The Donghak Peasants Rebellion, Part 2

The first Donghak Rebellion, initiated by a small village uprising, brought many great democratic changes. The reform plan signed by the government, as well as rebels burning documents of slave ownership, prevented any tyranny caused by corrupt officials, gave widows permission to have a second marriage, and divided unfairly taken government land equally among farmers. The most noteworthy reform was the establishment of Jipkkang Hall in 54 Jeolla Province villages. The Jipkkang Hall was an independent commoner organization that supervised village officials
and continuously worked on democratic reforms. With the rebels’ power dominating in the Jeolla Province, the Jipkkang Hall performed most of the village politics in place of government officials, such as maintaining security and public order.

However, the first Donghak Rebellion also opened the country up for foreign intervention. Fear of the first Donghak Rebellion led the government to call upon China for help, which not only brought 2,000 Chinese soldiers, but also brought 8,000 Japanese soldiers who had been eagerly looking for a chance to take part in Joseon politics. The Japanese military intervention greatly surprised the Joseon government. The government hurriedly signed the reform plan with the rebels to return the Japanese soldiers, but the Japanese force remained and continuously bullied the Joseon government. The Japanese force conquered Gyeongbok Palace, threatened King Gojong, and established a pro-Japanese group inside the government. Adding insult to injury, the Japanese force defeated China in the following Sino Japanese War (1894), making Korea completely isolated and vulnerable to the Japanese.

The leader of the Donghak Peasants Rebellion, Jeon Bong-jun, realized that he could not overlook the situation and gathered his men from the former rebellion and the entire Donghak force to fight against the Japanese. In this second Donghak Peasants Rebellion, the rebels fought against the union of Japanese and Korean royal forces in Gongju Ugeumchi, the region in Chungcheong Province between Jeolla Province and Seoul. The battle turned out to be a desperate struggle for the rebels. They faced disadvantages in both weaponry and position. The Japanese force fired down on the rebels from the mountain, mercilessly killing anyone climbing the ridge. The Japanese also had advanced modern weaponry like machine guns and cannons that were superior to the agricultural equipment the rebels had. The massacre lasted about a week, leaving only 500 people alive out of the original 20,000 in the rebel army. Jeon Bong-jun was able to escape and prepared for this revenge in Soon Chang but was arrested in December 1894 and executed. The rebellion was extinguished soon afterwards.

Although the rebellion failed, it cleared the way for modern reforms. The Donghak Peasants Rebellion was noteworthy because it was not only one of the fiercest struggles by commoners for democratic reforms, but it was also the beginning of the Anti-Japanese Movement. Several of the later participants of anti-Japanese movements were originally involved in the Donghak Rebellion, including the leader Kim Gu, and its legacy extends as far as the March 1 Independence Movement of 1919.