윤봉길 尹奉吉
Independence activist who carried out the Hongkou Park bombing in Shanghai
| Life | 1908 ~ 1932 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 파평 윤씨 |
Life & career
Yun Bong-gil was an independence activist of the Japanese colonial period. Born in Yesan, Chungcheongnam-do, he devoted himself to a rural enlightenment movement before committing himself to the independence movement. In 1931 he went to Shanghai and joined the Korean Patriotic Corps (Hanin Aegukdan) led by Kim Gu.
On April 29, 1932, at Hongkou Park in Shanghai, he threw a bomb at the ceremony celebrating the Japanese emperor's birthday and Japan's victory in the Shanghai Incident, killing and wounding figures including Shirakawa Yoshinori, commander of the Japanese expeditionary army in Shanghai. Arrested on the spot, he was martyred in Kanazawa, Japan, in December of that year. This act greatly raised the standing of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and in 1962 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Grand Order of the Republic of Korea.
Grave
Tomb of the Three Martyrs, Hyochang Park, Seoul (his remains were repatriated and buried after liberation)
Descendants
With his wife Bae Yong-sun he had children, including his sons Yun Jong and Yun Dam.