Independence activist who took part in the March First Movement and, after exile in Shanghai, worked in the Korean Independence Party
| Life | 1901 ~ 1941 |
| Era | 일제강점기 |
| Clan | 월성 박씨 |
Park Cheol-jun (22 November 1901 - 21 June 1941) is introduced by Wikipedia as an independence activist and is named as a notable member of the Wolseong Park clan. His childhood names were Park Ye-gyeom, Park Ji-hun and Park Ji-won, and his pen names Dongpung, Pilmok, Pilam, Useok and Gangpo. Born in Yongdong village, Jemulpo, Incheon, he spent part of his infancy in Daeryong-ri, Gyodong-myeon, Ganghwa, and entered the Incheon Higher Commercial School in 1914.
On 6 March 1919, during a school strike in support of the March First Movement, students were under police watch, and he consulted junior classmate Kim Myeong-jin and others and decided to cut the communications first. On the night of 8 March at about nine he kept watch while Kim Myeong-jin cut the telephone line with wire shears and smashed a receiver in the office. He was arrested and expelled, and on 21 June 1919 the Gyeongseong District Court sentenced him to 90 strokes for violating the Public Security Act and the Telegraph Act.
In 1921 he went into exile in Shanghai and served under the Provisional Government as an administrative committee member and military-strategy committee member of the Korean Independence Party before leaving it in 1933, Wikipedia says. He then worked as a tenant farmer and clog seller, fell ill, returned from Fuzhou in 1938, and died of illness in 1941 while recuperating in Jangdan, Gyeonggi. His ashes were scattered in the sea off Wolmido, Incheon, and the government posthumously gave him a Presidential Commendation on 1 March 2009.
On the fifth day of the strike, with students under severe questioning, he and Kim Myeong-jin and others decided to disrupt communications first. He was arrested for cutting the telephone line on the second floor of the school on the night of 8 March 1919.
He is said to have gone to Shanghai in 1921 and worked under the Provisional Government. Wikipedia's account is ambiguous about years of party membership and posts, so those years are not fixed here.
The government posthumously gave a Presidential Commendation on 1 March 2009. His seat is given as Wolseong because Wikipedia's Wolseong Park entry links him as a notable member; it was not cross-checked directly against the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs record.
His ashes are said to have been scattered in the sea off Wolmido, Incheon.