A Brief History of the Korean National Debt Redemption Movement

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3 Frist printed on December 30, 2016 Published on December 30, 2016 Publisher The Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement Advisers Research Institute of Donation & Responsibility 670 Guchaebosang-ro, Jung-Gu, Daegu Metropolitan City TEL : (+82) , (+82) FAX : (+82) master@gukchae.com A Brief History of the Korean National Debt Redemption Movement c 2016 Chang-Ok Um, Dong-Eon Lee, Kyoung-Kyu Lee, Young-Chul Kim : The Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers Design Jeong-Ho Lee + Design DOT TEL (+82)

4 FOREWORD A nation that has experienced a history of rising as one, galvanized by the urgent purpose of saving their country Korea has archived a rich trove of documentary records and historical materials concerning the National Debt from crisis, is a blessed nation. The blissful feeling comes from a shared confidence in their country, which in turn is Redemption Movement. Through these sources we can see how the movement began and how it spread with the derived from the belief that, when individuals face crisis, they would be able to overcome it with assistance from other passionate participation of people from all walks of life in all regions of the country. The extant documents include members of their community. The movement undertaken by the Korean people to repay their government s debt in manifestos and declarations launching donation gathering campaigns in numerous localities, solicitation letters calling 1907 is evidence that they shared such confidence. for participation and lists of donors and the amounts of their contributions compiled in ledger books by local donation gathering offices and diligently reported in newspapers. The movement abounds with moving anecdotes of giving and At the onset of the 20th century, Korea was on the brink of losing sovereignty as its government was unable to pay commitment to the cause. Newspapers avidly reported on the activities of the movement, as evidenced in abundant back huge loans coercively imposed by Japan as part of its colonialist schemes. As news about the looming danger collections of press materials. In the course of sorting out and compiling these valuable documentary sources, we spread among the people, fundraising campaigns mushroomed across the country to help repay the state s external have come to the realization that the movement was far more than an insignificant campaign that occurred in a small debt and thereby safeguard the national sovereignty. Spearheading the movement were not the elite bureaucrats who country at the tip of Northeast Asia at the dawn of the 20th century. The spirit of the movement lives on in our times in could no longer find a way out of the predicament; instead, it was driven by ordinary people merchants, intellectuals, the 21st century as an exemplar to international civic society. working class commoners, even students and young children, as well as butchers, thieves, hostesses at high-end As the world s economies in this century face crises and suffer prolonged recession due to accumulated foreign restaurants (gisaeng) and concubines, who belonged to the lowest strata of society. This is what we call today the debts, we believe that the 20th century movement undertaken by the Korean people to repay the national debt bears National Debt Redemption Movement. But how could those people help pay back the huge amount of foreign debt? consideration as a viable alternative strategy. This is because, among other reasons, the movement pointed out the They came up with a solution within their reach. They vowed to quit smoking to save and donate their tobacco money; moral hazard on the part of the creditor nation while emphasizing the debtor s responsibility; by questioning the sold firewood gathered in the mountains, reduced spending on groceries; women disposed of valuables like rings and creditor s responsibility as well as that of the debtor, the movement offered ideas to think about toward a new global hairpins, and some families sold their homes or clan lands handed down to them through generations. The donation financial order. campaigns were carried out with great zeal for more than a year with extensive participation by people all over the It is a great pleasure to publish this book on the history of the National Debt Redemption Movement, explaining its country. In the course of the civic campaigns waged in unprecedented scale in the nation s history, a new citizenry was philosophy, procedures and consequences for readers around the world. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude emerging who would take responsibility for the fate of the country. However, the movement ended without achieving to Mr. Lee Dong-eon, a researcher at the Independence Hall of Korea, for his painstaking efforts to produce a wonderful its intended objective. Japan employed all possible means to foil the movement. In 1910 Korea became a colony of Japan. manuscript; and Professors Kim Yeong-cheol, Lee Gyeong-gyu and Um Chang-ok, members of the board of directors of the Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement, for their insightful guidance and contributions. We in the association hope that the international civic society would share the spirit of Korea s National Debt Redemption Movement through this book so that they would be able to help overcome global polarization due to financial control, seek a new international order of sovereign debts that can prevent the tyranny of speculative capital, and raise the global economy s awareness of responsibility for the low-income countries caught in the vicious grip of poverty and insurmountable debt. We thereby hope to help shape a better future for the global community. In the face of such grim circumstances, the Korean people s spirit of civic responsibility inspired ceaseless struggles, armed resistance against Japan, the national independence movement of March 1, 1919, and the campaign to promote Korean-made products to support Korean-owned businesses. We believe that this strong sense of patriotic responsibility was key in sustaining the Korean people through harsh subjugation until national liberation in 1945, which ended Japan s colonial rule of 35 years. The movement found a resounding echo a century later in another civic campaign by the Korean people to save their country from imminent default on foreign debts. In the throes of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Korean people once again stepped up to help their government repay external debts with gold gathered through a donation campaign. The gold-gathering campaign in Korea drew attention and admiration from the global community. Michel Camdessus, then managing director of the International Monetary Fund, expressed respect for the Korean people when he witnessed their ardor. In a press interview in 2012, Jim Yong Kim, the incumbent president of the World Bank, lauded the gold donation movement by the Korean people as an example of civic solidarity in coping with national crisis. December 2016 Shin Dong-hak Chairman Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement

5 Ⅰ / Ⅳ / Ⅶ / Background of the Movement The Movement Sweeps the Countryside End of the Movement 1 / Northeast Asia in the Late 19th Century 2 / Japan s Huge Coercive Loans Ⅱ / Beginnings of the Movement / North Gyeongsang Province 2 / South Gyeongsang Province 3 / South Jeolla Province 4 / North Jeolla Province 5 / South Chungcheong Province 6 / North Chungcheong Province 7 / Gyeonggi Province 8 / Gangwon Province 9 / North Korean Region and Overseas 10 / Participation by Region / Plots to Thwart the Movement Ⅷ / Global Significance of the Movement / Looming Crisis of Colonial Occupation Gives Rise to a Nationalist Movement 2 / Voluntary Civic Campaign to Repay the National Debt 3 / Campaign Becomes a Movement 4 / Daegu Sets Off the Movement Ⅴ / Participation of Women in the Movement 1 / Grassroots Exercise of Civic Duty 2 / Catalyst for Debate on a New Financial Order 3 / Birth of Communitarian Civic Culture 4 / Pacifist Resistance to Imperialist Aggression 5 / Fulfillment of Civic Responsibility / Women's Role in the Movement 2 / Women's Organizations Ⅲ / Ⅵ / Nationwide Spread of the Movement Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 1 / Extensive Role of the Press 2 / National Headquarters of the Movement / The Donors 2 / The Donations 3 / Trends of Participation

6 Ⅰ/ Background of the Movement

7 Background of the Movement 1 / Northeast Asia in the Late 19th Century 11 Northeast Asia in the late 19th century was an arena of intense rivalry and imperial ambition among old and young world powers. Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States competed with each other to carve out colonies in the region in order to extract resources and profits through large scale investments in industrial mining, commercial agriculture, plants and factories, railways and other projects. Japan, having achieved modernization through the 1868 Meiji Restoration, joined in the exploitation of Northeast Asia. The Opium Wars between China and Western countries, the First Sino Japanese War fought mainly over control of Joseon Dynasty Korea, and the Russo Japanese War, which took place in Qing Dynasty China, brought Western and Japanese military powers into the Northeast Asian region and destroyed imperial China, which became the main target of predatory foreign interests. Japan defeated China in the First Sino Japanese War and, with the signing of the Shimonoseki Treaty which brought an end to the war, severed China s suzerainty over Korea, and then gained uncontested control of Korea with its victory in its war against Russia in 1905.

8 Background of the Movement 2 / Japan Introduces Huge Coercive Loans 12 Korea first opened its doors to the outside world in 1876 with the signing of the Ganghwa Treaty with Japan and trade and diplomatic treaties with other world powers to introduce foreign goods and systems soon followed. Imperial Japan took meticulous steps to colonize Korea, eventually forcing it to conclude a protectorate treaty in 1905 which deprived the Joseon court of its diplomatic rights. As the Japanese Residency-General in Seoul carried out political and economic aggression on Korea, the Korean people made desperate efforts to protect their national sovereignty against the looming threat of complete colonization by Japan. Under its scheme to achieve economic control of Korea, Japan coerced the Joseon government to accept large loans from the time of the 1894 Sino Japanese War. On August 22, 1904, shortly before the signing of the protectorate treaty, Korea s acting Foreign Minister Yun Chi-ho and Japanese envoy Hayashi Gonske signed an agreement (the first Korea Japan protocol) on installing foreign advisors in the Joseon government. Under this agreement, D.W. Stevens, an American advisor to the Japanese legation in Washington, was named diplomatic advisor to King Gojong; Megata Tanetaro, a bureau chief at the Japanese Finance Ministry, was made financial advisor; Maruyama Shigetoshi was appointed security advisor; and Shidehara Hiroshi was made education counselor. These foreign advisors virtually controlled the state s administration of external affairs, finance, the police, public education and culture. Of them, Megata, assigned to the Finance Ministry, held sway over the financial affairs of the government of Joseon. A political map of Northeast Asia in the early 20th century. Inset, major powers are caricatured in confrontation around the Korean peninsula. From the April 3, 1904 issue of Le Petit Parisien. Megata controlled the finances of the royal court, directed currency operations, and brought in huge loans from Japan in a scheme to tie Korea to the Japanese economy, eventually under a colonial system. In June 1905, under the pretext of stabilizing the Korean currency, Korea was granted a 3 million won loan from the Japanese Daiichi Bank, with Korea s customs income as collateral. Subsequently, 2 million won in Japanese public bonds was borrowed to pay back old debts and fill a budget deficit, followed by a 1.5 million won loan lent by the Japanese government to increase lines of credit for the Cheonil and Hanseong banks of Korea and supplement funds to establish some provincial banks. 13

9 Background of the Movement 14 Following the establishment of the Japanese Residency-General in Seoul in March 1906, loans totaling 16.5 million won were obtained from Japan, including 10 million won borrowed from Japan s Kogyo Bank ostensibly for administrative restructuring and industrial financing. A large part of these loans was spent for the construction of facilities in the residential areas of Japanese settlers in Korea and for other purposes as directed by the Japanese authorities. As of February 1907, when the National Debt Redemption Movement was launched, Korea s foreign debt amounted to 13 million won, which was almost equal to Korea s annual national budget. 15 Signing of the Japan Korea Treaty of Amity, also known as the Treaty of Gwanghwa Island, in Introduced under Megata s scheme to disrupt Korea s financial system and place it under Japanese control, these loans, released in four tranches, carried high interest charges. For example, the last 10 million won loan from Kogyo Bank was repayable in five years at an annual interest rate of 6.6 percent after a five-year grace period. Korea s tariffs on imports were secured as collateral for the foreign loans. To make matters worse, 1 million won out of the 10 million won Kogyo Bank loan was embezzled by Japanese authorities and only 9 million won was delivered to the Korean government. In March 1906, the Japanese bank remitted 5 million won, but only 4.5 million won reached Korean authorities; the remaining portion dribbled in unpredictably at the discretion of the Japanese Residency-General. The original Japanese-language document of the Japan Korea Treaty of Amity. Of the total 13 million won in loans released to Korea by April 1907, 3 million won was distributed to Korean banks and corporations, 3.7 million won was used for piped water facilities and public sanitation improvement programs, 3 million won went toward supporting Korean students study in Japan, and some 1 million won went to the pockets of Japanese agents. It is apparent that most of the Japanese loans were executed under the general objective of economically subjugating Korea. As the Korean government s annual expenditures amounted to 13,950,523 won that year against total revenues of 13,189,336 won, there was simply no capacity for repaying the foreign loans. As the people became aware of the critical problem of the onerous Japanese loans, to prevent their nation from becoming a Japanese possession, in February 1907 ordinary Koreans launched a voluntary public campaign to repay the debts.

