Moon's March 1 Address [full Text]

The following is an unofficial translation of President Moon Jae-in's address marking the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement:

Fellow Koreans and compatriots abroad,

One hundred years ago today, we were united as one.

At noon on March 1, students passed out the Declaration of Korean Independence. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the national representatives held a ceremony to declare Korea's independence at Taehwagwan in Seoul, and some 5,000 people read the Declaration aloud together at Tapgol Park.

The protagonists of the March First Independence Movement were ordinary people such as laborers, farmers, women, soldiers, rickshaw pullers, gisaeng, butchers, serfs, street merchants, students and monks. These people also participated in a nationwide campaign to repay the national debt to Japan by quitting smoking to save, donating ornamental hairpins and rings made of gold and silver, and even selling locks of hair.

On that day, we were reborn as citizens of a republic; we were no longer subjects of a dynasty or a colony of Imperial Japan. The great journey toward a democratic republic began at that time looking beyond independence and liberation.

One hundred years ago today, there was no South and North Korea.

From Seoul and Pyeongyang to Jinnampo, Anju, Seoncheon, Uiju and Wonsan, loud chants of manse erupted on the same day, and these calls for independence spread like a wildfire to every corner of the country.

For two months from March 1, manse protests took place in 211 out of the total 220 cities and counties across the country regardless of the region ? whether they belonged to what is now a part of South or North Korea. The chorus of people shouting manse continued into May.

Just over two million people, about 10 percent of the total living on the Korean Peninsula at the time, joined the manse demonstrations. Some 7,500 Koreans were murdered with 16,000 injured. The number of people arrested and detained reached as many as 46,000.

The most horrible tragedy occurred in Maengsan, Pyeongannam Province. On March 10, 54 local residents descended on a military police outpost to call for the release of detained teachers; they were massacred inside the building. Another act of brutality followed in Jeam-ri of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. A total of 29 villagers, with even children among them, were massacred after they were locked in a church that was later set on fire.

In contrast, however, not a single Japanese civilian was killed due to attacks by Koreans.

We Koreans were also united as one in Yongjeong, China, across the border in what was North Gando; in Vladivostok in the Maritime Province of the Russian Far East; in Hawaii; and in Philadelphia. Anyone and everyone who felt a part of the Korean nation organized and took part in a rally.

We all together aspired to independence and dreamed of popular sovereignty. Those who harbored the chants of the March First Independence Movement in their hearts began to realize that common people like themselves were the main drivers of the independence movement and the rightful owners of the country. That awareness prompted the participation of ever more people and empowered them to shout their chants every single day. The first fruition was the Provisional Republic of Korea Government, the root of a democratic republic.

The Provisional Government stipulated "a democratic republic" in Article 1 of its Charter, upholding the spirit of the March First Independence Movement. It was the first case in world history of a democratic republic expressly set forth in a constitution.

Fellow Koreans,

Wiping out the vestiges of pro-Japanese collaborators is a long-overdue undertaking. Only when we contemplate past wrongdoings can we move toward the...