March 1st Independence Movement and Korean Provisional Government

The provisional government directed its diplomacy chiefly toward the United States in the early days for the following reasons: first, the United States had played a leading role in handling the post-World War One situation; second, those who had studied in, or maintained close relationships with, the United States, such as Rhee Syngman, Ro Baek-rin, Kim Gyu-sik, and An Chang-ho, occupied important positions in the Korean Provisional Government; and third, the Korean Provisional Government was located in Shanghai, an international city, which is suitable location for connecting to Europe and the United States.
Thus, the provisional government’s diplomacy concerning the Paris Peace Conference was directly chiefly toward the government of the United States. Even during the 1921 Washington Conference, which lasted for three months, the Korean delegation engaged in negotiations toward Washington. However, all such efforts were in vain. At that time, imperialism prevailed in the field of international politics. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's policy of national self-determination applied only to the colonies of U.S. allies such as Germany, Austria, and Turkey. Still, politicians in Washington began to take the need for humanitarian consideration of Korean independence seriously due to the continuous efforts of the provisional government. Seo Jae-pil (Philip Jaisohn), for one, went a long way to awakening American politicians’ sympathy regarding the situation of Korea. Thus, while the provisional government was making diplomatic overtures to the world powers, Korean military organizations concentrated on waging a war of independence against Japan in Manchuria and the Maritime Province of Siberia.

Under the system adopted through the third amendment, the Juseok (Premier of State) served as the head of the Executive Branch, but he was merely the chairperson of the Cabinet Meeting. Rather, it was a collective leadership system led by members of the Cabinet. The Executive Branch of the government had to obtain the approval of the Legislative Assembly even in trivial matters like the relocation of an office, and was subject to supervision by standing committees of the Assembly.
One more noteworthy point in the third amendment of 1927 was that, upon the formation of a grand, national party, the supreme power of the provisional government was to revert to the United National Front Party. This idea arose under the influence of either the Soviet Union or the Republic of China (ROC), where the county was ruled by only one party (e.g. the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Nationalist Party of the ROC). It was for this reason that the United National Front Movement was started by members of the Provisional government. However, the movement collapsed following the breakup between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party of China. The goal of forming grand, national party was accomplished domestically with the emergence of the Singanhoe (New Trunk Association), but it failed outside the country and resulted in a reshuffle of the independence movement camp.
After the amendment of the Constitution in 1927, certain political parties including the Joseon Revolutionary Party (headed by Ji Cheong-cheon), the Korea Independence Party (Jo So-ang), the Korea Nationalist Party (Kim Gu), and the Joseon National Revolutionary Party (Kim Gyu-sik and Kim Won-bong) were noticeably active. However, they were soon integrated with each other into two parties, namely, the Korea Independence Party (headed by Kim Gu) and the Joseon National Revolutionary Party (Kim Gyu-sik and Kim Won-bong), which claimed to stand for rightist socialism. The Korea Independence Party became the basis of support from ordinary Koreans for the provisional government. The members of the provisional government were having difficulties amid the subdued atmosphere even after the third amendment to the Constitution, but they began to recover their vitality following the heroic acts of Lee Bong-chang, who threw a bomb at the Japanese emperor in Tokyo in 1932, and Yun Bong-gil, who threw a bomb at a group of Japanese generals in Shanghai in 1932. Both independence activists belonged to the Patriots Corps associated with the provisional government. Thus, the provisional government was able to start carrying out two important objectives together, diplomacy and the struggle for independence, while simultaneously entering a more difficult period following the Japanese imperialists’ harsh crackdown on independence activists.
Due to the Japanese crackdown in China, the Korean Provisional Government, which was established in Shanghai in 1919, was compelled to leave Shanghai and move from one place to another in China [Hangzhou (1932), Zhenjiang (1935), Changsha (1937), Guangdon (1938), Liuzhou (1938), Qijiang (1939), Chongqing (1940)] following the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

In this wat, the Korean Provisional Government announced the Principles and Politics for the Establishment of Korea in 1941 and amended the Constitution in 1940 and 1944 in a bid to lay the foundations for ruling the country once it regained its independence. The foregoing facts show that the Korean Provisional Government made an attempt to integrate the various independence movement factions into one as the ideological government of all Koreans, that it continued to be the only body to carry out the independence movement until the country’s liberation in August 1945, and that it existed as a real and authentic body that displayed Koreans’ commitment to independence rather than as mere wishful thinking in the eyes of the world. However, despite the desperate efforts made by Koreans, the post-liberation state of affairs turned out quite differently from the wishes of Koreans and the Korean Provisional Government due to the imperialistic and arbitrary judgements of world powers such as the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain among others.