An Jung-geun's son An Jun-seong, who assassinated Ito Hirobumi. The reconciliation that took place at the Gyeongseong Chosun Hotel and the man named Kim Gu who could not be forgiven
I think everyone knows about Ito Hirobumi. He was assassinated at Harbin Station on October ２６, １９０９, the year before the Japan-Korea Annexation. The man who carried out the assassination was An Jung-geun. He is still a hero in Korea. On October １５, １９３９, a certain person visited a temple called Hakubunji Temple in Korea, which no longer exists, to offer a memorial service. It was An Jung-geun's son, An Jun-seong. He visited as part of a Korean Peninsula Manchuria ship inspection team from Shanghai. The purpose was to offer a memorial service for Ito Hirobumi, who was murdered by his father, An Jung-geun.
Memorial service for An Jung-geun's son
The memorial service began at １１:００ and An Jung-geun's memorial tablet was placed next to Ito Hirobumi's portrait. An Jun-seong offered a memorial service for his father An Jung-geun and Ito Hirobumi, and Komada, who recited a sutra, handed An Jung-geun's memorial tablet to him and advised him to mourn the souls of the two men forever.
Afterwards, An Toshio told a reporter who had come to interview him. He lost his father at a young age and neglected to perform the rituals for ３０ years. He now prays for the repose of Prince Ito's soul and is happy to receive his father's memorial tablet.
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Reconciliation at the Gyeongseong Chosun Hotel
The next day, on the １６th, An Toshio headed to the Gyeongseong Chosun Hotel. He was there to meet someone. The person he was meeting was Ito Bunkichi, the son of Ito Hirobumi. In response to An Toshio's request to apologize to Ito Bunkichi, Ito Bunkichi replied: "Our father has already become a god, a Buddha, and returned to the sky." What do we need to apologize for now? Let's be sincere and serve our country instead.
Exchange memorial service was held
Then, on the following day, the １７th, Ito Bunkichi and An Toshio visited Hakubunji Temple and performed an exchange memorial service for each other's fathers. In Korea, it is firmly believed that Ito Hirobumi was a proponent of the Seikanron, which is Japan's conquest and rule of Korea. Why does it have to be this way? It is thought that Koreans mistakenly believe that Ito was a proponent of the Japan-Korea Annexation because Ito was the governor-general of the Government-General of Korea. However, Ito Hirobumi was opposed to the Japan-Korea Annexation throughout.
An Jung-geun did not know Ito's face
An Jung-geun assassinated Ito Hirobumi without even knowing his face. In his autobiography, he clearly wrote that he did not know Ito's face. Ito was no longer the Prime Minister or the Governor-General at the time. He took responsibility for the failure of the policy of reconciliation with Korea and resigned. An Jung-geun shot and killed Ito Hirobumi at Harbin Station. An Jung-geun was arrested on the spot, and after being sentenced to death in court, he said in prison that he had made a serious mistake.
The man named Kim Gu who was furious
In １９３９, An Jung-geun's son An Jun-seong held a memorial service for Ito at Hakubunji Temple, met with Ito's son Ito Bunkichi at the Chosun Hotel, apologized, and reconciled. Kim Gu, an independence activist, could not forgive this. At the time, Kim Gu was an important member of the anti-Japanese Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and the following year in １９４０, he became its chairman. An Jun-seong ran a pharmacy in Shanghai, but Kim Gu framed An Jun-seong for the trumped-up charge of selling opium and asked Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the Republic of China at the time, to execute him. It seems that he was quite angry, but what does this mean? Kim Gu was furious that An Jung-geun's son apologized for the murder of his father, Ito Hirobumi, and that he spoke about it in front of the media. An Jung-geun must be a hero. He must be used as a hero for the anti-Japanese independence movement. This was the hope of the forces seeking independence.
He must have been a proponent of the Seikan-ron (conquest of Korea)
In other words, to them, Ito Hirobumi is a proponent of the Japanese-Korean annexation, and should not be the subject of reconciliation. It is not that Koreans have misunderstood somewhere and think that Ito Hirobumi promoted the Japan-Korea annexation, but it is clearly fabricated by the system. The fact that Ito was against the annexation. That An Jung-geun did not even know what Ito looked like. That An Jung-geun said that the assassination was a serious mistake. The fact that the surviving family has already reconciled should not be known in Korea. And it can be said that even today, there are very few Koreans who know this fact. In order to keep An Jung-geun a hero, Ito Hirobumi will forever be a proponent of the Japanese-Korean annexation and an enemy of Korea.
On January ２８, ２０２３, a survey by the Korea Cinema Ticketing Network announced that "Hero," a movie based on An Jung-geun, which was released on December ２１ of the previous year, had exceeded ３ million viewers in the ３８ days since its release. Three million people is about ５.８% of the population of South Korea.