10 Ⅱ/ Beginnings of the Movement

11 Beginnings of the Movement 1 / Looming Crisis of Colonial Occupation Gives Rise to a Nationalist Movement Upon the forcible signing of the Protectorate Treaty in November 1905 and subsequent establishment of the Japanese Residency-General in the Korean capital, Koreans stood up to protect their national sovereignty from Japanese imperialist aggression. A major aim of the people s voluntary movements was to enlighten the grassroots through patriotic education and another was to organize volunteer militias across the country for armed struggle. 19 While the irregular troops fought against the powerful Japanese army, Korean intellectuals started a campaign to develop the nation s capabilities which they recognized were far inferior to the Japanese. It was to be a long, unarmed war. The two movements, despite their different approaches, essentially supplemented each other. The enlightenment movement produced able members for the volunteer fighting groups and leaders of the education campaign who established overseas bases in China and Russia to support armed struggles for independence against the Japanese aggressors. The exploits of these volunteer militias raised the morale and passion of enlightenment campaigners who accelerated their endeavors to develop the intellectual strength of their compatriots. Doomed Korean militia offensive in 1907, which was triggered by a series of events that led to Joseon s demise, including the forced abdication of King Gojong and the Japan Korea Treaty of 1907, also known as the Seven Article Treaty of the Jeongmi Year in Korea. The patriotic enlightenment movement was first led by the Heonjeong Yeonguhoe (Constitutional Research Society) which concentrated on the political education of the public. Following the 1905 Protectorate Treaty, the Daehan Jaganghoe (Korea Self-Strengthening Society) took over to form provincial branches across the nation. Sinminhoe (Modern Citizens Society) and Daehan Hyeophoe (Korean Association) were also engaged in the enlightenment campaign along with the literary clubs Seowoo Hakhoe (Academic Society of Western Fellows) and Hanbuk Heunghakhoe (Hanbuk Academic Promotion Society) which

12 Beginnings of the Movement 2 / Voluntary Civic Campaign to Repay the National Debt were active in provincial areas. Koreans studying overseas organized the Daehan Hakhoe (Korean Academic Society) and the Taegeuk Hakhoe (Supreme Ultimate Academic Society) to call for the development of the nation s strength. On January 29, 1907, Gwangmunsa Co., a publishing house in the southeastern city of Daegu, held a special meeting to launch the Daedong Gwangmunhoe literary club. Seo Sangdon, a member, made an important proposal. He said: 20 The National Debt Redemption Movement was launched as a practical step in the direction of the unarmed enlightenment campaign. It developed into a nationwide drive by inspiring people s self-awareness to stave off the national crisis in the face of looming Japanese colonization. The Dandong Gwangmunhoe, originally a literary society which initiated the debt repayment movement, was a patriotic organization dedicated to public enlightenment education. Classroom instruction at Yugyeong Gongwon, one of the first Westernstyle public schools established in Seomun (West Gate) Market in Daegu, where local residents held a rally on February 21, 1907, to launch a campaign to repay the national debt. If we cannot repay the national debt amounting to 13 million won, we Koreans would be forced to sell our territory to come up with the money. We, the 20 million people of Korea, should do something to help the state get out of the yoke. One way is for all people to stop smoking for three months to collect enough funds to repay the national debt. Everyone agreed and Seo s proposal was unanimously adopted. Seo himself started the campaign by donating 800 won. Kim Gwang-je, president of Daegu Gwangmunsa, discarded his pipe and tobacco case, and donated 10 won in addition to 60 jeon (100 jeon = 1 won), his usual three months expense for smoking. More than 2,000 won was collected on the spot as all the club members joined in the campaign. At that time, 20 liters of rice cost 1.8 won, a county office clerk was paid 15 won a month and a monthly newspaper subscription was 30 jeon. The meeting elected Park Hae-ryeong as the president of the newly-named Daedong Gwangmunhoe (roughly translated, Great Eastern Literary Society ). Kim Gwang-je was elected vice president. On February 21, 1907, 500 won was collected by a group of Daegu residents who formed a non-smoking society in a meeting of the Daegu Citizens Forum. The participants included Daedong Gwangmunhoe president Seo Sang-don and its members Kim Yun-ran [Kim Byeong-sun], Jang Sang-cheol, Kang Yeong-ju, Seo Jeong-seop, Kim U-geun, Seo Byeong-o, Yun Ha-seon, Jeong Jae-deok, Yi Jong-jeong, Gil Yeong-su, Yi U-yeol, Kang Sin-gyu, Jeong Gyu-ok and Cheon Gyo-jeong. On the same day, the Daegu Citizens Forum held a rally at Bukhujeong Pavilion and issued the Manifesto for National Debt Redemption Movement, an impassioned plea for the Korean people to prove their loyalty to their nation and sovereign in that time of crisis: 21

13 Beginnings of the Movement Manifesto for Redemption of 13 Million Won National Debt We hereby address you earnestly. History has proven that when leaders and people are loyal, their nation rises and when they are not, their nation falls. The present Europe again demonstrates that a nation s fate depends entirely on the loyalty of its people. Aside from the lessons of ancient history and the affairs of faraway Europe, we witness the case right in our Oriental neighbor Japan. In Japan s wars with China and Russia, the smaller country could beat its larger enemies because of the exploits of Japanese suicide squads who penetrated the showers of blood and flesh like running into paradise. People at home sold shoes they made and women donated their rings to provide for war expenses, thereby enabling their military to achieve a great victory unprecedented in the history of the East and the West that brought prestige and glory to the nation. This is due to the absolute loyalty of each and every one of the 50 million Japanese people, which fully deserves our respect and admiration. Alas, we 20 million people of Korea are just watching His Majesty struggle alone from early morning till night, while no one offers any plan or resolve to overcome the worst national adversity of today. Don t we have anything to do but wait for the collapse of the nation with our arms folded? Examples of nations collapsing and people perishing are found in the modern history of Egypt, Vietnam and Poland. If we are content with the survival of our own bodies and homes without caring for the nation and king, we shall fall into the abyss of national collapse. Isn t it time for us to awaken ourselves and exercise loyalty? The nation has 13 million won in foreign debts which will decide the fate of Daehan [Korea]. We will survive if we can pay back the debts but we will inevitably collapse if we cannot. Because the national treasury can hardly repay the debts, we 20 million people should do it ourselves. If we quit smoking for three months, with each one saving 20 jeon a month, we can make 13 million won. If a nationwide collection falls short of the targeted amount, there may be bigger donors of 1 won, 10 won, 100 won or 1,000 won. Determining to fulfill our national duty in such a way may be comparable to the acts of the Japanese suicide squads on the battlefield. We can make straw shoes to sell and collect rings to donate; we need not count which is more difficult or more valuable. If we 20 million people have even the least bit of loyalty to the nation, no one will ever complain. We are hereby making this proposal and appealing to the nation with bloody tears. We humbly hope that all subjects of the nation will pass this message to others by word of mouth and writing letters and we will be most happy if everyone participates in the movement, thereby answering to the grace of His Majesty above and preserving the territory of the nation below. 23 February 21, 1907 Kim Gwang-je, President of Daegu Gwangmunsa Seo Sang-don, Vice President of Daegu Gwangmunsa

14 Beginnings of the Movement 24 This manifesto was reported by the newspaper Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News) on the same day, sparking a nationwide donation campaign. The newspaper prominently covered the progress of what was then called the National Debt Redemption Movement and published encouraging massages day after day. Jang Ji-yeon described the Daegu public rally in his editorial in the ninth edition of the Daehan Jaganghoe Wolbo, the monthly journal of the Korea Self-Strengthening Society, as follows: On the 9th day of the first lunar month, several hundreds of people including Dalgubeol [Daegu] gentleman Seo Sang-don led a rally which gathered tens of thousands of men and women, old and young. Gentleman Park Jeong-dong first went to the rostrum and explained the serious problem of the national debt. He said: Our government s annual revenue of no more than 14 million won is not even enough to cover expenditures, let alone pay back the huge foreign debt. When the loan period expires and the lenders demand repayment, we will not be able to keep our territory intact and the people will be evicted from this land. Then how can we repay the national debt? We feel cold without clothes, we feel hungry without food, and we cannot live without a house, but we can stop smoking which is useless in our life. If we quit smoking for three months and each person saves 1 won from the tobacco expenses, then we can raise 12 million won, excluding women who do not smoke, and we will be free from worry about the foreign debt. Announcement of a campaign to repay the national debt of 13 million won, carried by the Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News) on February 21, All at the rally approved the proposal by thunderous acclamation and opened their pockets to participate in the donation campaign. Voices of encouragement reverberated like rain falling down in a heavy downpour.

15 Beginnings of the Movement 3 / Campaign Grows into a Movement 26 Old and young gentlemen, ladies in colorful dresses, tavern madams, old women selling tea, crippled beggars, butchers, students with books in their arms and kids playing with shuttlecocks all were roused in excitement with tears in their eyes. Several hundred won was quickly collected during the day, which showed the strength of the people s passion... The manifesto and proposal for the public donation campaign to repay the foreign debt suggested practical steps to raise 13 million won. Tobacco was one of the typical goods that Japanese merchants traded in Korea, making exorbitant profits. As Korea had yet to establish a state monopoly system for tobacco, Japanese merchants freely sold cigarettes in Korea as well as many kinds of military supplies. The Korean government imposed a 20 percent tariff on Japanese cigarettes but military supplies were imported tax-free. A Japanese military contractor in Daegu sold military-issue cigarettes at his Daepan Wonjeon shop in the Seomun (West Gate) Market. To meet the high demand from Korean smokers, Japanese businessmen produced cigarettes in factories in Seoul and Busan. On February 23, 1907, just two days after the Bukhujeong rally, some women in Daegu formed a jewelry disposal club during a meeting in Namil-dong to join in the National Debt Redemption Movement. The leaders gave their valuable items to the movement promoters and distributed copies of the donation proposal to other women. At the time, Korean society was still strongly male-dominated and women were discouraged from participating in social activities. The ladies of Daegu asserted that there could be no exclusion of women in the exercise of patriotism and their appeals significantly influenced women across the country to change their traditional thinking. On February 24, there was a big donation event at the Seomun Market where low-income straw shoes sellers, bean sprout growers, tavern owners, food vendors and rice cake makers gathered to donate their hard-earned money in amounts of jeon to 1 2 won. Many well-off men, including scholars and rich businesspeople, were shamed to see the women s spontaneous response to the appeals for donation and they eventually became active participants. 27 As the movement spread nationwide, a fundraising center was set up in the capital city of Seoul, followed by satellite offices in provincial cities. People from all walks of life joined in the movement, from high officials and large business owners to workers, farmers, merchants, military officers and students. Women entertainers at high-end restaurants called gisaeng participated by donating money and valuables and many Buddhist monks also took part in the movement. Housewives reduced their food spending to save money for donating and turned in their gold and silver hairpins and rings. Students studying in Japan and Korean residents in America and Russia sent money to the donation centers. Even foreigners residing in Korea made donations. King Gojong and his ministers stopped smoking and gave donations to the movement.

16 Beginnings of the Movement 28 On March 9, the Daegu Citizens Hall, which served as the national headquarters of the debt redemption movement, established a donation office at Suchangsa Co. In the long queues of donors were often seen vendors and beggars. Japan did not stand idle in the face of the growing popular movement which was aimed at deterring Japanese financial aggression. On many occasions, Japanese military police harassed the rallies, arresting the leaders on various charges. Meanwhile, the leaders in the Daegu area, believing that North Gyeongsang Province, the origin of the movement, should take the lead in collecting donations, formed the North Gyeongsang Province General Assembly for National Debt Redemption with strict rules on collecting donations. Its operational regulations were clearly defined: The North Gyeongsang office carried out the donation campaign strictly in accordance with the elaborate rules under the leadership of chairman Kim Hwa-sik, vice chairman Yun Seong-won, counselor Kim Byeong-yong and general manager Seo Sang-don. Seo, the wealthy 58-year-old resident of Daegu who first proposed the debt redemption movement, most energetically carried out the overall management of the campaign s operations. The provincial campaign center held rallies to have people pledge abstaining from smoking and donate money in amounts their personal situations allowed. Kim Chang-nyeong, a butcher, one of the lowest social classes at the time, surprised people by donating 20 won. Campaign staff were greatly moved when they saw a beggar break open a pipe and donate 5 nyang in coins, his only savings. Women came in great numbers with their silver rings, heavy jeweled hairpins and ornamental knives Gentlemen members of each county shall nominate and elect staff members and a provincial chief of the movement. 2. Individual donation is to be 60 jeon per person, but those with more financial means can donate several hundred won or several thousand won. 3, Donations collected in counties should be delivered to a trusted depository in Seoul. 4. Receipts for the deposit of donations in the Seoul office should be presented to the provincial headquarters. 5. The provincial headquarters should provide for its own expenses and should not touch donations. 6. County governors shall recommend campaign staff to the central office in Seoul. Aengmu, a gisaeng, produced a 100-won banknote before Seo Sang-don and former county governors Kim Byeong-sun and Jeong Jae-hak, and said: I am from a lowly family and have no husband and no children. But I feel it my duty to take part in this campaign and pay back a small part of the [nation s] 13 million won debt. As a woman, I restrained myself not to overtake men in the amount of donation but if any gentleman donates 1,000 won or 10,000 won, I will be hell-bent to catch up with him. Seo and other staff members were humbled to hear her words and resolved to make additional donations in larger amounts.

