A statement denouncing Japan's invasion of Manchuria has been discovered, showing that Koreans in New York fought for independence of their homeland from Japan's colonial rule in the 1930s.
The document, titled "The Korean Manifesto against the Japanese Invasion in Manchuria," was found recently at the Korean Methodist Church & Institute in New York and was signed off by "the allied Korean Organizations in New York."
The statement, which came three months before Korean independence organizations in the U.S. sent a joint statement to then U.S. President Herbert Hoover, shows that Koreans in New York worked systematically for the country's independence.
The statement, which was issued on Nov. 25, 1931, two months after Japan's invasion of Manchuria, said that to Koreans the invasion means "a death blow to their hope for regaining the lost nationhood."
"Manchuria has been a haven for the poverty-stricken Koreans, as well as the ardent Korean nationalists. The political exiles of Korea have established the headquarters in various cities of Manchuria. Their political associations, as well as many educational institutions, are there," the statement said.
"Japan has been planning to exterminate the Korean nationalists since long time. Under the cloud of the present invasion she plans to wipe them out at the point of the sword. Thus the Japanese conquest of Manchuria means to the Koreans a death blow to their hope for regaining the lost nationhood," it said.
The statement also harshly denounced Japan for its brutal colonial rule, saying the country is "as greedy as a wolf," its "heard is as black as night, and its "hands are red with the blood of our peace-loving people."
"Japan must be checked, and a lesson must be taught her by the enlightened opinions of the world. The wrong that Japan has done to Korea must be righted. ... Korea must be free, and Japanese militarism must fall," the statement said.
"The world, and the Far East in peninsula, will never rest in peace as long as there is the imperialistic Japan whose mischievous actions and unruly nature are a constant threat to the peace-loving nations of the world," it added. (Yonhap)
