korea by Japan. Inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” speech at the Paris Peace Conference in January, which outlined the right of national self-determination, 33 activists convened at a restaurant in Seoul, read aloud and signed the a Korean Declaration of Independence, and sent a copy to the Governor General. The movement leaders then telephoned the central police station to inform them of their actions and were arrested afterwards. Between March 1 (later in the day the Declaration was read aloud to a large crowd at Tapgol Park) and April 11, approximately 2 million nonviolent Koreans had participated in more than 1,500 demonstrations; many were massacred by the Japanese police force and army.
Bas Reliefs in Tapgol Park commemorate the first public reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence on March 1