17 Beginnings of the Movement 4 / Daegu Sets Off the Movement 30 Seo Sang-ha, a prominent citizen of Daegu, stood at the rostrum to speak in a smoking cessation rally at the Seomun Market and then made a kowtow to the crowd of people from all social classes. A merchant in the audience was so moved that he made a large donation on the spot alongside a butcher named Kim Si-bok, who delivered 10 won instantly. Then, in a meeting of the Daegu League of Smoking Cessation on April 30, former secretary Seo Sang-don made an additional donation of 1,000 won and former county governor Jeong Jae-hak donated 400 won. Former county governor Kim Byeong-sun, former royal secretary Jeong Gyu-ok, and retired officials Gwak Ju-sang, Seo Sang-min and Seo Sang-yong donated 100 won each. Kim Byeong-sun, Jeong Gyu-ok and Yi Il-u made separate donations of 100 won each to meet the expenses of the campaign. With the exemplary deeds of the leaders of the non-smoking group, the movement in North Gyeongsang Province progressed well and the drive spread to other areas. According to a Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette) report, Yun Ung-ryeol, who became the head of the national center of donations management, traveled to Daegu on July 9 and addressed representatives of campaign offices from 41 counties in a meeting before returning to Seoul on July 11. This report showed that there were campaign branches in all the counties in North Geongsang Province. Busts of Kim Gwang-je and Seo Sang-don, the local community leaders of Daegu who initiated the movement to repay the national debt in 1907, installed at the National Debt Redemption Movement Memorial Park in Daegu, in A commemorative marker of the National Debt Redemption Movement, erected in 1997 at the site where the movement began. Daegu was one of the three largest commercial cities in Korea, with a specialized niche in the trade of traditional herbal medicine. Many wealthy landowners resided in the city and they also accrued commercial capital through the trading of farm products and other merchandise. Following the Sino Japanese War, a lot of Japanese goods were imported into Korea, and some Daegu businesspeople made fortunes by operating local sales agencies for Japanese traders. Daegu rapidly grew as a new commercial city with the opening in 1903 of the Seoul Busan railway which passed through Daegu, giving it advantages in transportation and communications. As Japanese economic advancement continued in Korea, native Daegu businesspeople had to compete intensely with Japanese merchants who were expanding their operations in Korea powered by big capital. The foreign debt redemption movement was therefore a way for Daegu capitalists to protect the local economy against Japanese encroachment. The Daegu Gwangmunsa, meanwhile, issued publications to help promote the debt redemption movement and published books for the enlightenment of citizens. Gwangmunsa was not an ordinary publishing house; it was an association of prominent people from the city of Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province aimed primarily at publishing various kinds of materials for public education. Its representative Kim Gwangje was a member of the Korea Self-Strengthening Society, one of the leading patriotic associations with a nationwide network. Gwangmunsa was authorized by the Agriculture Commerce Ministry in June 1906 to publish a provincial newspaper for the first time in Korea but the project failed. 31

18 32 It planned to establish an institute for the training of public school teachers in cooperation with provincial authorities. As the most essential step to nurture able youths needed for nation building, Gwangmunsa also promoted a new education movement to open one private elementary school in each county of the province and one private middle school in Daegu, the provincial capital. King Gojong, pleased with the report of this educational movement in Daegu, gave a grant of 1,000 won to Gwangmunsa with royal instructions. Gwangmunsa s publications included school textbooks, magazines with contents for public enlightenment, books on humanities and newspapers. Noteworthy was History of the Loss of Vietnam (Phan Boi Chau, 1905), which presumably was a warning about foreign encroachment upon weak states, published in regards to the foreign debt redemption movement. Those who worked on the publication of the translated Korean edition of the book were people active in the movement. The manifesto for the movement mentioned the fate of Egypt, Vietnam and Poland in calling on the people to join in efforts to eradicate the national burden of foreign debt and thereby maintain national independence. In Seoul, when King Gojong was briefed on the launching of the National Debt Redemption Movement in Daegu, he issued a royal statement dated February 26, 1907, appealing to the people to take part in donation by abstaining from smoking. The King s official endorsement of the movement which was started voluntarily in the provincial city greatly encouraged all who initiated the campaign because it was now recognized as a nationallevel project. The report that the King himself quit smoking inspired high officials across the nation who had been skeptical about the movement. Many of them joined the campaign, vowing not to touch their pipes and tobacco again.

19 Ⅲ / Nationwide Spread of the Movement

20 Nationwide Spread of the Movement 1 / Impact of the Press The National Debt Redemption Movement was prominently covered by the Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News), Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette), Jeguk Sinmun (Empire Post), Mansebo (Independence News) and other publications, to spread the news of the patriotic campaign started in Daegu. Newspaper offices set up booths to receive donations for the national debt redemption movement, continuously calling for public participation. Statements by participating groups and the names of individual donors were printed in the newspapers. 37 The Daehan Maeil Sinbo reported in its February 28, 1907 edition the story of the state-run English School where the principal and all teachers and students, as well as office assistants, quit smoking to join in the foreign debt repayment campaign. The paper also printed its own company notice that Considering that His Majesty King Gojong and noble people and most schools have decided to quit smoking, all staff members of this newspaper are collectively making the same decision as we believe it is our duty. Company treasurer Sim Eui-cheol wrote an article in Hangeul exhorting all compatriots to participate in the movement. In this way, newspapers played an important role in promoting the campaign. The Yaroe and Daedongbo newspapers were published exclusively to publicize the progress of the campaign.

21 Nationwide Spread of the Movement 2 / Role of the National Headquarters of the Movement 38 The National Debt Redemption Movement, launched in Daegu on February 21, 1907, took only one day to see a positive response in the capital city of Seoul. On February 22, 24 Seoul residents Kim Seong-hui, Yu Mun-sang, Yi Pil-sang, Oh Yeong-geun, Choe Byeong-ok, Kim Sang-man, Im Bong-rae, An Guk-seon, Yun Byeong-seung, Yun Tae-yeong, Yun Cheongu, Park Tae-seo, Song Gi-yun, Hyeon Gong-ryeom, Kim Dae-hui, Kim Dong-gyu, Yi Seunggyo, Shin Hae-yong, Choe Byeong-jin, Han Jin-yong, Yi Sang-ik, Ju Han-yeong, Go Yu-sang and one more formed the National Debt Redemption Support Association and started functioning as the central coordinating body for the campaign. 39 On February 25, the Hwangseong Sinmun and on February 27, the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, quoted the association s founding statement: The people of Korea are called upon to fulfill their national duty. When the state falls, the nation perishes. Let us all do our best. When we have cleared the national debt completely, what about we purchase millions of tobacco leaves of the finest fragrance, so that men and women, young and old can happily blow smoke out into the clear atmosphere? The National Debt Redemption Support Association set down its own set of operational regulations: Newspapers helped spread the National Debt Redemption Movement across the country through extensive press coverage and support. 1. The association has the objective of repaying 13 million won that Korea owes Japan. 2. The debt will be redeemed with donations from the public in any amount. 3. Persons who send their donations to the association will be recognized as members and their names will be announced in newspapers along with the amounts they each delivered to us. 4. Groups sharing the objective of the association will make concerted efforts in strong solidarity to achieve the objective.

22 Nationwide Spread of the Movement Donations will be deposited with a Korean bank of good reputation until the target amount is attained. The total amount will be announced in newspapers at the end of each month. 6. The association will be disbanded when the objective is attained. The association designated eight places for receiving donations. These were: Boseonggwan, the provisional office of the Yaroe Gazette; Kim Sang-man s Gwanghak bookstore; Yu Hanmo s Jodong Herb Pharmacy; the Daehan Maeil Sinbo office; the Sangdong Youth Institute; Go Yu-sang s bookstore; and Ju Han-yeong s bookstore. Another group of 59 people in Seoul, including Seo Byeong-yeom and Yun Heung-seop, opened the National Debt Redemption Center for donation promotion, designating the Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette) as its collection post. A total of 27 groups organized donation campaigns at provincial locations across the country, each one issuing a statement calling on the public to participate. As the National Debt Redemption Support Association in Seoul was recognized as the national center for collecting donations, it was reorganized as a federation of all local groups. On April 1, 1907, the first meeting of the national federation was held at the Boseonggwan office in Jeon-dong to discuss ways to further expand the donation campaign. Delegates agreed to form a control system to coordinate the promotional activities of local campaign groups. In the second meeting the following day, the new Federation Chamber for National Debt Redemption was adopted as proposed by Yi Jun, and its executive officers were elected. Yi Jun an anti-japanese reformist leader who later was sent to the Paris Peace Conference as King Gojong s emissary with the mission to expose Japan s aggression against Korea was unanimously elected chairman, as recommended by Jang Ji-yeon and Yang Gi-tak. Other officers elected were: Advisor Yi Do-jae, General Secretary Jang Ji-yeon, Secretaries Yang Gitak, Ahn Chang-ho and Yi Dong-hwi, Assistant Secretary Kim Gwang-je, Counselor Park Declaration by the National Debt Redemption Support Association, which played a leading role in spreading the movement across the country. Eun-sik, Deputy Counselor Yi Gap, and Administrators Yi Jong-il, Park Yong-gyu, Yang Hanmuk, Seo Byeong-gyu, Yi Myeon-u and Kim In-sik. On April 4, Yi Jun issued a statement by the Federation Chamber for National Debt Redemption on the nature of the nationwide movement in language that people in every social class could fully understand. On April 8, the National Debt Redemption Donations Headquarters was established, under the initiative of Yi Jong-il, Kim Gwang-je, Park Yong-gyu, Seo Byeong-gyu, Yi Myeon-u and Oh Yeong-gun, and its office was installed at the Daehan Maeil Sinbo to take charge of managing donations received by local campaigners. Han Gyu-seol, a former cabinet minister who had opposed the signing of the protectorate treaty with Japan in 1905, was named head of the donations management office, but he declined the position. In late May, Yun Ung-ryeol was appointed as director of the management office, Kim Jong-han as deputy director, Park Yong-gyu as financial supervisor, Yi Gang-ho and Yi Myeon-u as auditors, Yang Gi-tak and Jeong Ji-yeong as controllers, Jo Jon-u as counselor, and Kim Gwang-je as supervisor. These officers, all respected leaders in their fields, were responsible for the practical business of the debts redemption movement. As a result, the National Debt Redemption Movement was carried out by the twin organizations of the federation chamber and the donations management office. While the federation chamber was an extension of the initial redemption support association which combined local campaigns, the donations management office was from the beginning a single central body established later in April to handle financial business. Concerns were expressed that the twin organizations could cause inefficiency and confusion. Kim Gwang-je from the federation chamber and Yi Gang-ho from the management office discussed how to synchronize operations harmoniously. It was resolved that the federation chamber would be responsible for guidance and promotion of the movement and the 41

23 management office would take sole charge of accounting and managing the donations received. In this way, the National Debt Redemption Movement continued to develop as a pan-national patriotic movement. 42 Operational regulations of the National Debt Redemption Donations Headquarters, which was established to take charge of managing donations gathered by local campaigners.

