“We will Live For Ten Thousand Generations!”
The 2014 March 1st celebration
Man sei! This is the cry of the members ofthe Peoples’ Movement in 1919 known in Korea as 3.1 or March 1st IndependenceMovement, when a declaration was issued by a group of patriots declaringIndependence from Japan, and all across the country people joined the movement.It was put down by the occupiers, but today, they are still honoured as thefirst blazing up of the fire of freedom in Korea. On March 1, 2014, a memorialceremony organized by the NCCK Human Rights Centre was held in the grounds ofthe Seodaemun Prison Historical Museum, to celebrate the 95th anniversaryof 3.1. In addition, another generationof freedom fighters was lifted up. On the 1st of March in 1976, 20 peopleissued the Peoples’ Democratic Declaration for the Salvation of the Country ata gathering in Myeongdong Cathedral as a resistance against the Park Chung Heedictatorship. These people were arrested at the time and found guilty ofviolating the National Constitution. Finally,last year, in July of 2013, they were fully acquitted of all charges.
At the anniversary event, opening words weredelivered by Lee Jae Jeong, former government Minister of Reunification, andgreetings from Lee Hee Ho, the wife of late President Kim Dae Jung. Well-knownactor Moon Song Kun read the 1976 declaration, members of political partiesbrought greetings, and then the story of the events were told by two who hadparticipated in it all, Father Ham Sei Woong and Rev. Lee Hae Dong. Songs ofthe activists were sung, and then Rev. Moon Dong Kwan shared his feelings aboutthe day. It was significant for these heroes of democracy to be celebratingfreely on the grounds of Seodaemun Prison, where many of them had been held incustody. At the end, the crowd, joined with freedom loving people of the past,raised the traditional 3.1 cry of “Man Sei!” (‘We will live for 10 ThousandGenerations’) |
