Yoon Bong-Gil

Infobox Korean name


hangul=윤봉길
hanja=尹奉吉
rr=Yun Bong-gil
mr=Yun Pong-gil

Yoon Bong-Gil (21 June 1908, Yesan, Korea - 19 December 1932 Kanazawa, Japan) was a Korean independence activistcite news|url=http://english.kbs.co.kr/society/news/1532604_11773.html |date=2008-07-03 |publisher=KBS|title=Ahn Gong-geun Designated as 'Independence Activist of July' |accessdate=2008-08-24 |quote=In 1931, he co-founded the Society for Korean Patriots with Kim Gu, and the following year led a number of independence movements with other activists including Yoon Bong-gil. Ahn Gong-geun passed away on May 30, 1939. ] cite web|url=http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=218855&rel_no=1 |title=Scenes of Korea's Suffering Under Japan|publisher=Ohmynews |author=Christopher Carpenter |date=2005-04-03 |accessdate=2008-08-24 |quote=Three photos show the capture and death of independence leader Yoon Bong Gil. Yoon is led away by Japanese soldiers and then put to death by a firing squad. This exhibit is at Woninjae subway station, Incheon, until April 16. |language=English] who worked against Japan during Japan's occupation of Korea (1910 - 1945). Yoon participated in an assassination attempt of several Japanese leaders.

On 29 April, 1932, he carried out a bombing attack using a bomb disguised as a water bottle at a Japanese army celebration of Emperor Hirohito's birthday in Shanghai. The bombing killed Yoshinori Shirakawa, a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, and nihongo|Kawabata Sadaji|河端貞次, a Government Chancellor of Japanese residents in Shanghai. It also seriously injured Kenkichi Ueda, Division 9 commander of the Japanese Imperial Army, nihongo|Kuramatsu Murai|村井倉松, Japanese Consul-General in Shanghai, and Shigemitsu Mamoru, Japanese Envoy in Shanghai.

Yoon was arrested at the scene and convicted by the Japanese military court in Shanghai on 25 May. He was transferred to Osaka prison on 18 November, and executed in Kanazawa on 18 December. He was buried in Nodayama graveyard.

In May 1946, his remains were excavated by Korean residents in Japan, transferred to Seoul and given funeral rites. He was then reburied in the Korean National Cemetery. In 1962, the government of South Korea's Second Republic praised his bombing attack, and posthumously bestowed the Republic of Korea Cordon (Grand Cordon) of the Order of Liberation Merit on him.

ee also

*Sakuradamon Incident
*Korean independence movements
*Korea under Japanese rule

References

External links

* [http://yunbonggil.or.kr/language/english.html Website devoted to Yoon Bong-gil]
* [http://blogs.slis.ua.edu/slis/blogs/wordpressmu-1.0/crn001/ Yoon Bong-gil Site]