24 Ⅳ/ The Movement Sweeps the Countryside

25 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 1 / North Gyeongsang Province Those working for the association for smoking cessation and debt repayment in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, who organized a province-wide general assembly for the National Debt Redemption Movement, successfully secured commitments from many residents to make donations for the cause. The campaign went into full swing in Seongju County as well. At the forefront of the campaign was the Hanju school, a leading group of Confucian scholars in the region at the time. Most active among them were Yi Seung-hi, Jang Seok-yeong and Kim Changsuk. Despite their doctrinal opposition to Christian beliefs, these scholars were very much interested in Western culture and philosophy. Their keen knowledge about Western powers encouraged them to participate actively in patriotic enlightenment campaigns 47 Another leading group was the Seongju County association for smoking cessation, which issued a public declaration on the aims and plans of the debt repayment campaign and encouraged residents to actively participate in the campaign, appealing to their patriotism and loyalty. It tailored the countrywide campaign to fit the local conditions. This approach appealed to residents, making the association s campaign an exemplary local model. As the National Debt Redemption Movement was coming to an end, its leaders from throughout the country met in Seoul in April 1910 to decide on the disposal of the collected donations. Kim Sang-beom, who represented the Iljinhoe, a pro-japan organization, at the conference, proposed that all the contributions from the different regions be out together under the supervision of the political parties. In response, Kim Chang-suk, the representative of Seongju County, said none of the donations could be put in the hands of such a treasonous clique as the Iljinhoe. Before walking out of the conference, he said that interest accrued on the donations collected in the county would be channeled into a fund for private schools.

26 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 48 When he returned home, Kim Chang-suk agreed with Kim Won-hoe, Do Gap-mo and other county leaders to create a fund with the donations and use its interest payments to help defray operating expenses of schools. They also agreed to renovate an old Confucian academy and use it for a new modern school, Seongmyeong School, when it opened in September that year. They wanted to save money by not constructing a new school building. In defiance of opposition from conservative Confucian scholars, they went ahead with their plan for the new school. Kim Chang-suk believed that it was necessary to educate gifted and talented students to turn them into a new breed of scholar for the dawning of a new age. The regional campaign in Sangju County was closely connected to Kang Sin-gyu, one of the initiators of the National Debt Redemption Movement in Daegu, and Jang Ji-yeon, who ran editorials in the Hwangseong Sinmun on smoking cessation and debt repayment to Japan. The two hailed from Sangju. Groups promoting the debt repayment campaign in the county were organized around Park Jeong-jun and Kim Jae-ik, the two initiators of the county campaign who resided in Iha-ri, Oeseo-myeon. 49 Another exemplary model for the National Debt Repayment Movement was found in Goryeong County. Yi Du-hun, who chaired the county association for smoking cessation and debt repayment, maintained close contact with his counterparts in Seoul and Daegu through frequent correspondence regarding his regional campaign. He pushed for the sale of community-owned storage buildings and woodlands so that the proceeds could be donated to the debt repayment campaign. Yi s letters indicate that residents were not entirely free to decide on their own how much to donate. He proposed to his counterparts in Daegu and Seoul to cut the expected amount of donations from Goryeong as the county had had a poor harvest an indication that there could have been a certain degree of arbitrary target setting for local campaign organizations. Here again, some of the collected donations were used to open new schools as the national campaign for debt repayment wound down. An agreement among members of a group affiliated with the hyanggyo (traditional public school) made it possible to use the donations it had collected to defray operating expenses for the newly opened Usin School. Donation ledger listing the names of donors and their contributions, from Iha-ri village, Oeseo-myeon, Sangju County, North Gyeongsang Province. The debt repayment campaign in Hamchang was most productive, probably because it was a wealthy myeon (township), a transactions hub on the Nakdong River. But it drew donations not just from rich merchants but also from other groups of people, many of them poor, including vendors, janitors and concubines. It is notable that a larger percentage of commoners participated in the drive than the traditional nobility, as shown by the local ledgers of donors and their contributions.. In Yecheon County, Han Gye-chang, Kim Dong-kyu and Choe Yong-hui launched an association for national debt repayment. An association for smoking cessation and debt repayment was established in the Hyeonpung County as well, arguing passionately in its public declaration: Heavily indebted persons tend to be robbed of their assets and properties by the lenders (when they fail to make good on their debt obligations). Often forced upon them is separation from their families. Likewise, heavily indebted countries are often deprived of their territorial rights (if they fail to meet their debt repayment schedule), with their people forced into slavery. The dreadful fate of such countries in the world and the horrible conditions in which their people find themselves cannot be overstated. In Gimcheon County, three local leaders Yi Byeong-jae, Kim An-dan and Kim Sundan organized rallies in support of the movement for debt repayment, and their call for donations was well received by people.

27 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside Promotional song for national debt redemption by smoking cessation, introduced in Goryeong, North Gyeongsang Province, explained the reasons for the campaign and the need for public donations.

28 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 2 / South Gyeongsang Province 52 They sent the donations they collected to a newspaper company, which published the names of the donors. Among them was a woman named Nambo who ran a small tavern, who donated 5 won. Merchants in Gyeongju County banded together to gather money among themselves for a collective contribution. Another group of merchants made a similar contribution in Gabukmyeon, Mungyeong. Clans also made collective donations. They included the Jeong clan in Nam-myeon, Yonggung County. It may have been easier for a clan to make a collective donation once the clan head made such a decision as he had far-reaching influence among the clan members. Other notable donors recorded were brothers and sisters who chipped in to donate in Jirye County.Behind the large donations by clans was patriotic fervor; traditionally, people in the countryside stubbornly resisted foreign invasions and attempted domination of Korea. The overwhelming response of the people of Gyeongju County was yet another exemplary expression of patriotism as almost all its communities participated in the movement. Their participation was not only extensive but sustained. In Cheongsong County, local leaders, who deemed participation in the debt repayment campaign a mandate from heaven, drove it home to residents, stressing that they should make it their duty to contribute to the cause. The total donations in North Gyeongsang Province was estimated at 17,445 won. From Daegu, the National Debt Redemption Movement quickly spread to neighboring South Gyeongsang Province. The Association for Patriotism of South Gyeongsang Province, which was launched by An Taek-jung and 20 others, took charge of the debt repayment campaign and decided to base the debt repayment office in Nagyuk School in Jinju. The association decided to hold a province-wide conference on March 29, 1907, and another meeting for Jinju County on March 13. Each county selected a man in good standing as the manager of affairs concerning the debt repayment campaign and the chief of each myeon (township) was similarly designated at the lowest administrative district. Any person residing in the province or elsewhere was qualified to join the Association for Patriotism upon donating any amount to the debt repayment campaign. The association sent an official message to all offices concerned, calling on them to immediately answer any questions concerning donations and ensure that all community members would be well informed about the National Debt Redemption Movement. The association established a branch office in each county, which received contributions directly from donors or by mail. It published the names and addresses of donation gatherers in the newspapers. It paid the operating expenses of the branch offices out of membership dues, not out of the donations, which were deposited with the Agricultural and Industrial Bank. 53 Jinju is well known for its patriotic female entertainers, including the legendary Nongae, who led a Japanese general to a cliffside party, embraced him and jumped into the Nam River, killing them both, one year after the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea. Buyong, a retired entertainer in Jinju, organized a group of gisaeng and named it the association of patriotic women on March 19, It committed itself to the debt repayment campaign and

29 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 54 gathered donations. Among Jinju s other women s organizations committed to the same cause were the association for patriotism and debt repayment, organized by wives of local gentry, and the women s association for national debt repayment, led by the grandmother of Kim Gi-hwa. Some Confucian scholars organized themselves into an association for patriotism and national debt repayment and gathered donations. So did a group of Protestants engaged in commerce. In Dongnae, Mun Byeong-hui, Kim Mun-ju, Jeong Han-gyeong and others organized the Ilsimhoe (One Mind Club) for National Debt Repayment in March 1907, aimed at assisting the movement to help repay the national debt. All chiefs of myeon, or townships, served as the organization s initiators and village leaders were given the task of keeping the residents well informed of the national campaign. The Association for Patriotism of South Gyeongsang Province dispatched its officials to cities throughout the province with the task of holding rallies on the streets. It received donations at its headquarters and published the names of donors and the amounts of their donations in a newspaper at the end of each month. Japan s fast paced economic aggression in Korea via seaports open to foreign ships appeared to spur the public campaign to repay the sovereign debt to Japan more actively in South Gyeongsang Province. Former military officers played a leading role in the campaign in Dongnae. Of the 14 members of the Ilsimhoe for National Debt Repayment, eight were former military officers and the others were from the local nobility. It came as no surprise, given that Dongnae had long been a military outpost guarding against Japanese invasion. Military officers manning the outpost had been influential among residents since Japan s invasions of Korea in the late 16th century. Merchants were another group that played a leading role in the national debt repayment campaign. Retired officials and military officers, who had maintained their own fraternities until they were merged in 1846, actively participated in the campaign through the united organization. But it should be noted that the organization also included a large number of local merchants as members. In Busan, women organized themselves for participation in the National Debt Redemption Movement earlier than men did. A women s association was launched in Jwacheon-ri in the Busan port area. Its members saved on groceries to raise donations for the campaign. Its establishment was followed by that of a men s association for non-smoking to contribute to the national debt repayment, also in Jwacheon-ri. The women s association was first proposed by a former military officer, Park Jeong-hui, who asked his wife for daily savings on groceries for donations to the campaign. He and his wife thereafter participated in the campaign actively a rare case across the nation. A public declaration by the women s association read in part: As an old saying goes, a wise housewife is thought of when a family has fallen into poverty and a wise prime minister is thought of when a nation has plunged into crisis. It is only natural that a nation in crisis cannot be saved when the prime minister is not wise enough and that a family in extreme poverty cannot be saved if the housewife is not wise enough. The ability to govern a family well is the prerequisite to governing a nation. In other words, a nation can be governed well when households are under the control of wise housewives. Each of us (as a wise housewife) is determined to save on spending for side dishes and donate about 20 jeon each month. 55

30 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 56 In Miryang, discussions about a local campaign for national debt repayment started when members of an association of Confucian scholars gathered on May 19, They launched a campaign with a rally in front of Eunghyang Gate on May 22, a local market day. Subsequently, it was local elites from the three clans of An, Yi and Son, including Confucians open to Western culture who led the campaign. As part of the campaign, the association ran ads in the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, calling for donations. 57 The national debt repayment campaign was far from well-organized in the Gimhae region. It was much more effective in Myeongji-myeon, probably because its residents were better informed about Japan and Western culture. With its coastal area dotted with salt evaporation ponds and its port open to foreign ships, Myeongji-myeon attracted investments from Japan. Along with the investments came Western culture to the township. Three local leaders Park U-yeong, Yi Gyu-cheol and Son Jin-geo opened an office to gather donations for the national debt repayment in the Changwon Masan area. Housewives of high social status organized themselves into an association for national debt repayment, with its older members making the rounds of homes, seeking donations. In addition, Kim Yong-hyo and others established an association for national debt repayment covering the entire province. Donations thus collected were deposited either with a bank or the movement s Daegu headquarters. The total amount raised in South Gyeongsang Province was estimated at 16,221 won. Note from the campaign office of Masan port to the campaign office at the local county school (hyanggyo), inquiring about campaign regulations established by the school, the target amount to be raised, and the date of transfer of donations to Seoul.

31 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 3 / South Jeolla Province 58 Daedong Gwangmunhoe, headquartered in Daegu, had a branch office covering both North and South Jeolla provinces. The branch office doubled as an office for the national debt repayment campaign. In South Jeolla Province, associations for national debt repayment were established in 14 of its 32 counties. After the governor of South Jeolla made a public declaration on non-smoking for national debt repayment, a former military officer, Gwak Gyeong-hwan, and others launched an association for the campaign in Yeosu County. In Jangseong County, a former royal secretary, Kim Heon-gyu, and others established a similar organization. Gurye County also had a similar organization, but it was not known who led its establishment. Given that the public declaration about it was written in Chinese, it was assumed that its initiators were well educated in the Chinese classics. In Goheung (formerly Heungyang) County, two former officials, Kim Jeong-tae and Shin Chung-gu, initiated the establishment of an association. A similar association in Haenam County had a retired Buddhist leader as one of its initiators. In Jeju Island, Hong Jae-sim, a former county governor, and lower-level officials were at the forefront as initiators of an office supporting the campaign. Clearly, former and incumbent officials were widely represented in the campaign. Groups of commoners engaged in businesses actively participated in the campaign, probably because they were well aware what it meant to be heavily in debt and how important the campaign for national debt repayment was to the survival of Korea as a sovereign country. Also notable was the participation of small private funds associated with hyanggyo (government run provincial schools) and associations of artisans. Noteworthy was a group of 10 police officers in Muan County, who gathered donations before any associations for national debt repayment were established in South Jeolla Province. In March 1907, they sent the collected donations to an association working in Daegu County, North Gyeongsang Province. They were probably the earliest donations to the campaign from South Jeolla Province. Confucian scholars, commoners and women were well represented in the campaign. Though farmers constituted the absolute majority of the provincial population, their presence was far from pronounced, probably because in its early days the campaign failed to spread to rural communities, or many farmers were too poor to make donations, or both. The total donations collected in South Jeolla Province was estimated at 12,513 won. 59 Donations came from individuals (commoners and nobility alike), families, clans, school students and small private savings circles. In particular, it was assumed that schools, engaging in the enlightenment of people, made a great contribution to the campaign for national debt repayment. Most notable among them were Geumreung School in Gangjin County and Geumseong School in Naju County. Donation ledger of Sagok-dong village in Gangdong-myeon, carrying the names of 30 individuals who donated to the campaign by quitting smoking and the amounts of their contributions.

