Korean Independence Movement - Tactics

Tactics

There was no main strategy or tactic that was prevalent throughout the entire resistance movement, but there were prominent stages where certain tactics or strategies were prominent throughout the movement. From 1905 to 1910, most of the movement’s activities were closed off to the elite class or rare scholar. During this time period, militaristic and violent attempts were taken to resist the Japanese and most of the attempts were not organized, scattered, and leaderless to prevent arrests and surveillance by Japan. From 1910 to 1919, was the time of education during the colonial era. During this time was when many Korean textbooks on grammar and spelling were circulated in schools. It started the trend of intellectual resistance to the Japanese rule. This educating time period along with Woodrow Wilson’s progressive principles, created an aware, nationalist, and eager student population. After the March 1st movement of 1919, strikes became prominent in the movement. Up to 1945, universities were used as a haven and source of students who further supported the movement. This support system in schools led to the improvement of school facilities in Korea. From 1911 to 1937, Korea was dealing with economic problems along with the rest of the world, which was going through the Great Depression after World War I. There were many labor complaints that contributed to the grievances against Japan’s colonial rule. During this time period, there were 159,061 disputes with workers concerned with wages and 1018 disputes involving 68,686 farmers in a tenant position. In 1926 the disputes started to increase at a fast pace and movements concerning labor emerged more within the Independence Movement.