Succeeding on the over 500-year history of Joseon Dynasty, each region kept its own unique culture, The Japanese Government General of Korea completely merged and abolished the existing administrative districts for the cause of administrative expediency. Because of this, the uniqueness of each region could almost buried. However, there are still many areas that hold their regional identity and characteristics. One of those is Gwangcheon-eup, Hongseong County.
In this article I looked into the nationalistic movements developed during the Japanese colonial era, based on the social and economic backgrounds of Gwangcheon area. Hongseong is the region that left its mark on the history of Korean nationalistic movements in the early days. The core of the nationalistic movement of Hongseong was Confucianism, symbolizes with the “fidelity.” But the central area of the nationalistic movement in the region of Hongseong was mainly focused on the northern Hongseong area.
On the other hand, although Gwangcheon-eup, located in the southern area of Hongseong County, belonged to Hongseong County politically and administratively, it had lots of differences with Hongseong-eup from the social and economic views. Gwangcheon had the representative five-day market of Chungnam Province, was the way station of Janghang Railaod Line and was the economic town thriving with mining industry. Because of this, the nationalistic activists of Gwangcheon developed independent anti-Japanese movements based on its social and economic characteristics.
The centripetal body of the nationalistic movement in the region of Gwangcheon was Seo, Seung-tae. He was the Confucian scholar of Hongseong in the latter era of Joseon Dynasty. He was related to the righteous army in Hongju and led the modern educational movement in Gwangcheon area. He established Deokmyoung School and turned out a lot of nationalistic activists. They carried out the keen nationalistic movement based on the social and economic characteristics of Gwangcheon. Their major movements were the 1919(Samil) Independence Movement, a secret society movement, organization of a body of men advocating a particular system of ideology, Shingan Society movement, labor movement and so on.
In conclusion, the nationalistic movement of Gwangcheon area not only confirms the identity of Gwangcheon but also spotlights the diversity and intensity of the nationalistic movements of Hongseong County.