32 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 4 / North Jeolla Province 60 The North Jeolla Province association for debt repayment was not established by local leaders but by the Daegu-based Daedong Gwangmunhoe, which wanted to extend its campaign for national debt repayment to other provinces. It was an organization more symbolic than efficient for gathering donations. Low-level government officials, either incumbent or retired, were widely represented in more active county-level campaigns, as shown by data on identified initiators of associations for national debt repayment. It was the case with Yi Ho-rim in Iksan, Shin Dong-seok and Kim Yeong-uk in Buan, and Park Jung-hyeon and Park Gi-cheol in Jeongeup. Notably, incumbent county chiefs participated in the campaigns in Iksan, Mujang, Buan and Yongan, and a former county chief in Mangyeong. Their keen interest in the campaign apparently inspired lower-level officials to help establish associations for smoking cessation and gather donations for national debt repayment. Among the initiators were merchants. One of them was Im No-ha. The Hwangseong Sinmun carried a notice on March , indicating that donations could be sent to his store. Many elementary schools and a private school for Chinese classics participated in the campaign in Heungdeok County. Teachers and students from the private Changheung School in Hwangsan and Dangsan Uisuk in Mupyeong, a school established with donations from the private sector, actively participated in Yeosan County s campaigns. Commoner merchants banded together to raise money for contributions to the campaign. They included peddlers and merchants running stores for hats, ramie fabric, silk and fur in Gimje, Jeonju, Jeongeup and other counties. Christian church groups also participated. They included Protestant congregations in Yeosan and Iksan and a Catholic parish in Jeonju. Other participating groups included small savings circles in Jeongup, Jeonju and other counties. Confucians affiliated with traditional public schools and members of a women s association in Geumsan were also active participants. The total donations collected in North Jeolla Province was estimated at 9,283 won. 61 One of the Seoul-based organizations that were established to promote patriotism and enlighten people was Daehan Jaganghoe (Korea Self-Strengthening Society), which had many local branches. One such branch was in Yeosan. Its members, learning about the campaign through news articles, started to quit smoking and established a local association for national debt repayment. Here again, donations came from individuals, families, clans, schools, religious organizations, small private funds, and women s associations. Among the schools were Yangyeong School and Hamyuk School, a private elementary school, in Jeonju.

33 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 5 / South Chungcheong Province 62 In South Chungcheong Province, activists promoting patriotism and enlightenment encouraged residents to participate in the campaign. They established offices for gathering donations and announced their establishment in many counties. Participation in the campaign was probably influenced to a certain extent by the fact that one of the initiators of the National Debt Redemption Movement, Kim Gwang-je, hailed from Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province. Community leaders from 54 counties in the province issued a public declaration encouraging residents to make donations for national debt repayment. Jeong Nak-yong and 18 others launched an office for smoking cessation and donations in Yesan County. In Hansan County, some county officials and others established a similar office and launched an extensive campaign for donations. Leaders of a community adjacent to Gyeonggi Province joined hands in gathering donations with their counterparts in counties throughout Gyeonggi Province. Go Je-hak and 12 others organized the Ilsim Dongmaenghoe (One Mind League) in Geumsan County to drive home the urgency of repaying the huge debt owed Japan. Some others launched an office for national debt repayment in other regions. The campaign for donations turned into a major local event when teachers and students of Yangchon Sasuk, a village school, participated in the donation drive en masse. Student participation spread to nearby regions. Donation-gathering offices were set up in Eunjin and Nonsan as well. Community activists led debates to stress that failure to pay back the debt to Japan would threaten not just Korea s survival as a sovereign nation but Koreans lives as well. They believed that the foundation for individual and national prosperity would be laid on the very day when the debt owed Japan was paid up. In Asan County, teachers and students of Ilsin Elementary School saved their pocket money for donations; their peers at Munji Schoolhouse followed suit. Apparently influenced by the teachers and students, a poor laborer, An Bong-sam, joined the campaign along with his wife, who shaved her head as a demonstration of her commitment and support for the campaign. A diverse group of people participated in the campaign in Gongju County, where Governor Kim Gap-sun led a rally in the marketplace. They included teachers and students from Myeonghwa School and Gongju Public Elementary School, soldiers, monks from Gapsa and Donghaksa temples, Christians and female students from Myeongshin School. Noteworthy was the participation of ethnic Chinese residents. 63 In Buyeo County, Min Jun-sik and nine others who set up an association for smoking cessation, established an association for national debt repayment in collaboration with community activists in Hansan, Biin and Seocheon. A similar office was established in Jinjam County.

34 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 6 / North Chungcheong Province 64 Community leaders organized associations for national debt repayment in Deoksan and Hongju counties. What was notable in Hongju was the participation of diverse groups in the campaign. They included villages, schools, a tax office and other government offices. A 13-year-old boy, Jang Bong-chun, set an example for his peers when he donated to the campaign. Community leaders in Asan, Mokcheon and Cheongan counties stressed that it was a citizen s civic duty to contribute to the campaign. In determining an appropriate amount of donation by a household, they took the level of its income into account. Antipathy against foreigners had been on the rise in Jiksan County since its port was opened to foreign ships and foreign investments flooded in to extract gold from mines in the county. This sentiment may have spurred the county chief, Gwak Chan, to provide strong support for community leaders when they kicked off a campaign for national debt repayment. Among those who spontaneously responded to a call to support the campaign was Choe Du-gyeong s family, which donated all the jewelry and accessories in its possession. Similar campaigns proceeded in Cheongyang and Haemi counties. One rally for national debt repayment in Daeheung County drew as many as 2,000 people. The total donations collected in South Chungcheong Province was estimated at 13,961 won. County-level associations for national debt repayment numbered 11 in North Chungcheong Province. Some of them posted the public declarations of their aims and plans on the walls of buildings in marketplaces, the busiest places in townships. The first such association was set up in Okcheon County, with Jeong Jik-yong and 20 others signing on as initiators. On March 3, 1907, the initiators issued a public declaration on its establishment. Eighteen others also came up with a similar declaration of a campaign for donations. Later, Gwon Bong-su and others established a provincial association. Those participating in the establishment of an association in Boeun County stressed that it was the civic duty of all citizens to help pay back the national debt to Japan. In Jincheon County, women also formed an association to join the drive to collect donations. Interesting anecdotes abounded. One of these highlighted the participation of a Japanese schoolteacher in the campaign, which moved Je Gwang-gil and other schoolteachers in Okcheon County to stop smoking and donate the money they saved to the campaign. An unusual case involved a Chungju resident who was on his way to Seoul. When he was held up by robbers, he told them that he intended to contribute the money in his possession to the national debt repayment campaign. He did not just come out unscathed from the encounter; he was also entrusted with a donation from the robbers. The story reverberated throughout the country. 65 Receipt issued to local campaign initiators Kim Gap-sun and Lee Jihyeon for their contribution of 1 won and 50 jeon on April 1, 1907, in Singok, Ujeong-myeon, Gongju County, South Chungcheong Province. Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News) reports on thieves who sent in donations from Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. The campaign for national debt repayment drew the participation of a diverse range of individuals. If robbers were unusual donors, so were prisoners in the province, who scrimped on their meals to save money for the campaign. In Cheongju County, the top officer of a military detachment and his soldiers joined the campaign. Other participants included the head of a peddler s fraternity, an impoverished brush maker, a woodcutter, a fishwife and a barmaid.

35 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 7 / 66 Oh Seon-yeong and several others set up an office for national debt repayment in Danyang County. In Geummok-myeon of Eumseong County, housewives led a fundraising campaign. Chwiran, a gisaeng, devoted herself to the education of women through the public dispensary, Gwanghyewon (House of Extended Grace), in Jincheon County. When the campaign for national debt repayment started, she went out to encourage women to make donations to the campaign. Despite all these fundraising efforts, donations collected in the province did not amount to much, due to the small population size and other socioeconomic conditions. The total donations collected in North Chungcheong Province was estimated at 5,693 won. Gyeonggi Province In Gyeonggi Province, the campaign for national debt repayment first started in Incheon. Sinsang Co. at Incheon port was the hub for the campaign. One of the company s executives, Park Won-sun, with several others established an association for smoking cessation and contributing to the national debt repayment. It was notable that the campaign drew quite a few donors from the Jeryeong School. It was also notable that Han Yeong-won, a former governor, and other former government officials raised a large sum of money for donations in Gaeseong County. Ryu Hoe-geun and several others set up an office for national debt repayment in Anseong County and patriotic Christians, such as Kim Je-gu, Yi Ha-yeong and Im Myeon-su, led the campaign in Suwon. Similar offices were set up in Pocheon, Yeoju, Paju and Yangju counties. News articles from the Daehan Maeil Sinbo and Hwangseong Sinmun showed a large number of donations were made by families and clans, many of which were based in Pungdeok County. At the time, the county was noted for a number of villages where most residents shared the same surname. 67 In Incheon, a rice trading company called Misang Co., which had set up a school, encouraged its students and their parents to participate in the campaign for national debt repayment. Donations poured in from other schools, including a public elementary school in Suwon. Donors also included Buddhists affiliated with Jeondeungsa and other temples, and Protestants and Catholics residing in Icheon County. Organized merchants were well positioned to participate in the campaign. In addition to Sinsang Co. in Incheon, they included a company of brokers, a rice trader, and a firewood and charcoal company. Individual merchants participating in the campaign included Kim Hyeong-geun of Jangdan County, a chinaware trader. Other notable donors included adolescents in Yanggeun County, who donated their earnings from the sell of firewood and homemade straw shoes, and a low-born butcher named Kim Sang-yong.

36 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 8 / 68 Here, women were active in fundraising as well. When a woman from a Ganghwa County village sent her collection of donations to the women s association she was affiliated with, she was called on to set up a separate local association for the campaign for national debt repayment. On March 29, 1907, women in Incheon set up an association, whose members were to set aside a portion of rice for donation when preparing meals. They saved one spoonful of rice per family member at breakfast and dinner every day and donated the accumulated rice to the campaign. In Namygang County, Christian women formed an association for donations. Many other women joined the campaign as individuals. The total donations collected in Gyeonggi Province was estimated at 38,991 won. Gangwon Province The campaign for national debt repayment started in Gangown Province when Chuncheon County Chief Yi Myeong-rae and others set up an association for the purpose of raising money for donations. Its members put up a public declaration of its aims and plans on bulletin boards in the marketplace and other crowded places and engaged in other promotional activities. Similar associations were created in Wonju and Cheorwon counties. Residents in Goseong, Hwacheon, Hoeyang and Gangneung joined the campaign as associations for national debt repayment were organized in these counties. In Icheon County, the campaign proceeded without a hitch with support from Governor Seok Myeong-seon. In a public declaration of its aims and plans, the county office for national debt repayment said participation in the campaign was a civic duty as well as an act of patriotism and loyalty. Song Seok-in and other community leaders focused their fundraising efforts on market days. 69 Military officers and soldiers posted in Bonghwa County made donations equal to their monthly pay. In Ganseong County, monks from Geonbongsa Temple and Buddhists in the county participated in the campaign along with teachers and students of Bongmyeong School, an educational institution established by the temple. Donation gathering was more organized in Gangneung County, with Confucians setting the amount for each household. Notable were donations by eight retired gisaeng, whom the Hwangseong Sinmun dubbed the eight fairies of Gangneung. The total donations collected in Gangwon Province was estimated at 7,210 won. Receipt issued by Daehan Maeil Sinbo for 64 jeon donated by residents of Janggot-dong village, Hado-myeon, Ganghwa County, Gyeonggi Province, on April 4, Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette) reports on eight gisaeng, hostesses at high-end restaurants, who participated in the movement from Gangneung on the east coast, on March 27, 1907.

