Yu Gwan-sun

Who is Yu Gwan-sun?

Yu Gwan-sun was a student and independence activist who became one of the most iconic figures of Korea's March 1st Movement of 1919, a nationwide series of peaceful demonstrations demanding independence from Japanese colonial rule. A student at Ewha Haktang in Seoul, she joined the protests when they broke out and, after schools were closed, returned to her home region of Cheonan, in South Chungcheong Province, to organize further demonstrations. On 1 April 1919 she helped lead a large rally at the Aunae marketplace, where Japanese authorities responded with violence and her parents were killed. Yu was arrested, imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, and subjected to torture. She continued to protest from within the prison and died there in 1920 at the age of seventeen or eighteen. She is honored in South Korea as a national heroine and symbol of youthful patriotic sacrifice.

Sources: Records of the March 1st Movement (3·1 운동), 1919 · Seodaemun Prison History Hall archives, Seoul · National Institute of Korean History records on the independence movement