Korea’s Fight for Freedom at Seodaemun Prison

When visitors see Dongnimmun or Independence Gate, they often assume that it commemorates Korea’s independence from Japan. It does not. Completed in 1897, the gate symbolized Korea’s break from its centuries-old tributary relationship with China. But Korea’s sovereignty would soon face a very different threat.

As imperial powers completed for influence across Asia, Japan emerged as a major power in the region. Its takeover of Korea did not begin with annexation in 1910. In 1876, it forced Korea to sign the Ganghwa Treaty, an unequal treaty that opened Korea to Japanese trade and expanded Japan’s presence on the peninsula.

By 1905, Japan had forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Treaty, stripping the country of its diplomatic sovereignty and making it a Japanese protectorate. Three years later, Gyeongseong Prison opened just steps from Independence Gate. Its purpose was no coincidence: the prison was established in part to incarcerate Koreans resisting Japan’s growing control over their country. The symbolism of its location is difficult to ignore.

Over the decades that followed, the prison, later renamed Seodaemun Prison, became one of the most important sites of Japanese colonial repression. Thousands of independence activists passed through its cells, particularly following the March First Movement of 1919. They were interrogated, tortured, imprisoned, and often executed for resisting colonial rule.

But resistance took many forms and their stories reveal how students, workers, religious leaders, intellectuals, and ordinary Koreans participated in the struggle for independence.

On this tour, we’ll walk from Independence Gate into the former prison to trace Korea’s loss of sovereignty, the growth of the independence movement, and the lives of those who resisted Japanese rule. Through their stories, we’ll examine what resistance looked like, what it could cost, and how Korea remembers those who fought for its freedom today.

• Explore how the age of imperialism and industrial revolution reshaped East Asia and set the stage for Japan’s colonization of Korea.
• Walk through the former cell blocks, interrogation spaces, and execution grounds of Seodaemun Prison and learn about the realities faced by these imprisoned there.
• Follow the stories of independence activists who resisted colonial rule and continued to fight for freedom inside the prison.
• Any many more stories…