37 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 9 / North Korean Region and Overseas 70 Seoul residents hailing from the northwestern region, in today s territory of North Korea, organized their association for national debt repayment, with Ji Gi-yeong and 22 others participating as initiators. Through a public declaration, they explained the objective of the movement and encouraged participation by residents in their hometowns. In its public declaration, the association for national debt repayment in Hwanghae Province appealed for donations to help pay back Korea s debt to Japan and, by doing so, help recover sovereignty and build a civilized society. Organizers of an association for national debt repayment in Anak County issued their public declaration, calling on people to donate money within their means to help prepare for the nation s independence. They put up copies of the declaration on bulletin boards in crowded places and gave speeches on external debt and patriotism, drawing support from residents. Some of the women supporters sold their furniture and cut and sold their long tresses to raise money for donations. Women residing in the areas around Samhwa port, who organized their own association for national debt repayment, decided to donate their jewelry and other possessions to the cause. In their public declaration, they said 10 million Korean women united would be able to keep the nation from collapsing under the burden of external debt. They said it was the duty of every Korean to help keep Korea an independent nation. A memorable anecdote involved Im Gi-ban, an independence activist who organized an association for national debt repayment in Pyongyang. He said in a speech that it was the duty for every one of the 20 million Koreans to contribute to the national debt repayment and that he was donating 7 won on behalf of his seven-member family. On hearing this, his wife told him that she needed to perform her duty herself and decided to donate her ornamental silver knife to help pay back the national debt. A better known independence activist, An Jung-geun, who in 1909 assassinated Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese resident-general in Korea, was also an active participant in the campaign for national debt repayment. Gye Bong-u, a historian and independence activist, wrote of An s role in the campaign: In February 1907, An Jung-geun gathered more than 1,000 men in Pyongyang s Myeongnyundang (school auditorium) and collected donations from them out of his love for and loyalty to the nation. According to another testimony, An offered to Seo Sang-don, chairman of the National Debt Redemption Fundraising Office in Daegu, to open a branch office for the northwestern region and volunteered to head the branch office when it was founded. 71

38 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 72 An Jung-geun was not the only one in his family who participated in the campaign. His wife and his sister-in-law did as well. In an article in the January 30, 1910 edition of the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, An s mother is quoted as saying: When fundraising for national debt redemption was conducted several years ago, his wife and his sister-in-law donated the jewelry and accessories that they had brought with them for their weddings. As it was not worth keeping them when the nation was collapsing, they voluntarily decided to donate them. No one could persuade them against it. Samheung School, which An had established, also joined the campaign. 73 Among other notable events were the participation of a Japanese teacher from the Ihwa School in Yeongyu County in the fundraising campaign and the writing of the National Debt Redemption song by Yi Byeong-deok, one of the initiators of the office for national debt repayment in Dancheon County, together with Kim In-hwa. The total donations collected in the North Korean region was estimated at 36,796 won. Promotional song by Dancheon County, South Hamgyong Province, carried by the Daehan Maeil Sinbo. A newspaper article on the participation in the movement by students of Samheung School, established by independence activist An Junggeun; and An on trial after assassinating Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese resident-general in Korea.

39 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside 10 / Participation by Region 74 Koreans residing in foreign countries also gave donations for the campaign. When the union of Korean students held its general assembly in Japan, 800 participants decided to quit smoking to save money for contributions to the campaign. The Taegeuk Hakhoe (Supreme Ultimate Academic Society) in Japan, a fraternity of Korean students from the northwest region of Korea, also called for smoking cessation and teetotalism as a means of saving money for donations. Korean Americans residing in San Francisco and Los Angeles and affiliated with the Gongrip Hyeophoe (Mutual Assistance Society) participated in the campaign for national debt repayment. the office of the Gongrip Sinbo, a San Francisco-based Korean language newsletter, took in donations. Table 1 shows participation by region. Gyeonggi Province topped the list with 77,000 people, which was followed by South Chungcheong Province, North Gyeongsang Province, South Gyeongsang Province and Hwanghae Province, each with more than 20,000 participants. Participation in North Hamgyong Province was about 2,000, and South Pyongan Province and South Hamgyong Province, each had about 5,000. North Pyongan Province and North Chungcheong Province had about 10,000 participants. The levels of participation were high in Gyeonggi Province and its two adjacent provinces, South Chungcheong and Hwanghae. The levels of participation were low in the northwestern provinces. 75 Ethnic Koreans in Vladivostok sent contributions to the National Debt Redemption Support Association, together with letters describing the hardships they had been experiencing while living in the Russian Far East. The total donations from Koreans abroad was estimated at 1,398 won. <Table 1> Number of Participants and Amounts of Donations by Province The second issue of the newsletter of the association of Korean students in Japan reports on the public campaign to repay the national debt back home. No. of participants (person) Amount of donations (won)

40 The Movement Sweeps the Countryside The raw number of participants by province could be misleading because the size of the 76 population is not reflected. The rankings change somewhat when the number of participants ischanged to the ratio of participants to the male adult population. Table 2 shows Seoul s 77 adjusted level of participation was very high; one out of every four men was a participant. Most of the officials, participants in rallies and soldiers listed as participants of the movement, numbering more than 8,000, residedin Seoul. Had this fact been reflected in the statistics, Seoul s level of participation would have neared the ratio of one to two. Seoul was followed by Gyeonggi Province and South Chungcheong Province, both with roughly one-to-six ratios. Then came Hwanghae Province, North Chungcheong Province, North Gyeongsang Province and Gangwon Province, with their percentages ranging from 6 percent to 7 percent each. North Hamgyong Province, South Pyongan Province and South Hamgyong Province had the same rankings as in Table 1. Figure 1 shows a map of countries with the ratioof participants to population. <Table 2> Ratio of Participants to the Male Adult Population by Province (%) <Figure 1>County rankings of participation ratio to population Source: Han Sang-gu (2015)

41 Ⅴ/ Participation of Women in the Movement

42 Participation of Women in the Movement 1 / Women's Role in the Movement Women s participation in the National Debt Redemption Movement was momentous, for at the turn of the 20th century women still remained relegated to traditional subordinate status in the strictly patriarchal Korean society. In the face of Japan s threat to annex Korea, many Korean women emerged from entrenched social invisibility and assertively participated in the campaign for repayment of the huge national debt by donating and organizing fundraising activities. 81 On February 23, 1907, one day after an association for national debt redemption was set up in Seoul, a group of women in Daegu met in Namil-dong and established a similar association. By gathering donations of jewelry and other accessories from women donors, they aimed to help repay the huge debt Korea owed Japan. In a message addressed to all women in the country, they said: Born as women, we have nothing to do except being confined to the women s quarters [at home] and practicing the three ways of deferring (first to the father, to the husband when married and to the son when the husband is dead). But how can women be different from men when they [too] should do something out of love for their country and perform their duty as its subjects. It is deeply moving and admirable to hear the entire population of 20 million people planning to abstain from smoking for three months to save money to help pay back the national debt. But women are barred from debating the matter. If so, are none of us subjects of this nation and people being nurtured? As women, we have jewelry and accessories in our possession and nothing else. Huge mountains do not hunt for clods of earth while seas and rivers do not care where they flow. But small amounts, when put together, could be a big help. It is heartening to see all concerned people make donations, be they large or small, to pay back the national debt. Number of campaign participants and counties ranked by the proportion of participants against population

43 Participation of Women in the Movement 82 The seven initiators of the association were Jeong Un-gap s mother Seo (Seo Chae-bong), Seo Byeong-gyu s wife Jeong (Jeong Gyeong-ju), Jeong Un-ha s wife Kim (Kim Dal-jun), Seo Hak-gyun s wife Jeong (Jeong Mal-gyeong), Seo Seok-gyun s wife Choe (Choe Gyeong-sil), Seo Deok-gyun s wife Yi (Yi Deok-su), and Kim Su-won s wife Bae. They donated silver rings, silver knives, silver eggplants, silver lotus flowers and other ornaments in their possession, totaling 13 nyang and 8 don. or grams (1 nyang = 10 don; 1 don = 3.75 grams). In its message, the women s association said it would have been inappropriate to exclude women from the National Debt Redemption Movement, a campaign to safeguard Korea s sovereignty by repaying the debt to Japan, simply because they were women. The women asserted that they could not just sit idly by; instead, they voluntarily donated their jewelry to the campaign. Their response to the national crisis gave rise to many like-minded women s organizations throughout the country. News organizations, noting that women s participation in the campaign was gaining momentum, began to expand their coverage of women s activities. They ran moving stories about poor housewives saving on their living expenses and others donating their meager wages from menial work to the debt repayment campaign. Women s participation expanded throughout the country. On February 28, 1907, in Seoul, Kim Il-dang, Kim Seok-ja and Park Hi-dang launched a women s association to campaign for donations by saving on groceries. Upper-class housewives set up their own association for a similar purpose in early March Its message to all women in the nation read in part: It would not befit us women if we fail to demonstrate our love for and loyalty to the state as we, like men, enjoy a wide variety of benefits it provides, at a time when it is troubled over external debt. As such, we would like to participate and cooperate in harmony. Those who send us donations will be listed in our book as our members and [we will] announce their names and the amounts of their donations in newspapers. We urge all our fellow women to make donations at their own discretion. In other words, the association was appealing to women to voluntarily make donations as they receive benefits from the state as men do; it is their duty as citizens. Other women s organizations in Seoul were also active in promoting the campaign to repay the national debt. They included the Seoul Women s Association for Education, the Jinmyeong Women s Association, the Korean Women s Association and the Wonil Women s Association, which received donations for national debt repayment. Women in the provinces were no less active in pushing for donations. In Anak, Hwanghae Province, women organized a removal-of-rings-from-fingers association in April 1907, urging women to donate their rings for the national debt repayment. In Busan, women organized their association for national debt repayment before men did. Their public declaration read in part: 83

44 Participation of Women in the Movement 84 The state comes before its subjects, not the other way around. It will be difficult to preserve our territorial rights if we fail to pay back 13 million won in external debts. The Egyptians and the Vietnamese were deprived of their territorial rights because of their external debt. The last thing we want to do is follow in their footsteps. It is not men alone who live in our territory; we women live in this territory as well. Can men and women differ in their love and loyalty to the state? The association in Busan regarded it as a matter of course for women to participate in the campaign. Its members were determined to save on their living expenses, donate what little they could, and, by doing so, keep their territorial rights intact and recover their sovereignty. In Jinju, a gisaeng named Buyong organized a patriotic association with other entertainers like her. In Seoul, 39 gisaeng donated their binyeo, prized traditional ornamental hairpins. In Daegu, a gisaeng named Aengmu, donating as much as 100 won, said to leaders of the National Debt Redemption Movement, such as Seo Sang-don, Kim Yun-ran and Jeong Jaehak: I am but a low-born person. I have neither husband nor children. But I am ready to fulfill my duty to my country by contributing one-ten-thousandth of 13 million won at the least. And yet, I don t think a woman can donate even a cent more than men, so I have given 100 won. Now, if any man gives 1,000 won, or 10,000 won, then I am hell-bent on catching up with him. The campaign leaders, greatly moved and shamed by her remarks, committed themselves to donating tens of thousands of won each. 85 A women s association for giving up jewelry and collecting wastepaper to raise funds for the campaign was inaugurated in the Samwha port district of Jinnampo, South Pyongan Province, on March 14, Members sold their jewelry and the wastepaper they had collected to donate the proceeds to the campaign. In their public declaration, the women proposed that each of the 10 million population of women donate 2 won or more to raise 30 million 10 million won to repay the debt, another 10 million won to create a bank, and the remainder to build schools. In addition, the association decided to ban wearing gold, silver and other accessories by members and slapped a 10 won fine on those violating the ban. In Pyongyang, female entertainers called gisaeng, who were looked down upon as being among the lowest social class, launched a donation campaign of their own. In early March 1907, 31 gisaeng decided that they had the same duty as others though they were engaged in the lowly job of entertaining male clients and that they could not overlook this fact. They donated 32 won and collected 50 jeon each in donations from 18 other female entertainers.

