뉴스레터

There is a red bricked building surrounded by high walls on Tongil Road in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. A history hall today, it was originally built as Korea's first modern prison in October 1908 by design of the Japanese architect Shitenno Kazuma. It was called 'Kyungsung Gamok (meaning jail or prison in Kyungsung (Seoul))' at the time of its opening, but renamed later as 'Seodaemun Gambok' in 1912 to distinguish it from another prison under construction in Seoul, specifically in Gongdeok-dong Mapo-gu. The name Seodaemun Prison was adopted in May 1923.

Built after the Korean Empire gave up its judicial power to Japan under the unequal treaty of 1907, the Seodaemun Prison is the site of a history that represents the suffering and reality of the Korean people whose nation had lost its sovereignty. This prison increased its size by more than thirty times, from 1,600㎡ at the time of its completion to 51,200㎡ in 1923, through continued expansion and renovation beginning from 1919. With this fact alone, we can imagine the magnitude of the suffering inflicted on the Korean patriots who took part in the independence movement at that time.

This prison held no more than 500 inmates at the time of its opening, but the number increased to over 3,000 as Japan intensified its oppression. By 1937, it had grown so large that its staff alone numbered 343. The Koreans who were executed or tortured to death here in the Seodaemun Prison include: the patriot Lee Jae-myung who set out to bring justice to the traitor Lee Wan-yong in 1909; Yoo Kwan-sun, a representative independence activist and symbol of the March 1st Movement; and the patriot Kang Woo-gyu who threw a bomb at the Japanese Governor-General of Korea Saito Makoto.

The Korean independence activists were persecuted and subjected to all kinds of cruelty in the Seodaemun Prison. The horror at the time and the pain that the patriots must have felt are captured in the cells, torture chambers, torture devices, and torture methods that have been reproduced in their original form and are on display in the basement of the history hall. And it fills our heart with solemn feelings to read the following short poem by the patriot Kang Woo-gyu which he reportedly wrote before going to the scaffold.

As I stand before the scaffold, a spring breeze blows in.
I have a body, but I don't have a country. How can I not have any feelings about it?
(斷頭臺上 猶在春風 有身無國 豈無感想)

The Seodaemun Prison with a warm breeze blowing in teaches us to realize how nice it is to have our own country where we stand and how much we should appreciate it. After the Japanese occupation was over, the Seodaemun Prison remained in existence, changing its name to the Seoul Prison and then to the Seoul Penal Station and then to the Seoul Detention Center and so on, until it was opened as the Seodaemun Prison History Hall in November 1998, where seven prison buildings, the place of execution, and the security office complex are preserved in their original form. Prisons No. 10, 11, and 12, and the place of execution are designated as Historic Site No. 324.

Source of Reference: Seodaemun Prison History Hall
http://www.sscmc.or.kr/newhistory/introduce/history_2010.asp
The Independence Hall of Korea "Independence Movement Sites in Seoul" - Seodaemun Prison
http://sajeok.i815.or.kr/ebook/ebookh01/book.html