This study analyzed Seodaemun Prison's Inmate Record Cards(6,259 cards) to discuss the age, social status and occupation, offense and sentence, and relationships of 1,013 inmates who were confined at Seodaemun Prison because of the 3.1 Movement betwee...
This study analyzed Seodaemun Prison's Inmate Record Cards(6,259 cards) to discuss the age, social status and occupation, offense and sentence, and relationships of 1,013 inmates who were confined at Seodaemun Prison because of the 3.1 Movement between 1919 and 1920.
The inmates(收監者) had a wide distribution of age from teens to the 60s. In particular, 42% were in their 20s and participated most actively. There were about 70 kinds of occupations, from students, religious leaders, and teachers to merchants, business owners, and labor workers. They participated in the 3.1 Movement in their own ways. Chiefs, secretaries, and assistant police officers of town office, who were considered the pawns of the Japanese Imperial Rule, also participated in the Movement, manifesting that it was a national movement for the people of Joseon.
The inmates were recorded as political criminals who ‘violated the Security Act(保安法 違反), etc.’ and over 99% of them were sentenced to over 6 months in prison, which was longer than the sentences for general crimes. Japan treated them as political criminals because the 3.1 Movement was considered as a reformation movement.
The inmates' mutual relationships were tracked to find that they were mostly related by kinship(血緣), regionalism(地緣), school relation(學緣) background. In other words, the 3.1 Movement quickly spread nationwide through kinship, regionalism, school relation as an active movement.
This study concluded that the 3.1 Movement was not a mere ‘movement’, but a political reformation movement to reform the Japanese Imperial Rule.