45 Participation of Women in the Movement 2 / Women's Organizations 86 Participation in the National Debt Redemption Movement provided an opportunity for women to rise from their accustomed subordination to men into modern womanhood. It was an occasion to demonstrate their desire to participate in a social movement voluntarily, independently and assertively a significant event in the process of awakening Korean women s consciousness in the life of the nation. In other words, they were overcoming hardwired gender discrimination when they joined the campaign voluntarily, defying the rigid paternalism that rendered women invisible in traditional Korean society. Their desire for the recovery of sovereignty, no less strong than that of men, and their emerging awareness of a need to be counted alongside men, was in defiance of traditional expectations and social practices that put men above women. It indeed was an early milestone in the history of feminism in Korea. Yi Jun, who earnestly encouraged women s participation in the National Debt Redemption Movement, said it would contribute to gender equality as well as debt repayment. In a speech he asserted: The Korean Women s Association is promoting a campaign to save the nation. So is the Women s Association for National Debt Redemption. What they are in pursuit of are fundamentally the same though the former is more conceptual and the latter more practical and effective. If only men should work for the state, it would mean only 10 million people, half of the population. The out-of-date lifestyle enjoining women to stay inside the home and discouraging them from coming out of the gate will not survive in the years to come. Both men and women are children of God, who loves them equally. If so, how can they differ in their rights? Men and women are equals. Ladies, you are responsible to a certain extent for our history of male dominance over women. It is nothing outrageous for you to organize a women s association for national debt redemption. Regardless of gender, we [Koreans] should be prepared to shed our blood and even sacrifice our lives in the struggle to recover sovereignty. I am urging men and women to be united in our struggle so that we will be able to pay off the national debt and live in prosperity as equal members of society. Yi Jun was appealing to men and women to overcome their unequal traditions and work hand in hand to achieve their common cause. Forty-five women s organizations in different parts of the country participated in the National Debt Redemption Movement, which helped to bring all people together in a shared patriotic cause. Their participation was the first nationwide women s movement in Korea. It was also a significant milestone in Korea s evolution into a democratic society. 87

46 88 <Table 3> Women's Organizations Participating in the National Debt Redemption Movement as of 1907 Organization Date of launching Region Social status of members Method of donation Namil-dong Women's Association for abolition of jewelry Daegu Wives of community leaders Jewelry, etc. Hamdeok Village National Debt Redemption Support Association Jeju Wives of community leaders Yeongheung Women's Association for Donation by Reducing food Consumption 1907 Busan Wives of community leaders Money saved by reducing food consumption Yeongheung County Association for National Debt Redemption by Reduction of Food Consumption county Changwon Port Women s Association Changwon Wives of community leaders Cash Mount Namsan Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Daegu Wives of community leaders Community leaders, Daean-dong Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Seoul Wives of noblemen Cash, etc. Yeongdo Island Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Busan Christians Women s Association for Reducing Side Dishes Seoul Concubines Money saved by reducing food consumption Sujeong-dong Women s Donation Association Busan Wives of noblemen Cash Women s Donation Association for National Debt Repayment Seoul Modern educated women Refraining from luxury, group dining * Club of 18 Pyongyang Gisaeng 1907 Pyongyang Entertainers Cash Donation Office for National Debt Repayment, Geomdan-myeon, Gimpo Gyeonggi Province Organization Date of launching Region Social status of members Married women Cash, jewelry, grain * Pyongyang National Debt Repayment Club Pyongyang Entertainers Cash Rice Collection Society Incheon Christian women Rice saved by reducing consumption * Forty Bhikkhuni of Mitasa Temple, Mt. Jongnamsan Buddhist nuns Hwangbongjeong Women s Association Geumsan Wives of community leaders * Geochang Women s Donation Club Geochang Cash Patriotic Society for National Debt Repayment Jinju Concubines * Geumsan Women s Donation Club Wives of noblemen Cash Cheongbuk-Ganggye Women s Water Saving Association for National Debt Repayment Ganggye Concubines Money saved by cutting water consumption * Society of 20 Retired Gisaeng in Uiryeong County Jinju Patriotic Women s Association Jinju Gisaeng (entertainers) Cash * Thirty-six Women s Club of Samseong-ri, Dong-myeon, Gwacheon County Uiryeong County Gwacheon County Retired entertainers Samhwa Port Women s Association for Abolition of Jewelry Jinnampo Wives of community leaders Jewelry, cash * Teachers and Students of Ewha Haktang (?) Seoul Teachers and students Cash Namyang County Women s Donation Association Anseong County Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Biseok Village Christian Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi Province Samhwa port Seoncheon County Donation Association Seoncheon Married women Christian women Cash, etc. * Medical Ladies at Palace Dispensary Seoul Medical women Cash Wives of merchants Cash, etc * Medical Ladies at Imperial Medical Office Seoul Medical women Cash Christian women Cash, etc. * Female Entertainment Staff at the Imperial Household Seoul Entertainers Cash Former government officials, wives Jewelry, cash, etc. * Students of Yanggyu Uisuk Seoul Students Cash Anak County Association for National Debt Redemption and Sovereignty Restoration Anak Wives of community leaders Jewelry * Women Believing in Jesus of Soul Rock in Yeoju Yeoju Christian women Cash Jincheon Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Jincheon Wives of community leaders Jewelry * Women s Society for Abolition of Jewelry in Mugeuk-ri, Geumja-myeon, Eumseong County Samdo Village Women s Association Jeju Wives of community leaders Cash * Noblemen s Wives in Boeun County Eumseong County Boeun County Wives of farmers (?) Gyeongju Women s Association for National Debt Repayment Gyeongju Concubines Cash, etc. * Women of Juk-dong, Mokpo Cash Women s Association for Smoking Cessation Alliance Busan Wives of merchants Cash, etc. * Women of Juk-dong, Bunae-myeon, Muan County Cash Yeonan Yi Clan Women s Association Married women in the clan Money saved by cutting rice consumption Wives of noblemen Method of donation Cash Cash, etc. Jewelry Cash, etc. Cash Cash Jewelry Cash *A temporary or informal group. 89

47 Ⅵ/ Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement

48 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 1 / The Number of Donors The names of donors to the National Debt Redemption Movement and the amount of their contribution were documented painstakingly and listed in public announcement published prominently every day in daily newspapers, such as the Jeguk Sinmun (Imperial Post), Mansebo (Independence News), Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette), Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News), and Kyunghyang Shinmun (Kyunghyang Daily News). The publication of donation lists in the popular press was started by the Jeguk Sinmun, which carried the names of 25 donors wage earners working in the Jeong-dong area, central Seoul, who contributed 20 jeon each on February 18, The final list of donors to be published came out in the Hwangseong Sinmun on October 31, 1908; it included 156 residents of Sawon-myeon, Bongsan County, Hwanghae Province. The five newspapers between them carried lists of 500 donors on average each day for 424 days, including a list of some 4,200 donors on May 14, Tallies based on these newspaper reports are summed up in Table 4, which shows a total of some 260,000 named donors. It is reasonable to assume that the actual number of donors far exceeded this figure. In June 1907, the Daehan Maeil Sinbo started publishing Hangeul (Korean script) editions in addition to its Chinese-and-Korean editions to reach a wider public. The newspaper published an advance notice that it would carry donors lists in its vernacular edition as well to keep up with the surge in announcements of such lists. Unfortunately, no copies of the newspaper s Korean editions published during June 1907 have been found.

49 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement Marker commemorating Daegu women who participated in the movement, inspiring passionate response from women across the country. Erected at the National Debt Redemption Movement Memorial Park in 2007, the ring-shaped marker recalls that many women donated the rings on their fingers to help pay the national debt.

50 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 96 The Daehan Maeil Sinbo certainly published many donor lists during the month of June as it had announced, and continued doing so, because its Hangeul edition of July 2, 1907 carried donor lists from the Patriotic Association for National Debt Repayment of Namhae County. Moreover, the newspaper s Hangeul editions published during the month of July 1907 carried lists of a total of some 12,000 donors, and the Chinese-and-Korean editions of June and July listed a total of some 14,000 donors, respectively. Based on these figures, the Korean script editions possibly carried lists of an estimated total of 10,000 donors at the least during the month of June This leads to the assumption that the total number of donors nationwide could have reached some 270,000. The newspaper lists included donations by groups as well as individuals. Donations by organizations and communities such as churches, schools, private mutual funds (gye), clans, and various others totaled 1,635. There is no way to find out how many individuals contributed to each of these. For greater accuracy in estimating the degree of participation in each region, the total number of individuals who participated in group donations was calculated based on the average number of individual donors from organizations and communities with populations in corresponding scale, such as 24 from villages (ri), 93 from townships (myeon), and 34 from other organizations and communities. Thus were the figures reached under the category Assumed No. of donors from organizations/ communities in Table 4, totaling 45,156. By extrapolation, the total number of donors nationwide [the sum of named individuals and assumed number of participants within group donors] was estimated at some 317,000. participated in the movement [This roughly translates to one out of every 17 households considering the nation s demographic composition at the time.]. This suggests the movement drew a higher rate of public participation than any public campaign triggered by an issue of national concern and conducted systematically across the country in Korea s modern history over the last 100 years. As the movement was a nationwide public campaign, there are two additional particularities to be taken into consideration in tallying the number of participants. First, most contributions should be seen to have been made by families, and individual members must be counted accordingly as donors. The general population census in the early 20th century shows that an average Korean family consisted of eight members, including four or more adult men. In cases of families who sold their house to donate to the movement, it must be considered that all the family members participated. Secondly, many donation ledgers compiled in book form have been recently discovered but the contents of these ledgers have yet to be confirmed against newspaper reports or advertisements. This leads to the assumption that a considerable number of donors were left out of press coverage. Eventually, it may even be assumed that as much as 20 percent of the entire population participated in the movement. 97 These figures indicate that some 1.8 percent of the nation s population, totaling 17 million at the time, participated in the movement. Since the great majority of donors were adult men counting only the male population 20 years of age or older (some 5.1 million) the participation rate comes to 5.4 percent. In other words, one out of every 20 adult males

51 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 2 / The Amount of Donations 98 <Table 4> Tallies of Donors and Donation Amounts Published in Newspapers Newspaper Kyunghyang shinmun Individual donors (person) Assumed No. of donors as members of organizations/ communities(person) Amounts donated by individuals(won) Amounts donated by organizations/ communities(won) , Jeguk Sinmun 9, , Mansebo 26,001 3,850 18,435 1,121 Hwangseong Sinmun Daehan Maeil Sinbo 110,367 19,373 70,775 6, ,005 20,247 73,168 6,081 Subtotal 262,16 45, ,371 13,793 Total 307,972 (excluding some10,000 donors assumed to be listed in the lost editions of Daehan Maeil Sinbo) 180,164 (excluding some 6,000 won assumed to have been donated by those listed in the lost editions of Daehan Maeil Sinbo) Source: Han Sang-gu A Study on the Nationwide Development of the National Debt Redemption Movement in The total donations identified in evidentiary documents that are available comes to some 180,000 won. The exact tallies of donations could not be made public even at the time when the movement was under way. A later study estimated the total amount at some 160,000 to 190,000 won, based on coverage by the Hwangseong Sinmun (Capital Gazette) and the Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News), which covered the movement most actively, and reports by the Japanese military police. As mentioned earlier, however, the statistics based on coverage by the Daehan Maeil Sinbo leaves out the donations listed in the lost editions of the newspaper published in Korean script during the month of June The estimated 10,000 donors and their 6,000 won in total contributions are based on the tallies of the figures carried in the newspaper s Chinese-and-Korean editions during the months of June and July 1907: some 16,000 persons who donated some 10,000 won and 9,000 won, respectively; and from the same newspaper s Korean editions during the months of July and August, some 13,000 donors who gave 7,000 won, and 10,000 donors, contributing 5,400 won, respectively. All these estimates considered, the total donations received is assumed to be about 186,000 won. This amount is close to the 187,000 won estimated by Professor Jeong Jin-seok based on reports by the Japanese military police. As for the different currency units which appear in the donation lists, won and hwan are regarded as denominations of equivalent value, whereas nyang has been converted to won at the ratio of 5:1, applying the exchange rate of the currency reform of Megata Tanetaro spearheaded by the Japanese Residency-General. Statistics of donations by individuals are shown in Table 5. Based on coverage by the Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Chinese-and-Korean editions) and the Hwangseong Sinmun, the donations by some 196,000 individuals have been classified into seven levels depending on their amount. Those who contributed 10 won or more totaled some 2,800, or 1.8 percent of all donors; and those who contributed less than 1 won totaled 162,000, or 83 percent. To be more specific, those who contributed 20 jeon each totaled some 57,000, comprising the largest number of 99

52 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 100 individual donors; followed by some 41,000 persons who contributed 10 jeon; some 19,000 persons who contributed 30 jeon; some 15,000 persons who contributed 40 jeon; 18,000 persons who contributed 50 jeon; some 19,000 persons who contributed 1 won; and some 7,000 persons who contributed 2 won. A total of 75 persons contributed 100 won or more. They break down to 53 persons who contributed 100 won, followed by 6 persons with 200 won, 4 persons with 300 won, 3 persons who gave 500 won, one donor who gave 1,700 won, and another who contributed 1,800 won. <Table 5> Levels of Giving: Individual Donors by Amounts Donated Amount donated No.of donors Proportion against total 196,033 participants (%) Total by level (won) 50 jeonor less 132, , In general, a great majority of individual donors contributed 20 jeon or less. Even if all these small donors might not have been ordinary peasants or low-born people, it may well be said that the masses from lower social classes constituted the greatest proportion of participants in the movement. This is an important characteristic defining the nature of the National Debt Redemption Movement. 50 jeon 1 won 30, ,647 1 won 5 won 29, ,432 5 won 10 won 1, , won 50 won 1, , won 100 won , won or more (up to 1,800 won) ,869 Total 196, ,124 Source: Han Sang-gu A Study on the Nationwide Development of the National Debt Redemption Movement in 1907.

53 Statistics of the National Debt Redemption Movement 3 / The Trends in Participation 102 The National Debt Redemption Movement progressed with explosive dynamism. Though it started in a moment of consensus without any pre-arranged scenario or organization, the movement mushroomed with amazing intensity across the country. The list of first donors was published by the press on February 18, 1907, about three weeks after the movement was initiated in Daegu on January 29. It was two days after the Jeguk Sinmun (Imperial Post) carried news that a campaign had begun to help repay the government debt. The donors on the first list were not elite intellectuals such as Confucian scholars, sophisticated gentlemen or students, but 25 household workers. The newspaper just continued to publish lists of donors names 10 one day, then 77, and 86 next without any follow-up articles. Then, on February 23, the Daehan Maeil Sinbo (Korea Daily News) carried a news article that Park Seung-jik had started to collect donations in Seoul. Obviously, the press failed to catch up with the enthusiasm of ordinary citizens and the speed with which the campaign spread during its first week. On February 26, eight days after the first list of donors was released, the newspaper list included over 200 people and the number rose to 300 on March 1, then exceeded 500 on March 8. Then, on March 16, the names of some 2,200 people, including 103 persons who met at Namso-dong, in Incheon, and 71 orphans in Seoul, were carried by several newspapers such as the Jeguk Sinmun, Hwangseong Sinmun, Daehan Maeil Sinbo, and Mansebo (Independence News). The press continued to publish lists of some 400 to 600 donors daily thereafter, and on April 5, the number topped 1,000. Thereafter the newspapers carried lists of over 1,000 donors each day until July or August. Table 6 shows the monthly trends in donation gathering. Some 1,100 peoples participated during the first 10 days or so in February 1907, snowballing quickly to some 15,000 participants during March, some 48,000 during April, some 60,000 in May, some 40,000 during June, and some 48,000 in July. Meanwhile, Korea was driven into even more chaos as King Gojong was forced to abdicate on July 20, the Korean army was forcibly disbanded on July 31, and righteous armies rose up in protest to the unequal seven-article treaty signed by Korea and Japan on July 24. Donations fell abruptly: down from 36,000 in August to 14,000 in September, 11,000 in October, 7,000 in November, and 3,000 in December <Table 6> Monthly Trends in Participation Participation by Month It is worthwhile to note here that the press publication of the lists of donors might not have been done immediately due to a massive surge in donations during the early months of the campaign. The lists published after August could have included the names of donors carried over from the previous months. It may be said that the public s enthusiasm for the movement to repay the national debt cooled down significantly after the tragic events of July the King s abdication and the disbandment of the army. 103

54 Ⅶ/ End of the Movement

55 End of the Movement 1 / Plots to Thwart the Movement Donations to help repay the national debt totaled some 200,000 won by May 1907, three months after the movement began. But the public s enthusiasm substantially dissipated toward the end of the year as Japan s obstruction dealt a fatal blow to the public campaign. As the movement spread throughout the country, Japan employed diverse measures to thwart the campaign, such as pressuring leaders of participating organizations and persecuting the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, the newspaper which played a key role by hosting the fundraising headquarters for the movement in its building. Japan maneuvered to prosecute and expel the newspaper s British co-founder and publisher Ernest T. Bethell. On July 12, 1908, Japan illegally detained the newspaper s general secretary Yang Gi-tak on a false charge of embezzling funds raised by the campaign to repay the national debt and put him on trial, touching off a diplomatic conflict with London. On September 29 of the same year, Yang was acquitted on grounds of insufficient evidence. Japan s effort to frustrate the movement by damaging the reputation of Bethell and Yang was aborted, but the general public s confidence in the leaders of the movement could not remain intact long as the trumped-up cases made headlines in newspapers. The long trial ended with acquittal but the public s trust and fervor for the movement had already been dampened. Japanese imperialists fabricated charges and relentlessly orchestrated obstructive tactics by instigating organizations of pro-japanese Koreans to define the movement as a struggle against Japan, eventually pushing the movement to its demise. 107 A four-page special issue of Daehan Maeil Sinbo, published on May 14, 1907, to accommodate lists of the surging number of donors. Shown is the list of donors from Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, and their contributions.

56 108 The movement is known to have raised some 200,000 won, but there is no way to find out exactly how much. Hwang Hyeon, a dissident scholar and independence activist, wrote in his book Maecheon yarok (Unofficial Records of Maecheon), a history of the late Joseon period: In 1910, the Committee for Handling National Debt Redemption Funds estimated the total funds at 159,253 won and 99 jeon based on a survey of donations collected in various regions. The committee was organized as the movement was drawing to an end. In a meeting of 115 representatives from across the country, held on April 16, 1910, the committee discussed what to do with the money raised through the movement and decided to buy land and invest accumulated assets in education projects at an appropriate time. On September 20, 1910, the committee was renamed the Education Fund Management Committee and decided to use its funds amounting to 150,000 won for private education. However, the entire amount was later confiscated by the police commissioner of the Japanese Government-General.

57 Ⅷ/ Global Significance of the Movement

58 Global Significance of the Movement 1 / Grassroots Exercise of Civic Duty In the early 20th century, Japan forcibly imposed huge loans amounting to 13 million won on the government of its protectorate, the Korean Empire, as part of its colonization strategy. As the Korean government was unable to repay the debt and a crisis of sovereignty loomed, the Korean public stepped up to help their government pay back the loans to save their country from foreign aggression. The movement began with a donation campaign in the provincial city of Daegu under the initiative of elite intellectuals and rich merchants, and spread quickly across the country owing to extensive support by the popular press. Almost all the newspapers and magazines in the country extensively covered the donation campaigns carried out by people from all social strata. Men quit smoking to join the movement, women saved on groceries and gave their jewelry and accessories, poor commoners made straw shows and gathered firewood to sell, young students contributed earnings from running errands, female entertainers and even beggars and thieves participated voluntarily and enthusiastically. The Korean public stood up to fulfill their civic duty by helping repay the sovereign debt through nationwide donation campaigns. 113 Trial record of the fabricated embezzlement case against leaders of the movement, an attempt orchestrated by Japan to thwart the movement by dividing public opinion. British publisher Ernest T. Bethell and general secretary Yang Gi-tak of Daehan Maeil Sinbo, accused of embezzling public donations, were acquitted on grounds of insufficient evidence. The National Debt Redemption Movement inspired a similar civic campaign nine decades later when Korea was hit by the Asian financial crisis of The Korean public once again rose up to save their country from an imminent default on external loans by gathering gold to give to their government. Their fervor deeply impressed the international community. The campaign not only harkened back to the Korean people s historic movement to repay the government debt when much of East Asia was reeling under imperialist aggression a century earlier but was also cited as an exemplary case of public response when nations in Europe and South America suffered from financial crises.

59 Global Significance of the Movement 2 / Catalyst for Debate on a New Financial Order 114 As such, the spirit of the movement is worthy of continued attention and reinterpretation by the global community in coping with crises arising from insurmountable sovereign debt. During his visit to Korea in 1998, Michel Camdessus, then managing director of the International Monetary Fund, expressed respect for the Korean people when he witnessed their movement to donate their gold jewelry, accessory and other items in their possession to help their government pay their country s external debt. The incumbent president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, in a press interview in 2012 said the gold donation movement by the Korean people was an example of civic solidarity coping with national crisis. The National Debt Redemption Movement may be deemed as a viable alternative in coping with crises faced by the world s economies under the pressure of accumulated sovereign debts in the 21st century. It was a movement of the Korean people to fulfill their civic duty by repaying the coercive loans imposed on their government by the Japanese imperialists. The movement deserves attention in that its leaders accused the creditor nation of inciting and cajoling the debtor nation to incur bad debts, bringing to light the shared responsibility of both parties and seeking to resolve the situation from such a perspective. This is a clear departure from the stance of those who only faulted the debtors in the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and various other types of financial crisis which broke out in the ensuing years. Considering the recent consensus of the global community that the key to resolving the sovereign debt crisis of Greece would lie in acknowledging the responsibility of both the debtor and creditor nations, the issue raised through the Korean people s movement a century ago evidently remains valid today. In this context, the National Debt Redemption Movement is worthy of renewed attention as an important historical precedent in debating how to rebuild the global financial order for the 21st century. 115

60 Global Significance of the Movement 3 / Birth of Community Donation Culture 4 / Pacifist Resistance to Imperialist Aggression 116 The National Debt Redemption Movement was first led by intellectuals engaged in patriotic enlightenment efforts and merchants who were facing a decline in national commerce amid the looming danger of losing sovereignty to Japan shortly after the turn of the 20th century. As news about the movement spread, the public spontaneously took the lead in organizing and donating through local self-governing councils or community associations. Particularly The National Debt Redemption Movement was a voluntary public campaign of the Korean people to help their government pay back a sovereign debt coercively incurred under imperialist pressure, thereby fending off financial aggression. The movement worked for a mutually beneficial and peaceful coexistence between nations through a donation campaign conducted by means of quitting smoking and practicing frugality. In this regard, the movement is comparable to Mahatma Ghandi s nonviolent resistance against British rule in India through ahimsa (compassion) and swadesh (self-sufficiency through boycotting British products) during a similar period of anti-colonial struggle. 117 noteworthy, at a time when Korean society was still greatly stratified by social class, the numerous manifestos and declarations of donation campaigns discovered across the country unanimously proclaim that there is no difference in gender or age in loving one s country. The campaigns were clearly a bona-fide people s movement of the whole nation. Press coverage from those days reported that numerous children and students participated in the movement and there were many moving stories in newspapers and magazines that describe how people in the periphery of society, such as beggars, butchers, woodcutters and vegetable vendors, made efforts to make small donations. Press coverage also brought to light the passionate participation by women, particularly housewives, lady entertainers and widows, as another prominent aspect of the movement. The press reported that, although the movement began as a campaign for men to stop smoking to save on tobacco money to donate to the cause, a group of women in the Daegu region held a meeting and asserted that women do not differ from men in loving our country, giving away the jewelry they were wearing and thereby kicking off a campaign of their own to contribute to the movement. The news spread and women across the country joined in by diverse methods such as economizing on food expenses, even selling their own hair to raise donation money. It may go down in history as the first countrywide feminist movement in Korean history, predating the first feminist movement in America, which began in Moreover, the movement by Korean women emphasized fulfilling their duty as citizens, whereas the early feminist movements in Western countries were mostly about labor rights and suffrage. Echoing the National Debt Redemption Movement of 1907, Koreans waged a nationwide public campaign to save their country from imminent default on foreign debts by gathering gold to give to their government at the height of the Asian financial crisis of But the Korean movement employed a more proactive strategy to forestall imperial aggression by repaying the national debt with people s donations and thereby attain mutually beneficial coexistence and peace in the region. The movement sought to achieve the goal with contributions from the entire people, through a voluntary grassroots campaign of personal sacrifices quitting smoking, giving away the rings on their fingers and cutting back on food at the dinner table instead of rich aristocrats donating large sums.